The Bread Baking Babes decided to make crackers this month. It seems that everyone is catching the cracker bug. This was fine by me. I’m always up to trying different types of crackers.
These crackers are called Crunchy Crackers and boy are they ever crunchy! They are filled with seeds on the inside and studded with additional seeds on the outside. This makes for a delightful crunch.
I didn’t have any milled white winter wheat flour (as the original recipe suggested) so I went to my freezer to look for an alternative. The sprouted wheat flour jumped out at me (literally) so that’s what I used in addition to the all-purpose flour.
Tanna of MyKitchenHalfCups is the host for the BBBs this month. You’ll want to check out her Cracker Post to learn some new tips and see all of the nifty gadgets she uses for making crackers.
Crunchy Crackers
Recipe By: KAF
Yield: 2 cookie sheets
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:
Cracker Dough:
- 198 g lukewarm water
- 170 g Sprouted Wheat Flour
- 120 g Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 14 g ground flax seed
- 14 g sesame seeds
Topping:
- 1/2 cup mixed seeds (I used sesame seeds, golden flax seeds, poppy seeds and black sesame seeds)
- sea salt or your favorite flavored salt, optional
Directions:
1. Mix the Cracker 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.
My dough wasn’t dry, but it was really stiff. I didn’t find it to be a sticky dough at all, but I only used 198 grams of water and you can use up to 227 grams. I also think the sprouted wheat flour soaks up a bit more water than the white winter wheat flour.
2. Knead in the seeds
I just kneaded in the seeds right in the bowl, but you can knead them on the counter if you prefer.
3. Overnight Fermentation in Refrigerator
At this point, I took Tanna’s suggestion and refrigerated the dough overnight. You can skip the overnight fermentation and go directly to Step 4 below if you prefer.
4. Bulk Fermentation at Room Temperature
Let the dough rise, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until it’s expanded a bit.
Tanna cautioned not to expect a large rise here. ”Expand a bit” did not translate into doubling as you often expect with doughs.
5. Rolling the Dough
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.
Even though I let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight, it still wanted to fight back so I just took a deep breath and let both of us rest and then rolled it some more. It was almost like rolling a thick pizza dough. Kind of fun, actually.
I rolled mine out onto greased parchment paper like I normally do with crackers, but I’m not sure this dough needed it. This dough is stiff so it was pretty easy to lift and move without tearing. However, I would recommend that you place it on parchment paper before adding the seeds and cutting the crackers.
Next time I make these crackers, I will divide the dough into 3 balls instead of 2 because it didn’t get rolled out thin enough due to the size of my parchment paper and baking sheet. I used the parchment paper sheets from KAF which worked great, but there was just a bit too much dough.
6. Adding the Seed Topping
Spritz the dough with water. Sprinkle the dough with seeds and press the seeds in with a rolling pin. This was so cool! I had spritzed the rolling pin with water as well so I didn’t use an extra sheet of parchment paper between the pin and the seeded dough. It worked really well. The dough didn’t stick to the rolling pin and this helped to keep most of the seeds on the crackers instead of falling off after being baked. I’ll have to remember this little trick the next time I make crackers. I only added seeds to one side of the dough, but you can roll them on both sides if you want extra crunch.
7. Cutting the Crackers
Sprinkle each sheet of crackers with some sea salt or flavored salt, if desired. Prick the dough with a fork all over and cut it into rectangles or squares, whatever size you like.
You can pull the crackers apart just a bit if you like, but mine separated on their own so I didn’t bother. 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 the Crackers
My crackers weren’t as thin as I would’ve liked so I pricked them again with a fork prior to baking to get rid of some of the puffiness.
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.
See, most of the seeds stayed on. Yea!
Thanks Tanna of MyKitchenHalfCups for hosting the Babes and Buddies this month. It was fun!
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Leave a Reply