Why Would Anyone Make Homemade Crackers When There Are Perfectly Good Crackers At The Store?

March 31, 2014 by Laurie Nguyen 41 Comments

Because they can!  As part of my “foray into food storage,” I decided that I needed to learn to make things from scratch just in case I need to live exclusively off of my food storage.  Thankfully, I always have the items necessary on hand to make crackers, so I decided to try my hand at it.  My first attempt, about a month ago, was a brown rice cracker. It was okay, but it wasn’t awesome.  It was my first attempt, and you could really tell.  I learned a few things in the process, but I felt confident I could make a passable cracker if the need arose.  I should have snapped a few pictures, but I didn’t.  Sorry!

 

Saturday, I made a second attempt.  I was going to a women’s meeting and signed up to bring a dozen appetizers.  I planned to use some leftover frozen honey ham to make mini quiches, but I didn’t feel like making the crust or running by the store to buy roll-out pie crust.  I remembered that I had some goat cheese in the fridge and thought my Vanilla Pear preserves would be perfect with it.  All I needed were some artisan type crackers to go with it.  It was high time to experiment with cracker making, so I Googled cracker recipes and found this one at TheKitchn.com.  I used their recipe as a template and used some fun flours and ground flax seed and made a delicious cracker!

 

Here’s my version of TheKitchn’s recipe.

 

Artisan Wheat & Flax Crackers

 

Artisan Wheat and Flax Crackers

 

1/2 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup brown rice flour

2 tablespoons flax seed, ground (measured before grinding)

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little more

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, optional

2 tablespoons poppy seeds, optional

Salt for cracker tops, optional

 

Combine the flours and ground flax seed with salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and stir well with a whisk.  Add the water and olive oil to the flour mixture and stir with a spoon until well combined into a soft, sticky dough.

 

Divide the dough in half and put one half on a floured surface.  Form into a rectangle and roll out until the dough is 1/8 inch or less in thickness.  If you wish to add seeds, spritz the dough with water, then sprinkle seeds and salt on top.  Spritz with water again.

 

Next, use a pizza cutter, a sharp knife, or cookie cutters to cut the crackers into the shape you desire.  Poke with a fork.  Use a spatula to transfer the crackers to a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake i a preheated 450 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10-15 minutes.  Remove when the crackers reach desired doneness.  You can make these as chewy or crispy crackers based on your preferences.   Remove from the cookie sheet and let crackers cool on a wire rack.  Serve and enjoy!

 

Makes approximately 100 crackers with 22 calories per cracker.

 

Here’s my photo step-by-step for your viewing pleasure!

 

Before I started making the crackers, I ground my flax seed (2 T.) in a coffee grinder.

 

Here it is after about 15 seconds.

 

Next, I assembled my ingredients.

 

This recipe calls for 3 cups of flour. Since I was mixing in all types of whole grains, I put them all in a one cup measure and filled the remaining space with all-purpose flour. Then I dumped it into my mixing bowl with the remaining dry ingredients.

 

I whisked the dry ingredients together.

 

Then I added the liquid (water and olive oil).

 

I began stirring, and it looked like there wasn’t enough water. But I kept stirring.

 

And soon, it looked like this. There was still a tiny bit of flour in the bottom of the bowl, so I added another tablespoon of water to the mix.

 

The dough came together beautifully!  It was a soft, sticky dough, just as described in the original recipe.

 

I assembled my tools along with my dough: rolling pin, flour for the counter, and a pizza cutter.

 

I divided the dough in half and put one half on the floured counter top.

 

Next, I turned the dough over so it was covered in flour and formed it into a rough rectangle shape.

 

Next, I rolled out the dough until it was a little less than 1/8 inch in thickness.  If I’d taken more care, I could have kept it in a rectangle shape, but I wanted an “artisan” look, so I didn’t worry too much about it.

 

I cut the dough into rectangles for the first batch, then spritzed with water and sprinkled on the seeds and salt.

 

I decided to be a little more creative with the second half of the dough and cut on the diagonal.

 

I transferred the crackers to a greased cookie sheet and baked at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes. I turned the pan and let them go for another minute or so until they turned golden brown.

 

As soon as I removed the crackers from the oven, I transferred them to a cooling rack.

 

When I got to my meeting, I prepped my appetizer by pouring the Vanilla Pear Preserves over the goat cheese and let it come to room temperature before serving.  (See that vanilla bean goodness in there?  YUM!)

 

I put my crackers in a cute little bowl…

 

My appetizer was ready for service! And it disappeared so fast!

 

Yes, it is true.  I can buy a box of crackers at the store.  Some stores even sell “artisan” crackers.  But for less than a dollar, I had better crackers than I’ve ever had from a box, and I mastered a new skill!  I’ll definitely be making these again.

Do you think it was worth the 45 minutes it took me to make the crackers (including the time in the oven)? 

What are you learning to make so that you are more self-sufficient?