Crunch, crunch

I figure its about time I posted here.....this week I have been fascinated by crackers. I love to make things that are commercially available, like marshmallows, bread, cookies, bacon, etc. It is cool to dig up old recipes for the way things used to be made, and to make things we like to eat without hydrogenated vegetable oil and preservatives! Anyways, back to the crackers. We watched Flat is Beautiful: Going Crackers, from Alton Brown (Good Eats). He showed recipes for graham crackers, seed crisps and lavash. The grahams were my first try, they were good but difficult to roll out. The directions say to roll by hand, the dough is chilled so is very stiff and difficult to get to an even thickness. Next time I will use the pasta roller. Sorry, no pictures.
I did use the pasta maker to make the seed crisps. The dough is a little sticky and I had to use plenty of flour. They have sesame seeds and poppy seeds along with whole wheat flour and olive oil. I found you must be careful not to roll too thin, the first sheet I managed to crush some of the seeds between the rollers and tear the sheets. After rolling you bake to G.B. and D. (Golden Brown and Delicious!) They were very good with sharp cheddar cheese and wine!
I haven't tried the lavash yet but they are on my list. I would recommend these recipes with a few notes.....I don't think I would try without a pasta roller. You will need to roll to 1/16 of an inch, hard to do with sticky dough and a rolling pin. The recipes specify aluminum free baking powder for taste. I have not tried them with regular baking powder, but with so few ingredients, I think it is essential to use only ones that taste good! I used whole wheat flour I bought this summer at the farmers market that is ground locally. I am not sure where there wheat comes from, but the flour has a wonderful smell and is very evenly ground. Next time I will try some other seeds and flavored salt.


Up next is candy making for Christmas, I want to make some flavored marshmallows and taffy. Sticky and sweet!