Cooking From Scratch-- Crackers

I’ve got a couple of book/movie posts coming so I figured I should post something a bit more typical of me before I got started with all that.  I’ve made mention to several people that I’ve started making my own crackers.  This tends to be met initially with surprise and then curiosity.  When I first came across the recipe I was quite surprised myself; I’d considered making pretzels but had completely skipped over crackers.

The recipe I’ve included in this post is one shared by an Alberta 100-mile dieter with a knack for picking out some awesome recopies.  The original post for anyone interested is here.

I’ve learned a couple of things having gone through this process quite a few times now:

• When using whole wheat flour add the extra liquid required (I use about double) but hold off on adding extra flour until after you’ve let the dough set for 10 or so minutes.
• Do chill the dough.  It makes rolling it out immensely easier.
• I prefer my crackers crispy and golden, rolling them out more thinly helps with this.
• Using a dough scrapper works better for removing and transporting the crackers from where you’ve rolled and cut them.  Using a knife works well but it tends to fatten up your crackers which is counterproductive to my above objective.
• Make lots and lots of these crackers at once.  They don’t stick around very long.

Flax Crackers
Ingredients:1/4 cup whole flax seed
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp butter or non-hydrogenated margarine (I used organic, 20-mile canola oil)
1/2 skim milk (I made the milk from dehydrated skim milk powder left over from camping trips)

Directions:1) Preheat oven to 325F (160C)
2) In a bowl, combine whole flax seed, ground flax seed, flour, baking powder, salt and butter/margarine. Using a pastry cutter or a mixer on low speed, mix well.
3) Using a mixer, or by hand, sitr in milk and mix until mixture forms a soft dough.
4) Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
5) Divide the dough into quarters. place one of the quarters on a lightly floured board and using a rolling pin, roll it into a very thin rectangle, about 1/16 inch (2 mm) thick cut into 2 1/2 inch squares.
6) Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet.
7) Repeat steps #5 and #6 with the remainder of the dough.
8 ) Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, until crisp and golden.