Simple Crackers

Here is the simple cracker recipe (you asked for Stephanie) from last Shabbat Menu. It is quick and easy. I have a large food processor, so this fits fine...but if yours is small you can half or even quarter the recipe. These are fast and easy to make.


You might also like to try some of my other cracker recipes: Graham Crackers , Our Favorite Cracker Yet , Wheaty Thins , Oatmeal Crackers , Cracker Chronicles , PeanutButter Graham Crackers


Simple Crackers
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This is a simple cracker base, from which you can vary in many many ways. Variations that we have tried and liked are below. I may add to it if I can remember too. :-) Be sure not to bake these too long... they are best BEFORE brown.

4 cups whole wheat flour
8 tablespoons (1/2 Cup) butter (or oil) cut into chunks
2 teaspoons salt
Water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Lightly dust 3 large cookie sheets with flour (corn is nice, wheat is fine)

Put all ingredients into a food processor and run until combined. Add 1/4C Water and let machine run for a bit; continue to add water a little at a time until mixture holds together if you pick up a handful and give a squeeze (not crumbly - not sticky).

Roll out onto lightly floured surface and transfer and score. Or Roll out and tear off pieces or cut into shapes and place on sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes until LIGHTLY browned - careful not too brown. The lighter the better. Serve warm or let cool completely and store in airtight container. I especially like them them really thin...but you can get a feel for what you like.


** Variation 1 - Parmesan Crackers **

Add 2C Parmesan Cheese. This is our favorite so far!

** Variation 2 - Cream Crackers **
Double the butter and use milk or cream instead of water.

** Variation 3 - Rosemary 2T+ Finely Crushed

** Variation 4 - Lemon Pepper 1T+

** Variation 5 - Original Spike Seasoning 2-3T

(Cinnamon and Rapadura or maple sugar or even cocoa would be tasty if added to the Cream Cracker. Let me know if you try it before me!)

Graham Crackers

We love these! They are a cinnamon style graham cracker. We like to sprinkle a little maple sugar on top and pat it in before baking. Cinnamon/raw sugar mix would be good too. This recipe is taken from one of my favorite sets of cookbooks Bread for Life Vol 3 by Beth Holland...who by the way, is a sister in Messiah and Torah Keeper. http://www.breadforlife.com/

1/3 C oil
1/3 C honey
2T molasses
1tsp vanilla
2 1/2 - 3 C wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4- 3/4C milk

• Preheat oven to 300F
• Mix first 4 ingrediants in a large bowl.
• Combine 2 1/2 C flour with next 4 ingrediants in another bowl.
• Add dry ingrediants to wet, alternating with milk and mixing well. When dough gets too thick, mix with your hands. If its too sticky add more flour until you can form into a ball. (The texture is like roll-out cookie dough or pie dough. Not sticky - not crumbly....just right. :-) )
• Devide dough in half and roll out thin, directly unto 2 generously sprayed cookie sheets.
• Use a knife or pizza wheel to score/cut crackers the size you like. Prick holes in each one with a fork.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until edges slightly browned. Let cool on sheets. Store in air tight container.

*We double this recipe when we make it, because we are a big family (8). If you roll them real thin, they come out like crispy wafers. If you want a traditional graham cracker than roll them a little thicker. Both ways are scrum-dilicious. I was thinking, the thin version would make an excellant ice cream cone/cup if you could shape it while baking. I am going to try that this summer! I'll let you know how it goes.

Our Favorite Cracker Yet!

I am very excited about this cracker! It was easy and a dream to roll out, and it is so flexible flavor it how you like, the possibilities are endless! They came out crispy and delicious! I can't wait to play with more flavors. My 11 year old daughter (who is very handy in the kitchen now!) can make these on her own. This is similar to a "wheat thin" but much better depending on how you season it. :-) This recipe makes ABOUT 7 dozen crackers (depending on how thin you roll it. If you had cheese they will make more.)

Wheat Crackers
Preheat oven to 350

2 C Wheat Flour *
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 C softened Butter (1/2 stick)
Cold Water
Seasonings of Choice**

* A mixture of Hard Red Wheat and Spelt is very nice, but you can use whatever you have on hand - be creative!
** Seasoning Suggestions: Garlic powder, Onion Powder, Grated Cheese of choice, Sesame Seeds, Dill, Salt, Your Favorite herb mix. My Favorite so far is Spike or Lemon Pepper with Herbamare! YUM!

1. Mix together dry ingrediants.
2. Cut in soft butter to create a fine meal.
3. You may add seasonings here or add them on top when rolled out; depending on what you add. Cheese or larger herbs are best here, but I like to add the finer herbs and salts when the cracker is rolled out. It is easiar for be to "see" how much.
4. Slowly add cold water to make a nice textured dough (similar to fresh play dough). Niether crumbly nor wet. You should be able to form a ball and have the texture be the same throughout the ball. I tell my daughter to break it in half and check it.
5. Knead it or roll it until it is the texture of an earlobe. (not long)
6. Roll out onto lightly floured surface as thin as you can. (always roll dough from the center out like hte spokes of a bike wheel) The thinner- the better and this recipe really lets you get thin. I like to section this dough in two and roll out half at a time. This also makes it handy to season more than one flavor in the one batch.
7. Season tops of the thinly rolled out dough, cut into 2" squares or rectangles (or so) and use a thin spatula to slide under each cookie and transfer them to a buttered cookie sheet. (It takes 2 sheets.) Put them side by side close, but not touching.
8. Bake for about 11 minutes or until golden. You need to watch them, this will vary based on your oven and how thin you rolled them.

Let cool and store in airtight container.

If you try these I would love here how YOU seasoned them in the comments section!

Wheaty Thins

Preheat over@ 325 degrees
Makes about 6-8 dozen.

4C Wheat Flour (I used ww pastry flour & spelt; it is was ground)
1T Baking Powder
1 Stick of Butter (1/4C), cold
1 1/3C Milk

• Mix DRY ingrediants.
• Cut butter to create a coarse crumb.
• Add milk and form into a ball. Devide in half.
• Roll out each half on a large sprayed cookie sheet.
• Cut into a checkerboard pattern with a pizza wheel.
• Season the tops.

Bake for about 22 minutes until crisp and golden.

Seasoning suggestions: This is the best cracker I have found to experiament with savory seasonings. Everything tastes good on it. Try one or a combination of the things below. You can also try flavors INSIDE the crackers.

Salt; Pepper; Garlic; Onion, Herbs, dry veggie powder, diced dried veggies, dry italian salad dressing mix, dry veggie soup mix, kelp, dry herb mixes, celery salt, garlic salt, cheese, etc...

Oatmeal Crackers

Makes about 4 dozen
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 1/2C Oat Flour *
1C Spelt Flour (wheat or barley is good too)
1/3C Oil
1T Honey
1/2 C Water

*To make Oat flour simply put the same amount of oats in a blender and grind.

• Mix flours in a medium size bowl.
• Mix oil and honey together in a large measuring cup.
• Add wet to flour bowl and sort of smash down with the back of your spoon to miz together. When it is all encorperated, it will be king of moist and crumbly.
• Add water and mix until smooth. It will be a thick pasty consistancy.
• Split the dough in two and roll out each ball onto a oiled cookie sheet as thin as you can get it. (I roll it together into one thin rectangle on an extra large sheet.)
• Cut shapes with a pizza wheel into a checkerboard.
• Sprinkle tops with flavor of choice. Examples : Sea salt or cinnamon/sugar. Be creative. They are bland without a topping.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden.

* You can sub sweeteners :

• for sweet crackers try maple syrup
• for savory crackers try agave or barley malt or rice syrup

Cracker Chronicles

I have been searching and experimenting with crackers. If anyone has cracker recipes they like, please share them in the comment section below!!!

A few things I have learned:

• Crackers need salt! :-)
• Rolling your crackers: I always spray the sheet. The thinner the better. I find splitting the batter up (depending on how big the batch is) into 2-4 sections and rolling them onto the tray that way makes them easy to manage. I roll it almost from edge to edge using one of the Pampered Chef Rollers (pictured). I never liked it for real pastry or bread rolling, it's too small, but now I find it is a very valuable tool for rolling crackers right onto the sheet very thinly. This could also be replicated by using a smooth this glass or vase, if you want to be creative or thrifty. A rolling pin would be too cumbersome and bulky for the task if your cookie sheet has sides like mine. You can press some doughs by hand - but it is hard to get a smooth thin cracker.
• Cutting your crackers: Some recipes say to use a cookie cutter, biscuit cutter or a sharp knife, but I find it much easier to just roll it out as thin as I want it in one flat cracker, then cutting it with a pizza wheel. I have learned not to take my dough to close to the edges because my sheet has sides and the roller gets stopped by them. But this is clearly the quickest and easiest way to shape my crackers.
• Air holes: You may notice some crackers have air holes (like a traditional saltine). I find this is necessary if the cracker is a dry dough or has leaven (baking powder or soda). You simply poke wholes in all through your dough with fork tines after it has been rolled out onto the sheet.
• Once you get a good base recipe that is plain. You can begin to play with it. Adding herbs, switching flours, adding seeds or ground nuts or veggie or fruit powders, switching sweeteners, subbing apple sauce for oil, etc... The cool thing is that lots of time the batches are small, so it's not big waste if it was a blunder. Then when you know you've got some good ones, write it down and triple the recipe! :-)
• Crackers are quick to make! I even discovered one recipe that comes from a mix you make ahead, so you can have a mix on hand to whip up a batch in 15 minuted flat preheating the oven to pulling the crackers out of it!

I hope you are inspired to try and play with some of the recipes I post, and that you will post variations and recipes of your own - in the comment sections relating to crackers.

Before you know it - your kitchen will become "Mamma's Laboratory"! It is so fun! Especially when it turns out tasty! Up from the ashes grow the crackers of success....or something like that. :-)

Peanutbutter "Graham" Crackers

Here is a delicious Graham Cracker recipe from Rodale's Basic Natural Food Cookbook, paraphrased the directions. (This is a cook book no whole foods kitchen should be without!). Much to my surprise it doesn't have any graham flour in it. Mine came out peanut-buttery (that is likely because I "eyeballed" my wet measurements). But make no mistake they were still quite tasty. I am looking forward to fiddling with this recipe by using maple syrup in place of honey and other nut butters in place of the peanut. I also happened to use ww pastry flour in this batch, since I had it to use up. A red wheat, might give you a little drier dough which might be easier to roll out. (Just some thoughts.)

3T honey
2T molasses
1/4C peanut butter
1/4C butter
1/2C buttermilk
1tsp vanilla
2 1/4C wheat flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

• In measuring cup combine buttermilk and vanilla and set aside.


• In small bowl combine all dry ingredients and set aside.


• In a medium size bowl mix the first 4 ingred. until smooth.


• Add the wet and dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating one after the other until combined - in 2-3 cycles.


• Let dough rest while you preheat the oven @400 degrees F


• Lightly oil cookie sheet , then press and roll dough onto sheet very thinly, about 1/16th of an inch. (This takes two average size cookie sheets.) The dough is wet and thick. If it is too sticky to handle just lightly sprinkle flour on top as you roll/press it.


• Poke holes over all of it with the tines of a fork (this keeps it from bubbling up), and score your dough. (A pizza wheel works very nice for that or a sharp straight edge knife will do.)

Bake for 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool and cut the crackers on the score lines, store in air tight container.

They are great for snacking, very tasty IN milk - like cereal and can be used in recipes for crusts or toppings. Enjoy!