Portland, Oregon based food writer and baker Ivy Manning capitalizes on the pure flavors of whole grains in her new book Crackers & Dips (Chronicle Books, April 2013), available for pre-order on Amazon. This DIY guide to making homemade crackers includes an easy recipe for whole wheat crackers perfect for your holiday dips.
- Prep Time :
25 min - Cook Time :
12 min - Ready Time :
37 min
Servings
Ingredients
- 1-1/4 cup Stone-Buhr Whole Wheat Flour
- 3/4 cup Stone-Buhr Unbleached All Purpose Flour plus more for rolling
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2/3 cup hot water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 2 baking sheets with silicon baking mats or parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and sea salt. Add the oil and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
In a small measuring cup, combine the water and honey and stir to dissolve. Add the water mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture just forms a ball; do not over work the dough or the crackers be tough. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 2 balls. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out one ball of dough, picking it up frequently and rotating it to make sure it isn’t sticking, until the dough is 1/16-inch thick. If the dough springs back as you are rolling, set it aside and start rolling out the 2nd ball; this will allow the gluten in the dough to relax and make it easier to roll out.
Sprinkle with half of the kosher salt. Cut the dough into 2-inch squares, reserve the scraps. Use a bench scraper or spatula to transfer the crackers to baking sheets and prick each cracker a few times with a fork. Repeat with the remaining ball of dough and scraps.
Bake until the crackers are golden brown around the edges and dry to the touch, 12 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and back to front once while baking. If some of the crackers are done before others, transfer the browned crackers to a cooling rack and return the undone crackers to the oven for a few more moments, watching carefully to make sure that they don’t burn.
Cool on racks until completely cool, store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
