Bread Recipes
Crunchy Crackers
This recipe mimics an extra-crunchy, seed-topped whole-gain cracker you may find at your supermarket. These are great for spreads and dips of all kinds.
Hands-on: 20 to 35 min | Bake: 35 to 50 min
Yield: two 16 x 11 inch sheets of crackers
Ingredients
Crackers
- 7/8 to 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 2 tablespoons non-diastatic malt powder or sugar
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons whole milled flax or whole flax seeds, preferably golden*
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds or whole flax seeds, preferably golden*
Topping
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, midget preferred*
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds**
- 1/4 cup whole flax seeds,** golden preferred
- sea salt or your favorite flavored salt, if desired
Instructions
- To make the dough: Mix and knead together all of the cracker ingredients (except the seeds) to a smooth, fairly stiff dough. Add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of water if the dough is dry.
- Knead in the seeds.
- Let the dough rise, covered, for 60 to 90 minutes, until it's expanded a bit.
- Divide the dough in half. Working with one piece at a time, roll it into a rectangle approximately 14 x 9 inch, a generous 1/8" thick. This will probably require you to roll the dough until it fights back; give it a 10 minute rest, then come back and roll some more. It may need two rest periods to allow you to roll it thin enough.
- For easiest handling, turn the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Spritz the dough with water. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the topping seeds, lay a piece of parchment on top, and press the seeds in with a rolling pin. Turn the dough
over, peel off the parchment, and repeat. Set the seeded crackers on a baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining piece of dough.
- If you don't have parchment, roll on a rolling mat or on a very lightly floured or lightly greased work surface; and transfer the seeded crackers to a lightly greased baking sheet. Sprinkle each sheet of crackers with some sea salt or flavored salt, if desired. Crush the sea salt between your fingers or grind it in a salt mill if it's very coarse.
- Prick the dough over with a fork, and cut it into rectangles, whatever size you like. Pull the crackers apart just a bit; you don't need to separate them completely. Let the crackers rise for 30 to 45 minutes. while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees F; they'll get just a bit puffy.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until the crackers are a medium brown.
- Turn off the heat, wait 15 minutes, then open the oven door a couple of inches and let the crackers cool completely in the turned-off oven.
- When they're completely cool, break apart, if necessary, and store airtight.
Notes
* Substitute 3/4 cup artisan bread topping + 1/4 cup whole flax seeds for the sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds, if desired.
** Substitute 1/4 cup golden flax seeds for the sesame and flax, if desired.