Homemade Crackers Three Ways

October 23, 2012

I’ve lamented the lack of cracker options here in Dublin before, but I had never tried to make my own until this weekend. Four ingredients and a few flavorings later, crackers! They’re lightly seasoned on their own, but that was exactly what I was looking for – something to pair with a few cheeses from the farmer’s market that already have a lot going on.

They were incredibly simple to make and can be customized any way you like!

You’ll need:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tablespoons softened butter

1 cup milk

flavorings of your choice!

parchment or greaseproof paper

rolling pin

pizza cutter

Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add in the softened butter and start mixing the butter into the flour with a fork or a pastry cutter. The pastry cutter might work better, but I gave up on the fork after a few minutes and used my fingers to incorporate the butter into the flour. Just squish the butter into the flour until it’s mostly mixed up and you don’t have big lumps of butter.

Then add in 3/4 cup of milk and mix it all up. If it’s too dry, add the rest of the milk by the spoonful until the dough holds together and forms a ball. Knead it until it forms a neat ball and leave it in the bowl and get your baking sheets and flavorings set up.

Line three baking sheets with parchment or greaseproof paper (or if you only have one, just repeat this process!). Divide the dough into three equal parts and roll out the dough on the baking sheets until it’s about 1/8 inch thick. The thinner the dough is, the crispier your crackers will be! You might not get a perfect rectangle in your cookie sheet, but that shouldn’t affect the taste.

Now, take your flavorings and sprinkle them evenly over each sheet of dough. Then take your rolling pin and roll over the flavorings to make them stick into the dough. Otherwise, once you’ve baked the crackers, the fun stuff just falls right off! (Keep in mind if you’re only using one flavor, you can mix it into the dough from the start.) I used sea salt and cracked pepper, cumin seeds and fresh rosemary. I have to say the cumin seeds were my favorite – such a surprising cracker flavor!

Once your seasonings are stuck on, take a pizza cutter and cut the dough into cracker sized squares or rectangles and bake in a 150C/300F oven for about 20 minutes or until your crackers are golden. You can store the baked crackers in an airtight container for a few weeks, throw them in the freezer for a few months, or even shape the dough into a roll and freeze it unbaked. They were so yummy with our Sheridan’s raw milk goat cheese from the farmer’s market!

Recipe adapted from here.

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