Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Rosemary-olive oil crackers

In my ongoing quest to make more things at home, I decided to try making crackers. This is my third batch, and they have all gotten good reviews from Jon. The recipe, which I got again from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, is infinitely variable, as are many of his recipes. The essential ingredients are flour, fat (butter or oil), salt, and water. Beyond that, you can add cheese, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, etc. Since it's a flatbread, it doesn't need the gluten found in wheat flour, so you can use any flour you want. I "accidentally" bought spelt flour about three years ago (I misunderstood a recipe; it was calling for whole spelt) and have had it in my freezer ever since, so I've been using half all-purpose flour and half spelt flour. I like the result, so I plan on doing that until I run out of spelt flour. I might go to all-spelt. The recipe calls for a 400 F oven. The first two batches burned on the edges before they were all the way hard in the middle, so I decreased it to 385 this time. I think it would have worked great if I hadn't forgotten about them. They got a little burned on the edges anyway. I love the rosemary-olive oil Triscuits, although they're a bit salty, so with this recipe I was going for that flavor. It smelled fantastic baking, but the flavor wasn't there quite as much when they came out. They're still good, though. This is my recipe, which differs slightly from Bittman's.

Rosemary-olive oil crackers:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Place first five ingredients in food processor. Pulse until well-mixed. Add sunflower seeds and pulse until mixed. Add 1/4 cup water and pulse. Continue adding water, about a tablespoon at a time, and pulsing until dough sticks together in a ball. Roll ball out on a floured surface until it's 1/8-1/4" thick. Place onto floured baking sheets (one if you roll in a more rectangular way than I do, two if your dough is rather irregularly shaped), score lightly with a knife if you want it to break apart easily, and bake at 385 F until brown and crispy. Check after 8 minutes and watch closely after that.

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