The crackers I adapted from several ideas. I used oat flour and AP, quarter cup of one, one and three quarters t'other. Olive oil, quarter cup, warm water, three quarters cup. Half teaspoon each salt, baking powder.
Tossed a merry old mix of fresh picked thyme, mustard seeds, caraway seeds, celery seeds, cayenne, kosher salt, and whisked, then kneaded, the lot together.
Rolled it out to about fit the baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Then I scored it with a pizza wheel into crackery squares. About 20 minutes at 425f.
It works a lot better to mix the seeds, which can be anything you like or happen to have lying around, into the dough rather than applying them to the surface as some recipes do. I get plenty of seeds rolling about underfoot that way. I'd rather capture them in the dough.
I did apply coarse seasalt after the rolling and cutting, though.
And cheddar, crackers and an exciting history of the Medici clan go well together.
The baking was, as so often, interrupted by neighbors wanting plants id'ed as to weed or not.
I went out in me pinny, pointed firmly at the massive specimens of weeds including a sturdy mulberry tree, around here a terrible nuisance, planted by birds. Bird poop containing fruit seeds is a great package for successful planting, comes complete with its own fertilizer.
Squirrels too, bury acorns and I pulled out two white oaks this morning. I also explained for the zillionth time, that rosa rugosa is not a lovely desirable plant but the spawn of Satan, a big mistake introduced to create cattle proof hedges.
It went mad and became a target for eradication before it choked everything in its path. It makes titchy little flowers and titchier little fruit, eaten by birds, then pooped right into your favorite shrub. It must be ruthlessly hauled out of the specimen azalea bush.
Anyway this convo took place at top speed, since my crackers were in the oven, and I needed to see how they were doing. Since they were a few ideas put together, all with different oven settings and timing, I wanted to keep checking.
But I never put a neighbor off, especially this one, who's shy and not sure about asking.
So, the weeds are fixed, the crackers are baked and Alessandro dies on page two, not bad going since it's his bio. I guess everything else will be flashback.
As was this blog post, come to think of it.
Hi Boud!
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about you and hadn't heard from you in a while. Very glad to see you in here. I hope your Fourth went okay?
DeleteI am forever digging up pecan trees planted by the squirrels or just falling into a flower bed and well hidden. and those need to be dug up before the tap roots gets longer than about 8" because then you are never getting it out. I planted a rosa rugosa once but it didn't like our heat and humidity.
ReplyDeletemmmm - crackers. I must plant that seed in Resident Chef's head. No pun intended. As for rosa rugosa, I had to do a google on that one to see what they were and was astounded to realize that they're roses. The pretty fragrant kind. Too bad they're so invasive in your area.
ReplyDeleteIf he has yet to make them he'll be happy. They are so much better than anything you can buy. Not hard to make.
DeleteAbout the deadly rose thing, the weed one is a descendant, a total nuisance. Flowers about half an inch across, no scent, just rapacious growth and multiple thorns. You need gloves to handle it. If you consider morning glories, pretty, appealing, then compare them to bindweed, it's similar.
This is nothing like the original rosa rugosa. I get a bit passionate about this because of neighbors who keep saying they'll cut it after they've got flowers to pick. I remind them there is nothing but leaves and thorns! Meanwhile we all have to keep eradicating it from our areas, grrrr.