Homemade Seed Crackers

Sooooo… Did I mention that we had more than 30 people in our home to celebrate Ty’s birthday? (A.K.A. New Year’s Eve. Such a helpful and cooperative baby… He was our little tax deduction.)  And did I mention that with the notable exceptions of the rocking hummus my sister made and the fudge from my friend Beth I made all the food? Really, what kind of catering fool would I be if I didn’t cater my own son’s birthday bash? A couple words quickly come to mind: Sane, Smart, and Aware-of-my-own-limitations, for starters…

 

One of the fun foods I played with for Ty’s shindig was homemade crackers based on Alton Brown’s Seedy Crisps recipe. The main thing I did differently than AB was use mustard seeds and granulated garlic in place of the poppy seeds. Did I mess with it because I thought I knew better? Nah. I did it because I was out of poppy seeds, but the resulting crackers were delicious. And when paired with some extra sharp white cheddar the mustard seeds in these crackers really sing!

They were easy to make since I took AB’s advice and rolled them out with my pasta machine. That was some seriously handy device advice from the culinary multi-tasking king. I found that the dough made it through the machine more intact when I lightly rolled over each piece with my rolling pin before sending it through the pasta machine. They baked up quickly and were done before the party with plenty of time to spare for me to run around and shove dirty socks under the couch, arrange food storage buckets in front of ginormous piles of laundry in the basement and other things like that…

Try these. Really. I bet you have everything in your cupboards or pantry and they’re so ever-loving good. And, lest I forget, they’re actually really good for you. Stick THAT in your New Year’s Resolution pipe and smoke it! They’re super tasty for lunch, too. Think about it; flavorful and seedy whole grain crackers with tuna salad. Wouldn’t that get you through your day nicely?

Seedy Crackers

 

You could easily substitute other seeds for the mustard seeds as I did for the poppy seeds. Think creatively; throw in some flax seed or nigella seeds in the whimsy strikes you.

I am not trying to scare you but you really don’t want to overcook these. Burnt seeds taste nasty. Not burnt seeds taste wonderful. Just watch them carefully while they bake. I’m just looking out for you.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup plus 1 rounded Tablespoon whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur White Wheat since I’m kind of in love with it…)
• Scoop 1 TB dehydrated garlic flakes and 1/4 cup of brown or yellow mustard seeds into a 1/3 cup measure and top it off with sesame seeds.
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds (that is in addition to the seeds listed above)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (non aluminum variety)
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon water

In a large bowl, use a whisk to combine the flours, garlic, mustard and sesame seeds, salt and baking powder. Evenly drizzle the olive oil over the top of the dry ingredients…

 and use your clean hand to mix it. Add the water all at once and use your hand to stir it until it forms a rough dough.

Lightly flour your countertop and turn the cracker dough out.

Knead about five times …

and then divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Cover with a clean towel and allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll out until it is about 1/8″ thick. You can either lay the strip of dough onto your parchment paper as is or cut down into smaller portions. Either way, bake for 6 minutes, flip the cracker and bake for another 6 minutes. You may need to bake a little longer or a little less depending on how thick you’ve made the crackers. Just keep your eyes on them and remove from the oven when they’re a golden brown and they smell good.

 

Save

Save