Mock Raincoast Crisps

Are you aware of the deliciousness that is Lesley Stowe's Raincoast Crips? My mom brought a box of the rosemary raisin pecan crackers one time when she came to visit. Oh my goodness. They put the crack in cracker. However, just like crack, they are expensive habit to maintain.

At least they were until I found a recipe for rosemary raisin crisps at Dinner with Julie. They taste exactly the same...and at a fraction of the cost. I had to buy a few ingredients that I don't normally buy, but the cost of the supplies were much less than an entire box of crackers. Seriously...there is a store by me that sells them for $9. Nine. Dollars. For. One. Box. Ngaaaaa.

Anyways...I baked this recipe in 4 mini loaf pans. Do not eat the bread before you slice and bake it a second time, it is not anything spectacular. Wait until you crisp the crackers in the oven. Trust me! The loaves really need to be frozen in order to slice them thin enough. For this reason, the recipe is a lot of hurry up and wait. The actual prep is easy, mix everything together. Wait while it bakes. Wait while it cools to room temp. Wait while the loaves freeze. Slice then bake. I like these crackers enough that they are worth the process.One mini loaf yielded about the same as one box. Did I mention that one recipe makes 4 mini loaves? And you keep them in the freezer until you need/want them. So awesome.
So far, I've only found 2 negative things about this recipe. First, you have to eat the crackers fairly shorty after baking since they contain no preservatives. This really isn't too much of a problem because I like to eat them a lot, so they go quickly. If you aren't a mega cracker eater then it might be a problem for you. The second problem was that the raisins sunk to the bottom of the loaf. Maybe coating them with flour mixture first would be a good way to prevent this? Once I work my way through the rest of the loaves I will give that a shot.

Rosemary Raisin Pecan Crisps from Dinner With Julie
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup flax seed, ground
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 350° F. In a large bowl, stir flour, baking soda and salt. Add buttermilk, brown sugar and honey and stir a few strokes. Add raisins, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seed and rosemary and stir just until blended. Pour the batter into two 8”x4” loaf pans that have been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake 35 min, until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack. The cooler bread, the easier it is to slice really thin. You can leave it until the next day or pop it in the freezer. Slice loaves as thin as you can and place slices in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet. (I like to slice and bake one loaf and pop the other in the freezer for another day.) Reduce  oven heat to 300° F and bake 15 min, then flip over and bake 10 min, til crisp and deep golden.