Crispy Crackers for September

Many people who know me have this illusion that I can easily do anything I put my mind to, mostly because I often am successful when I try something new. There are times, however, when I'm miserably unsuccessful, even after a few attempts. Making my own crackers has been one of those areas. If you check past posts you will see very few crackers...a clue...and when I have posted crackers they have usually be somewhat thick and not crisp, or the toppings fall off, or both.

 The Bread Baking Babes are a lively group of baking women and one of the liveliest and loveliest is Tanna, our Kitchen of the Month. I have to admit that when I read that our September recipe was for crackers that I became nervous right away. Would this be another case of not-quite-what-I-wanted crackers? The original recipe came from King Arthur Flour, which was encouraging since their recipes usually work well. Tanna's version used grams for many of the measurements, another plus since weighed ingredients are usually in better balance than ones made up of cups and half cups. Best of all the second batch can be made another day, so if one batch doesn't work out I get a second chance. OK, guess it's time for crackers...with seeds.

 For my version, I decided to use some King Arthur Flour Irish Whole Meal Flour that I had in the fridge, plus some all-purpose flour. For the topping I used poppy seeds and chopped pecans.

Guess what? I actually made crackers that were crisp and crunchy and behaved like crackers instead of shortbread. Sweetie loved them, especially the second pan that I left in the oven to dry. Those turned a deep brown and were just this side of burnt and very crunchy, indeed. I like the flavor that the Irish flour added and I loved the toasted nuttiness of the pecans.

 

 

 

I think the key was that I rolled them out very thin. Although I started out rolling half the dough, after the first rolling out to about 1/4 inch, I divided that dough in half and rolled each piece even thinner, to about 1/16th of an inch, on a sheet of parchment paper.

 Now it's your turn. Bake these, take some photos, and send Tanna an e-mail with a short description of your baking experience and a photo, so that she can include you in the round-up at the end of the month and send you a Buddy Badge. Hurry, you have until Sept. 29th to do that, plus these are so good, no time to waste.

 Sending these over to Susan at Wild Yeast for her excellent Yeast Spotting weekly event. Check it out!

 Last, but never least, do visit my fellow Bread Baking Babes to see how they went crackers...er, made crackers this month. If they have not posted yet, check back. Sometimes we have computer troubles that hold us up.

 

 

 Kitchen of the Month - Tanna, My Kitchen in Half Cups

Bake My Day - Karen
Blog from OUR Kitchen - Elizabeth
Girlichef - Heather
Life's a Feast - Jaime
Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
Lucullian Delights- Ilva
Notitie van Lien - Lien (who also creates the beautiful badges!)
Paulchen's Foodblog - Astrid
Provecho Peru - Gretchen

Crunchy Crackers

Recipe By: KAF
Yield: 2 cookie sheets

Summary:
This recipe mimics an extra-crunchy, seed-topped whole-gain cracker you may find at your supermarket. These are great for spreads and dips of all kinds.

Ingredients:

198 to 227g lukewarm water
170 g King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
120 g King Arthur Whole Wheat/Spelt
2 tablespoons non-diastatic malt powder or sugar - I used malt syrup
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
30 g whole ground flax
14 g sesame seeds
*Substitute 28g golden flax seeds for the flax and sesame, if desired.
topping
71 g sunflower seeds, midget preferred*
28 g sesame seeds*
28 g whole flax seeds,* golden preferred
sea salt or your favorite flavored salt, if desired
*Substitute 3/4 cup artisan bread topping + 1/4 cup whole flax seeds for the sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds, if desired.
(I used poppy seeds and chopped pecans instead of the toppings above.. I didn't measure them, but the dough wasn't covered thickly. I also added some sea salt on top of one roll out of dough.)

Directions:

1) To make the dough: Mix and knead together all of the cracker ingredients (except the seeds) to a smooth, fairly stiff dough. Add 1-2 more tablespoons of water if the dough is dry.

2) Knead in the seeds.

3) Let the dough rise, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until it's expanded a bit.

4) Divide the dough in half. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a rectangle approximately 14" x 9", a generous 1/8" thick. This will probably require you to roll the dough until it fights back; give it a 10-minute rest, then come back and roll some more. It may need two rest periods to allow you to roll it thin enough.

5) For easiest handling, turn the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Spritz the dough with water. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the topping seeds, lay a piece of parchment on top, and press the seeds in with a rolling pin. Turn the dough over, peel off the parchment, and repeat. Set the seeded crackers on a baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining piece of dough.

6) If you don't have parchment, roll on a rolling mat or on a very lightly floured or lightly greased work surface; and transfer the seeded crackers to a lightly greased baking sheet. Sprinkle each sheet of crackers with some sea salt or flavored salt, if desired. Crush the sea salt between your fingers or grind it in a salt mill if it's very coarse.

7) Prick the dough over with a fork, and cut it into rectangles, whatever size you like. Pull the crackers apart just a bit; you don't need to separate them completely. Let the crackers rise for 30 to 45 minutes. while you preheat your oven to 350°F; they'll get just a bit puffy.

8) Bake for 20 minutes, until the crackers are a medium brown. Turn off the heat, wait 15 minutes, then open the oven door a couple of inches and let the crackers cool completely in the turned-off oven. When they're completely cool, break apart, if necessary, and store airtight. 
Two balls of dough ... why bake them at the same time.  Put one in fridge for the next day.  Fabulous.

Daring Bakers Do Vegan

Joy of joys, this month the Daring Bakers were given a savory recipe with not a smidgen of butter, and only a tiny amount of sweetness in the yeast dough, necessary to help the yeasties grow. A huge thank you to Natalie of Gluten A Go Go and Shel of Musings From The Fishbowl for being the hosts and giving us such a nice change of pace for the challenge. To up the ante, they also asked for a fully vegan spread or dip to go with the baked part. My answer to that part of the challenge follows the latest story from the Land of St. Honore' that I dream up each month to go with the challenge. The recipe for the challenge can be found at Natalie's and Shel's blogs. The link to the daring Baker blogroll...which will take you to all the wondrous versions of this challenge that the hundreds and hundreds of other Daring Bakers have made, is on the right of this post. Enjoy!

September 2008 Story from the Land of St. Honore' - a Tale of Elves

The five elves gathered in the kitchen one fine morning. Now they do happen to be near neighbors of the seven dwarfs of storybook and Disney fame, but are not nearly as well known, and that bothers them a bit. They are also no relation to the Keebler elves, although that could have been a useful relationship today, considering what they are baking.

The first elf, Tigger, gathered the ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, oil, sugar, water. She proofed the yeast in the water and sugar because the expire date was coming up and who wants to waste flour these days?

When it looked like the yeast was active, the second elf, Elm, mixed the dough and kneaded, and kneaded, and kneaded...good thing he had strong arms and shoulders and supple hands...hence the nickname. Eventually the dough was satiny and stretchy, so he oiled a bowl and put the dough in to rise.

Once the dough was risen, the third elf, Moon Doggy, removed it from over the dryer where it had risen to double it's size, thanks to the effects of a load of laundry drying during rising time. Unfortunately, she became distracted since the other four elves were involved in a rousing game of mumbleypeg and she wanted to play, too.

Hours later Moon Doggy realized that she didn't have time to finish the project, so she shoved the dough, covered with a tea towel, into the fridge. It sat there overnight.

The next morning the fourth elf, Swifty, took over. She was a bit dismayed to find that the top surface of the dough had toughened up...a skin formed overnight. Moon Doggy had gone off surfing, so Swifty did what she could. She coated the skin very lightly with a smear of olive oil and let it sit while she had her first cup of coffee. Then she placed the dough on a lightly floured surface, divided it in half, used her fingers on each half to break up the skin and kneaded each half a few times. That distributed the tougher dough into the softer dough.

The fifth elf, Shorty, got up on his stool, put one half of the dough between large sheets of baking parchment and rolled, rolled, rolled the dough with his rolling pin.

Every now and then he would remove the paper, turn the dough over, re-cover it, and let the dough sit for a minute or so to rest, then he rolled some more. In time he had a sort of oval of dough rolled as thin as he could manage.

Once Shorty had rolled out the other half of the dough, Tigger docked the dough with the tines of a fork and then misted the dough with water.

The rest of the elves sprinkled on some sesame seed, poppy seed, flax seed and salt. Shorty used the pizza cutter to cut rectangles. Into the preheated oven it all went.

After 20 minutes the crackers were baked and smelling wonderful! After cooling a bit, Elm broke them apart along the cut lines.Unfortunately the water mist didn't hod the seeds, so most ended up in the pan. Who cared? All the elves agreed that the crackers still were delicious. Moon Doggy even came home in time to try out a few crackers with the spinach and roasted garlic spread.

Spinach and Roasted Garlic Spread
1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, warmed and drained OR
1 pound fresh spinach, washed, steamed, chopped, and drained
1 can cannelli (white) beans, drained
3-5 cloves roasted garlic, or to taste
¼ - ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, or to taste
salt to taste
Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process until a smooth spread is formed. Check for seasonings. Serve with crackers, sliced baguettes, or fresh veggies.

Roasted garlic:
Take a whole head of garlic and remove most of the papery skin. Put the garlic in a small heat-proof dish. Add ¼ cup olive oil and ¼ cup water. Cover tightly with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven (toaster oven works fine if you have one) for 45 minutes to an hour, or until cloves are very soft. Remove from oven and let cool. The oil left in the dish can be used for salad dressings. The rest of the roasted garlic also tastes good in the following, non-vegan recipe:

Ricotta and Roasted Garlic
1 cup ricotta cheese
3-5 cloves roasted garlic (or to taste) mashed
salt & pepper to taste
Mix ingredients thoroughly. Serve with crackers, baguette slices, or fresh veggies

By the way, no elves actually helped with making any of these foods...except in my imagination.