Sourdough Rosemary Lavash Crackers

These lavash crackers, made with sourdough and rosemary and topped with roasted tomatoes and feta cheese, make a delicious appetizer or snack.

The Sourdough Surprises challenge for August is sourdough crackers. I’ve been experimenting with sourdough crackers for several months so this wasn’t a challenge so much as an opportunity to make more crackers.

Since I’ve made sourdough crackers before, I decided to do something totally different this time. I made a sourdough lavash cracker that is big enough to hold slow roasted tomatoes. It can be eaten as an appetizer or a snack.

I got the idea for these crackers after I made Bruschetta with roasted tomatoes. The flavor of the roasted tomatoes and the crunchy texture of the toast was so delightful, I decided to stick with that theme awhile. And, since it’s the height of tomato season, I have tomatoes galore from my garden to experiment with.

I enjoy the flavor of herbs in dough so because the tomatoes were roasted with rosemary and thyme, adding rosemary to the cracker dough seemed like the perfect complement.

Why I chose to make Lavash Flatbread

I chose lavash because it’s a crispy flatbread that can be broken into pieces.

I had made lavash crackers during the BBA Challenge, but I must admit the experience and the result was less than memorable. In fact, my oldest son tasted those crackers and rated them a fail. That was not a good start to my cracker-baking adventure.

Fast forward a few years, take a different recipe, add sourdough and rosemary to the mix, and what you get is a crunchy and light Sourdough Rosemary Lavash. I give this one an A.

Sourdough Rosemary Lavash (Lavosh)

My inspiration for these crispy rosemary crackers came from:

• Rosemary Croccantini Flatbread Crackers by Joanne of FifteenSpatulas.com;
• Lavosh from GroupRecipes.com
• Lavash Crackers from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

Makes: 4 sheets of crackers, rolled thinly

The key to making crisp Lavash is to roll it paper thin.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sourdough starter (fed or unfed)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons water, more if needed
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, more for rolling

Method:
1) Mix the sourdough and oil, then add in the flour, sugar, salt, rosemary and water.  Mix using a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk.

2) Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for at least seven hours. Or, let the dough rest on the counter for a couple of hours, then place it in the refrigerator overnight.

After making these crackers several times, I think I like them better baked just after the seven hour, room-temperature rest, but having the option of putting the dough in the refrigerator works if you’ve got a tight schedule or you want to bake them for dinner the next evening.

3) Divide the dough into four equal pieces using a knife or bench rest. You can divide it into more pieces if you prefer, but this seemed to be the right amount to roll on the parchment paper.

4) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  If you want to use a baking stone, preheat it at this time. I tried baking these crackers on a pizza stone, but they seemed to burn more easily so I switched to just using a baking sheet.

5) Roll each piece as thinly as possible on lightly greased parchment paper.  If you only want to make one or two batches of the crackers, just wrap the other balls back up and place them in the refrigerator.  They will last a couple of days.

6) Spray the top with water and add extra salt or sprinkle sesame or other seeds on top if you prefer, but I didn’t think it needed anything extra, especially since I was going to top it with the roasted tomatoes.

7) Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top.   The time will depend on how thinly you rolled the dough.

8) Remove the pan from the oven and let the crackers cool for about 10 minutes.  Snap off shards and serve.

 

I ate a lot of the crackers plain, but I also enjoyed some of them topped with roasted tomatoes and feta cheese. However you enjoy them, you won’t be disappointed.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy