Crackers! Edible ones.

Once in an eon I stop thinking about baking crackers and actually do it. I will not buy them because I like to know what I'm eating, and the shop ones  are tricked out with all kinds of stuff to make them shelf stable, happy travellers and such, and I don't think that preserves the person eating them as much as it preserves the crackers. Where was I, oh yes.

Today I baked whole-wheat, olive oil, seasalt, caraway seed crackers. I added the seeds to the recipe because I like them and they were right there, next to the seasalt.

The recipe made about twice as much as stated, maybe because I rolled them thinner. Anyway I did two batches.

This is where I bless Handsome Son for giving me a great rolling pin years ago, and myself for investing in a couple of dough scrapers. They help you pick up thin dough,  score it,  as here,  so as to break up easily, once baked, and to clean up afterwards. My kind of tool.

Because you don't want to roll indefinitely and create the consistency of iron, you do have to allow for wavy edges. Not a problem if the crackers look artisanal, which mine definitely do. As long as they taste artisanal. They do that, too.

Batch one being lifted to avoid permanent attachment to the board

Dough scraper used to score cracker shapes.

Batch one cooled and bust up, looking artisanal

Batch two, cooling and looking like a continental map.

And this is where I give a shout to my long departed Mom, who never explained anything about cooking or baking to me, too busy doing it for a big family.  I still learned a thing or two from watching.

Like rolling in one direction, lifting the pin at the end, carrying it back to reset at the beginning again. Not rolling back and forward. This avoids dough like iron. And rolling dough over the pin to move it. And lifting it to sprinkle more flour underneath. I think I imitate the way she handled a ball of dough. Especially breadmaking, forming a loaf before inserting it into the pan. And more.

I think this is how we live on, in the skills and attitudes we pass on. Anyway that's my hope.

Cheese, crackers and a glass of white moscato later. Cheers!

Crackers. At last.

You know how you think about a thing, then don't do it, then think later, and don't do it, and wonder why you thought about it anyway, and then finally after maybe years, do it? 

No, I'm not talking about sorting the catchall drawer in the kitchen, though I have thought about it, the profusion of seed packets and batteries and magnets catching all the little nails and screws, and rubber bands, and bits of coax cable, and curtain rings tangling in there. Thinking took all the sorting energy, so I haven't done it.  Yet.

What I'm talking about here is making my own crackers.  As you know, I don't like buying ready made food, because who knows what's in shop crackers to keep them crisp and good for decades on the shelf.  But making my own seemed unlikely. Possibly complex and time consuming.  Until I came into possession of a couple of Moosewood cookbooks.  And in one is a recipe for -- crackers!

So I made them yesterday, using caraway seeds, which I like, in place of their sesame ones which I don't.  And they came out surprisingly good.  Not as shrapnel-crisp as the shop kind, but okay.  Also fun to do, involving a very slight amount of kneading, and some fun rolling out and pricking with a fork and cutting up and so on.  Used my rolling pin for the first time in I dunamany years.

The only thing I would do differently is that they use a lot of butter to toast the seeds, and I would use less, also I'd use a castiron pan instead of the tiny saucepan they use.  I have a lovely tiny copper saucepan, holds one cup, I think, so this was a good time to use it.  But I think the castiron would be better.  I would also roll them thinner, to get more crisp going.

So in future my homemade soup will have homemade crackers at its side.