If you’re looking for a fun Halloween snack that won’t break the carb bank, let me introduce you to these Keto Black Bat Crackers. They’re deliciously crispy cheese crackers that pair perfectly with something like my Roasted Tomato Poblano Soup (a.k.a. Blood Moon Soup). Or . . . you can just eat them on their own or add them to a Halloween charcuterie board. Did I mention that they’re really stinkin’ cute too?
Sometimes I get a vision in my head of some fictitious food that I think would look or taste cool. Then I need to figure out how to make it.
Problem Solving Fun
Coming up with themed dishes is honestly a stretch of my creative capabilities. I’m practical and prosaic at heart and making things look cute is not my strong suit. However, when I am trying to stick to a theme
Making “cute” foods can quite honestly be a challenging stretch of my creative capabilities. However, once I do land on something fun to make, figuring out how to actually do it is 100% my element. Said differently: ideation is hard for me; problem solving is my jam. 😄 These Keto Black Bat Crackers definitely fall into that category.
For a Halloween themed dinner party, I wanted to make a blood-red soup. Great. I landed on this Roasted Tomato Poblano Soup (which was delicious). However, when I serve soup, I want to serve something bread-like with it while sticking to the dietary constraints of low carb and coconut free. While my usual keto biscuits and breads are fine, nothing about their looks contribute to a Halloween themed table. I wanted something black.
Fun New (to me) Ingredient – Squid Ink Powder
In case you haven’t looked into it lately, there are limited ways to make food black without simply loading it with food coloring. I’m always hesitant to go overboard with food coloring due to some yucky tasting icings from childhood. I have no clue if the cakes in question were graduation, birthday, anniversary, 50th birthday, retirement, or what. I just know that deep red and deep black icing are a gamble in terms of flavor.
Okay, that memory lane rabbit hole aside, one method for turning food black that crossed my radar was squid ink. I’ve had squid ink pasta before but never worked with it. To the seemingly endless catalog of Amazon I went. In my perusal, I came across two categories of options–gel or powder. Figuring that it would be easier to incorporate in baking, I opted for this powder.
It showed up the next day. The only instructions I found for it were to use an amount equal to 1% of the weight of whatever it is going into. Oddly enough, that was actually some of the most useful instruction I could have imagined.
Experimentation Failure and Success
Now that I had a line on the “how” I needed to figure out the “what.” Since I was making a soup that could be construed to look like a blood moon (in its cute little red coquette), I thought that bat bread might be the way to go. Well I tried that and wasn’t really a fan. So you know what else goes well with soup? Crackers.
No need to reinvent the wheel here. I turned to one of my favorite blogs for keto baking recipes (All Day I Dream About Food) and looked up her options for crackers. I made these Keto Cheese Crackers with some minor deviations in method and ingredients.
- I included the melted butter into the dough rather than drizzling it on top.
- I added 3.5 grams of squid ink powder to the dry ingredients before incorporating them.
These turned out quite delicious and were the perfect accompaniment to the Roasted Tomato Poblano Soup.
You may or may not be planning to make Keto Black Bat Crackers for an upcoming dinner party. While I obviously encourage you to do so, the real lesson here is using the power of little changes in either ingredient or method (like the squid ink) to up your dinner party game. We’ll see what other fun finds I can share with you in the coming months.
What You Need to Make Keto Black Bat Crackers
Equipment
- Measuring Spoons
- Measuring Cups
- Kitchen Scale – For measuring out the cheese and squid ink powder. I know that in my earlier days of cooking and baking, if you’d told me to get a kitchen scale, I would have looked at you like you’d grown a second head.
- Medium Bowl – This is for combining the dry ingredients.
- Microwave Safe Large Mixing Bowl – This will be for melting the cheese and then mixing in the dry ingredients, egg, and butter, so it needs to be large enough to handle the full volume of the dough.
- Rubber Scraper
- Parchment Paper – I used this both for rolling out the dough and baking the crackers.
- Rolling Pin
- Bat Shaped Cookie Cutter – I used the middle sized one from this set from Amazon. It was about 3.2 inches wide.
- 2 Rimmed Baking Sheets
- 2 Silicone Baking Mats
Ingredients
- Almond Flour – You’ll need a little more than the amount listed for dusting the rolling surface and possibly a little more in case your dough is too tacky. I didn’t have that problem, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
- Kosher Salt
- Garlic Powder
- Red Pepper Flakes
- Squid Ink Powder – This is what turns the crackers black. I found it surprisingly easily on Amazon. You’ll see both gel and powder. For this recipe, go for the powder. The guidance that goes along with it is to use 1% of the weight of whatever you are adding it to. I would also encourage you to wear gloves and an apron when working with it.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese – You can either buy pre-shredded cheese or shred your own. I buy the pre-shredded kind. Just be aware that the anti-caking agent present in many pre-shredded cheeses adds about 1 gram of carbs per quarter cup.
- Egg – I use jumbo eggs.
- Unsalted Butter
Getting Started with Making Keto Black Bat Crackers
As noted this mostly follows this Keto Cheese Crackers recipe from All Day I Dream About Food. However, I have a couple of modifications to turn these into Keto Black Bat Crackers.
Before you start, I would suggest donning rubber gloves (nitril, latex, food service, whichever you prefer) and an apron. In terms of potential for staining, I’d put working with squid ink into a similar category to working with beets and suggest taking similar precautions.
Making the Dough
We’re going to start by combining all of our dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Sift 1.5 cups Almond Flour into the bowl. By the way, I am completely sold on the improved texture of sifted almond flour. I just put a fine mesh sieve over my bowl, dump the almond flour in, and shake it through. I promise it’s pretty painless. The only cautionary note that I give is that it’s best to sift no more than about 1 cup at a time. It actually goes faster this way because the density of the almond flour if you try to sift more at once just makes it harder. (Lori’s Life Lessons)
To the almond flour add ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt, ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder, ¼ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes, and 3.5 grams of Squid Ink Powder. I used a kitchen scale for the measuring. Thoroughly whisk all the dry ingredients so that the squid ink powder gets evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
In a larger microwave safe bowl, melt the 6 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese. Start at 30 seconds on high. Stir. Then do another 30 seconds and stir again. Beyond that point, I would only microwave in 10 second increments as needed until the cheese is melted.
Melt the unsalted butter and keep it handy.
Add the dry ingredients to the melted cheese and stir to combine. Add in the egg and melted butter and keep stirring. We’ll start the stirring with a rubber scraper / spatula and then finish with our hands. You want to make sure everything is evenly distributed.
Rolling and Cutting the Black Bat Crackers
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Lay out 2 pieces of parchment paper and lightly dust the bottom one with some almond flour. Place the dough on the bottom sheet of parchment paper and flatten it into a disk. Set the 2nd piece of parchment paper on top and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to about ⅛ inch thick. I make the parchment paper longer than I need and then basically put the edge between me and the counter and lean on it to hold it in place. If you have a better system, feel free to share in the comments. 🙂
Use a bat shaped cookie cutter to cut as many crackers as you can fit. The cookie cutter that I used was 3.2” wide. It was the medium-sized one from this set. Collect the scraps and re-roll them to cut more. You can do this as many times as needed. It took me 4 rounds of rolling and cutting to get through everything.
Baking the Crackers
I was paranoid about the squid ink on my silicone mats (probably just a me thing), so I laid a sheet of parchment paper over them and baked the crackers on that. Bake at 300°F for 25 – 30 minutes or just until the edges are beginning to turn crisp.
For regular crackers, you can see if they are turning golden brown at the edges. Since these are black, that doesn’t work as well. I had to take them out and touch / test the edges to tell when they were done. Then you turn off the oven and let them set inside until they are crisp the whole way through. I set timers to check these every 10 minutes so that I didn’t forget about them. In my oven and my house, this took about 30 minutes. I was doing other things, so this was passive time.
You can serve them right away or store them in an airtight container.
Related Recipes
Wondering what to serve with these Keto Black Bat Crackers? I definitely recommend my Roasted Tomato Poblano Soup (a.k.a Blood Moon Soup).
If you’re looking for other Halloween themed foods, you might be interested in:
- Eyeball Hors d’Oeuvres (a.k.a. Prosciutto and Mozzarella Nests)
- Bloody Coffin Brie (a.k.a. Melty Chili Garlic Brie)
- Stuffed Pepper Jack-O-Lanterns
- Sugar Free Witch Finger Cookies
You can see the whole menu and grocery list on my Casual Halloween Dinner Party page.
This cracker recipe was derived from: Keto Cheese Crackers by All Day I Dream About Food.
Keto Black Bat Crackers
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups Almond Flour plus more for dusting the rolling surface
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
- 3.5 grams Squid Ink Powder
- 5 ounces Cheddar Cheese Shredded
- 1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter Melted
- 1 Egg I use jumbo eggs.
Instructions
- Combine all of the dry ingredients–1.5 cups Almond Flour (sifted), ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt, ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder, ¼ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes, and 3.5 grams Squid Ink Powder–in a medium bowl. Thoroughly whisk all the dry ingredients so that the squid ink powder gets evenly distributed throughout the mixture.1.5 cups Almond Flour, ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt, ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder, ¼ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes, 3.5 grams Squid Ink Powder
- In a larger microwave safe bowl, melt the 5 ounces Cheddar Cheese (shredded). Start at 30 seconds on high. Stir. Microwave for another 30 seconds and stir again. Beyond this point, only microwave in 10 second increments as needed until the cheese is melted.5 ounces Cheddar Cheese
- Melt 1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter and keep it handy.1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- Add the dry ingredients to the melted cheese and stir to combine. Add in 1 Egg and melted butter and keep stirring with a rubber scraper / spatula to start. Then finish mixing the dough with your hands until everything is evenly distributed.1.5 cups Almond Flour, ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt, ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder, ¼ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes, 3.5 grams Squid Ink Powder, 5 ounces Cheddar Cheese, 1 Egg, 1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Lay out 2 pieces of parchment paper and lightly dust the bottom one with some almond flour. Place the dough on the bottom sheet of parchment paper and flatten it into a disk. Set the 2nd piece of parchment paper on top and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to about ⅛ inch thick.
- Use a bat shaped cookie cutter to cut as many crackers as you can fit. (My cookie cutter is 3.2” wide.) Collect the scraps and re-roll them to cut more. You can do this as many times as needed. (It took me 4 rounds of rolling and cutting.)
- Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with silicone baking mats and if you’re paranoid like I am, line those each with a sheet of parchment paper. Lay out the crackers on the parchment paper so that they are not touching.
- Bake at 300°F for 25 – 30 minutes or just until the edges are beginning to turn crisp. Since these are black and you can’t see when they are starting to turn golden brown at the edges, take them out and touch / test the edges to tell when they are done.
- Then you turn off the oven and let them set inside until they are crisp the whole way through. (I set timers to check these every 10 minutes so that I didn’t forget about them.) In my oven and my house, this took about 30 minutes.
- Serve right away or store in an airtight container.
Equipment
- Measuring Spoons
- Measuring Cups
- Kitchen Scale For measuring out the cheese and squid ink powder
- Medium Bowl
- Microwave Safe Large Mixing Bowl
- Parchment Paper For rolling out the dough and baking the crackers
- Rolling Pin
Notes
- Base Cracker Recipe
- This cracker recipe was derived from: Keto Cheese Crackers by All Day I Dream About Food. If you’re not trying to make Black Bat Crackers, just use that recipe as-is.
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