Vegan Banana Bread Animal Crackers

October 6, 2011 By Leanne Vogel November 9, 2017

Yesterday I told you about all the cleansing foods I’ve been craving this week. I compared the bodies’ natural detox patterns to trees shedding their leaves in the fall, and we enjoyed a bowl of glorious green soup. But I kinda left a small detail out of the story and it’s time I let it out of the bag. I’ve been craving animal crackers. Little crunchy, sweet, life-like animal crackers. Dipped in nut butter, eaten plain, or topped with a couple pieces of dried fruit. *drool*

But, when this craving came on I was faced with a dilemma – either buy an $8.00 box of gluten-free animal crackers that contained corn and risk tummy aches, or come up with my own darn recipe. Bet you can’t guess which option I chose… Thumbs up for the animal cracker challenge! While they’re not exactly cleansing, they are ridiculously better (and tastier :D) than the store-bought variety.

Vegan Banana Bread Animal Crackers

Author: Leanne Vogel

Recipe type: Vegan, Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar reduced, Yeast free, Corn free

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 130

These animal crackers make a great take along snack for any age!

Ingredients

/2 cup +3 tablespoon sweet white rice flour
¼ cup + 2 tablespoon brown teff flour *see note
2 tablespoon coconut flour
¼ cup arrowroot flour/starch/powder
2 tablespoon freshly ground flax seed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon himalayan rock salt
¾ cup mashed bananas
¼ cup melted coconut oil
¼ cup coconut sugar*see note
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Water (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.
Combine all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Set aside
In a larger bowl, combine wet ingredients and beat with a hand blender until well mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.
Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides and forms a large ball. The dough should stick together and have a thickness of pie crust.
Place the dough on a floured surface (I used extra rice flour) and roll out the dough until it’s ¼-inch thick.
Use animal shaped cut outs to make small animal crackers. I used these ones.
Place each cut out on the prepared baking sheet leaving sliver in between each cracker.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on desired crispness. They are cracker-like at 15 minutes and slightly chewy at 12 minutes. My favorite was 15.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely to firm up.

Notes

You could probably use buckwheat or brown rice flour to replace the teff flour if it’s challenging to find.

If coconut sugar is difficult to get, try replacing with brown sugar or sucanat sugar.

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