Don’t listen to anyone who tells you not to play with your food. Play with it when ever is possible. 

I played with my grandmother’s recipe and look what happened. Her rustic Moroccan Cookie became a refined, wholesome biscuit.

Mama, my maternal grandmother always had huge jars packed with these cookies. Every afternoon she would bring out a large silver tray with a Moroccan brass teapot and Moroccan colorful glasses, and a large plate of these fragrant cookies. There was always someone, a neighbor, friend or one of her children, who joined her in her tea ritual. I was too busy playing with the hens at my grandparents’ yard or Kurnish, their dog, but I would stop for a minute, grab a cookie, dip it in my grandma’s mint tea and run back to play with the poor animals. 

I have to warn you: once you start, there’s no way to stop. They are addictive! Honestly, I don’t know what is it about them that makes you want to have another one… and another one… 

You can make them with seeds or without.
Multi-seed biscuits / Crackers

• 2 cups oat flour (or unbleached all-purpose flour)
• 2 cups whole-wheat or spelt flour (or gluten free flour mix)
• ½ tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup cane sugar
• ½ cup olive oil or any neutral flavor oil 
• 1 egg*
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds (golden or brown)
• 1 tablespoon black or golden sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds – optional
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender or ¼ teaspoon herbs de provence
• 1 – 1¼ cup orange or clementine juice
• Salt to sprinkle over 

2 baking sheets + baking paper

* For a vegan version: Instead of egg add extra orange or clementine juice – about 1 – 2 tablespoons –  the dough suppose to be soft and a little bit sticky.

Put the flour, baking powder, sugar, oil, eggs, and seeds in a large mixing bowl. Use your hand to mix the ingredient into a dough. Add the orange juice gradually and knead the dough to form a soft and a bit sticky dough. If the dough is too sticky, add a little bit of flour. If the dough is too dense add more orange juice. Form the dough into a ball, cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 340°F.

Cut one third of the dough, put it on a baking paper on a working surface, and sprinkle some flour over. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into as thin as possible rectangle (it doesn’t have to be a perfect one), in the size of your baking sheets, and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Now this step is very important! Prick holes in the dough, they allow the steam to escape, which keeps the biscuits flat and crispy. You can use a fork or dough prickler to poke holes all over the dough.

You can use a pizza or ravioli cutter, or a sharp knife to cut the dough into squares (any size you desire).

Repeat with the rest of the dough. Bake for 10 minutes then rotate the baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits top and bottom are golden brown.

Let the biscuits cool completely on a cooling rack before you store in an air-tight container or zip lock.