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.
My Foray Into Food Storage 