How To Make Crackers
I know how to make crackers. You might know how to make crackers, too. It might be an important skill to know, but I am not sure. In fact, I have pondered many times why anyone would want to make crackers given that the grocery stores – organic, bio, all natural stores included – all seem to have every variety of crackers available. Do we actually eat enough crackers that we think the need for homemade crackers is warranted? I really don’t know. All I know is that for some reason, making crackers at home is intriguing. In the end, I suppose I learned how to make crackers because I like having a cracker that is exactly to my taste, with the ingredients I like to use. Whatever the reason, home made crackers are delicious and that is really enough.
How To Make Crackers – The Dough
I am comforted to know that many others feel the need to make crackers at home as suggested by all the cracker recipes on the internet. There sure are some fancy recipes out there. I find that a simple wheat dinner roll dough works fine for crackers. Yes, I know. I was surprised, too.
I for one use my bread maker to make the dough. It is just a lot simpler. Of course, you can use a stand mixer or mix it by hand. You can even use your food processor.
Click Here For Stand Mixer, Mix by Hand Bread Machine and Food Processor General Guidance
But wait, crackers are flat. Using a dinner roll dough means yeast. Why use a yeast raised dough? Flavor! When the dough is yeast raised, it means there is some good fermentation going on and the longer the better. A good fermentation period means good flavor. When I am not rushed, the dough spends the night in the refrigerator. When I am in a rush, the dough rises once and I move on.
How To Make Crackers – The Flavors
Making your own crackers mean making your own flavors. Having the exact amount of salt on your crackers is important. Plus, not many crackers have pepper on them, This is too bad because pepper on crackers is great. There maybe a large variety of crackers available in the store, but the flavors don’t differ that much. Take fennel seed. There are not that many crackers topped with fennel seed. Fennel seed is so tasty on crackers. We should be eating more fennel seeds.
How To Make Crackers – The Size
In certain applications, size matters. Part of learning how to make crackers is realizing that you can cut them to any size you like. I like to mix the sizes up – some big, some small.
The how to make crackers video is below. The full recipe follows.
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp of sugar
- 1/4 oz of instant yeast
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 cup of whole wheat flour
- 1.5 tsp of salt
- Salt, Pepper, Seed Toppings
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Place all the ingredients except the seed toppings in the bread machine.
- Use the dough cycle to make the dough.
- When the dough is done rising, punch it down and cut it into 4 pieces.
- On a floured surface, roll the dough pieces into rectangles about 9"x16" making sure to roll the dough as thin as possible, ideally less then 1/8 inch.
- Using a fork, prick the dough all over so that rising is kept to a minimum.
- Season the dough with salt, pepper and spread seed toppings as desired on top of the rolled out dough. Using a rolling pin, press the toppings into the dough.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into the desired size.
- Transfer the dough pieces to a parchment lined baking tray.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
- Let cool. Thicker crackers will get crisp as they cool.
- Vegan/Vegetarian Option - Substitute the milk and butter with soy equivalents. Omit the egg and add 2 tbsp vegetable oil.
- Dairy Free Option - Substitute the milk with water.
- Gluten Free Option - Swap the flour with your favorite gluten free flour.
- You can let the dough have a second rise overnight if desired to build even more flavor into the crackers.
I hope you enjoy!
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