Rosemary Thin Wheat Crackers

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It turns out that the basic recipe for these crackers can be found all over the Internet, and with good reason; they are easy to make and taste even better than those which come in the yellow box. And, while we started with a recipe from the Internet, we will give credit to where we think it originated: Whole Grain Baking, put together by the millers at King Arthur Flour (their Better for Bread flour is the best  — and they didn’t even have to send us 50 pound for that plug), although we did change it up a bit, as you’ll see.

We were planning cream of mushroom soup for lunch (see tomorrow’s post), so we wanted a crunchy bite to go along with. That led us to crackers; we had made thin wheat crackers before, so we thought we’d do them up again. But, we wanted to flavor them just a bit, hence the rosemary in the title (and in the crackers).

Rosemary Thin Wheat Crackers

Servings: 100 (1-inch) crackers
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 Tbs sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 4 Tbs unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400°F.
  • Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  • In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, sugar, salt, and rosemary with few pulses.
  • Put the butter chunks over the surface, and pulse until you have a coarse crumbly mixture.
  • While the processor is running, drizzle in the vanilla and the water.
  • Let the processor run until a ball of dough forms and rides on top of the blade.
  • On a lightly floured work surface, using about 1/2 of the dough, roll out until it is about 1/16 of an inch thick.
  • Use a knife and cut out 1×1 inch squares, and use the tines of a fork to dock the crackers.
  • Place the crackers on a baking sheet, and bake for about 10 minutes or until starting to brown.
  • Repeat with remaining dough.

Ingredient discussion:

vanilla water and butter
Here’s our vanilla and water mix and the butter pieces. Given that this is half the recipe, you know these crackers are easy.

Not too much to say, except use real vanilla and butter. Even though there is just a tiny amount of vanilla, it does add a hint of flavor, and real vanilla kicks butt. And butter is the only way to go — as far as we’re concerned, margarine is only useful to bulk up a trash bag.

Procedure in detail:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Prepare pans. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

dry ingredients
All the dry ingredients ready for pulsing. We added rosemary to make these a bit more savory. Feel free to add something else.

Mix dry ingredients. In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, sugar, salt, and rosemary with few pulses. You might want to pulse a few more times than usual, since the rosemary will be best if ground up a bit.

adding butter
Once the dry ingredients are mixed, add the butter, and pulse.

Add butter. Put the butter chunks over the surface, and pulse until you have a coarse crumbly mixture.

Cracker meal
After pulsing a few times, you’ll have a coarse crumbly mixture. Perfect for adding the vanilla water.

Add water and vanilla. While the processor is running, drizzle in the vanilla and the water. We mixed the vanilla and water together earlier, so we could add both at the same time.

ball of cracker dough
Drizzle in the water as the processor is running. The dough will come together to form a ball.

Let run. Let the processor run until a ball of dough forms and rides on top of the blade.

slicing crackers
Slice into squares and dock (pierce with a fork) so the crackers will stay flat, uh, like crackers.

Roll out. On a lightly floured work surface, using about 1/2 of the dough, roll out until it is about 1/16 of an inch thick. Very thin.

Cut squares. Use a knife and cut out 1×1 inch squares.

Dock. Use the tines of a fork to dock the crackers. Basically, pierce the crackers with the tines. This will hold the dough on top to that on the bottom, so your crackers won’t puff like pillows. Plus it looks nice.

cooling thin wheat crackers
These crisp up a bit as they cool; if you wait until they are crisp in the oven, you’ll have burnt crackers.

Bake. Place the crackers on a baking sheet, and bake for about 10 minutes or until starting to brown. You can put the crackers close together as they do not spread.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Super simple, right? Now you know why, when you go down those non-food aisles in the center of the store, there are hundreds of varieties of crackers. They only use a few ingredients, so they’re fast to mix up, and bake quickly. Obviously, high profit. Of course, since you’re following scratchin’ it, you prefer to buy high-quality ingredients so your food tastes great! Oh, we give this five stars; it was five minutes of mixing, and 25 minutes of rolling and baking, for a better tasting cracker.

Worth the trouble?

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