Fat Mama has gone Crackers!
Spinach crackers and Cayenne pepper crackers with red pepper flakes
It all started when I purchased a box of saltines. They are my comfort food, when I don’t feel well, perfect for soup or soft cheese. All that was on the shelf were unsalted tops and original with sea salt. I got the sea salt crackers and immediately noticed that the crackers were much less salty then in the past. I started out with a salt shaker, adding a little touch of, extra, kosher salt on each cracker. My family poked fun at me, those cracker philistines.
So, reading the ingredient list on the cracker box, I was amazed at how simple crackers really are. Flour, salt, a bit of fat and some liquid, water was the most likely. So the search was on. I found a basic cracker recipe, no surprises in it. So, I made some. They were okay, but really flat. I used my pasta press and made the crackers so thin they almost melted in the mouth. But I wanted a crisp, crunchy, salty cracker. So I added baking powder and used melted butter in place of the olive oil. And I did not roll the dough as thin. I also let the dough rest after making it in my food processor. A bit more puffy and crunchy.
And then I dried some spinach in the oven and ground that to powder and added that to the next batch of dough. And I used some dried Swiss chard with some feta and baked that. Garlic powder, dehydrated onion flakes, cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes on top. But the best thing out of all of this, besides really fresh crunch crackers is that I got to choose how much and what kind of salt I put on top of these crackers! Coarse Kosher, fine grind kosher, flaked salt, pink salt, salt and black pepper, extra salt into the butter and brush that onto the top of the crackers.
I’m looking at my kitchen counters, covered in parchment paper and odd kinds of flour. I have gram whole wheat, flax flour, brown rice flour, coconut, almond, gluten free (that had to go, I need gluten in my crackers) dark rye, malted barley…wow. I’m going to try making a sour dough cracker. I tried a coconut flour – almond flour cracker, with powdered egg white in it. A higher protein, lower carbs cracker. I did not care for the amount of chewing that the coconut cracker called for.
Italian spiced Parmesan crackers just coming out of the oven!
I just took a batch of “Italian spiced, Parmesan cheese crackers” out of my oven. They have a whole cup of cheese in and sprinkled on top. So, so good! The crackers can be anything you can imagine, and I have about a hundred new twists to try soon. Here is my basic cracker recipe:
Fat Mama’s Salted Soda Crackers
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour • 2 teaspoons baking powder • 4 Tablespoons melted butter • About ½ cup of water • 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons fine grind salt • More flour and salt to sprinkle.
In a food processor mix the flour, salt and baking powder. With the processor running pour in the melted butter slowly, then add water until the flour starts to come together to form a dough ball. Remove the dough from the food processor. Place on a lightly floured work surface, kneed a few times and cover with a bowl or plastic wrap. Let rest for ½ to 1 hour. You are letting the tough gluten relax so the dough will be easier to roll out and work with.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Divide your dough into 4 or 8 parts. The crackers turn out more to my likening when they are a little thinner than an 1/8 of an inch thick, but not tissue paper thin. I like to use my pasta roller to roll the dough out evenly. I usually roll the dough to a “4” thinness setting, after going through 1 to 3 on my pasta roller. Lay the rolled dough on the parchment covered cookie sheets and Cut into 2 x 2 inch squares or leave them in sheets. I like my bench scraper tool to cut with, but cookie cutters and the pizza cutter both work well.
If you are going to roll them out by hand, put the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and run the rolling pin over the top. Turn the paper over and halfway around and continue until the dough is the desired thickness. A bit less than 1/8 of an inch in thickness is my goal. You will have to decide how you want them.
Next move the sheet of dough to the parchment covered cookie sheet. I started out brushing the cracker dough with water and sprinkling the tops with salt. I now have a spray bottle of water that I use to lightly mist the cracker dough. This allows the salt or anything else you top your crackers with to stick to the cracker. I like sesame seeds, caraway seeds, grated parmesan cheese, salt and freshly ground black pepper on the top. My heat loving family likes them topped with salt and red pepper flakes.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the 400 degree oven. The edges of the crackers should be golden brown. The cracker sheets may be soft when they firs come out of the oven. They will get crisper as they sit. Once all the dough is baked I take my crackers, still on their parchment paper and put them back in the oven and Turn the Oven OFF. I let the crackers sit in the cooling oven until they are really, really crisp! You may want to prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon between the door and oven, to allow for faster cooling and if you are a control, as I am when I’m baking, you can observe the crackers as they dry. If you left the crackers whole, you can break them into pieces now. Store the crackers in air tight containers. If they get soft, you can put them into a 350 degree oven for a few minutes to crisp them up again. I took it one step further, and purchased food grade gel desiccant packets. Those little tiny packets that are in crisp foods to keep them from getting soggy. You can find them on line, just make sure you get food grade.
Now, whip up some hummus or go buy some dip, make soup or chili, or your favorite chip dip and have at those fresh crackers. I love them just plain with Salt, lots and lots of salt, of course!
Parmesan crackers drying in the oven on parchment paper