If you’ve never made crackers before, you’ll want to give these a try!  Crackers are easy, cost pennies to make, and give you control over your ingredients. 

Kids will love using a pizza cutter to make these beautiful artisan-looking crisps, too!  Because it’s a small pliable dough ball, it’s the perfect choice to have them practice kneading and using the rolling pin.

You can easily substitute ingredients by adding in some wheat flour or other seeds.  Try sprinkling in some garlic powder or parmesan. Adjust your sweetness.  The sky is the limit here. 

Keep at it until you find your favorite combination and you’ll never go back to a boxed cracker again!

Rosemary-Sesame Seed Crackers

 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

a scant 1/8 tsp black pepper (optional)

1/2 tsp yeast

2 1/2 T honey (or maple syrup)

1 1/2 T olive oil

1/3 – 1/2 cup water, room temperature

1 1/2 T dried rosemary

1 1/2 T sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients except the water in a bowl then add just enough water to bring everything together and form a ball that you can knead.  It generally takes the better part of the 1/2 cup water.

Knead for 10  minutes. (dough will be firm)

Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest/ferment/develop flavor for 1 1/2 – 2 hours.

Cut dough in half or in thirds, press into a rectangle and roll it out.  Get it as thin as you can (not so thin that it’s see-through though!)  When you think you’ve got it thin enough, roll it just a wee bit thinner.  This makes for crispy crackers!

Carefully lift your dough and put it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.  (as an alternative, just roll out the dough on the parchment like I usually do. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be perfect! )

Use a pizza cutter to cut rectangles in the dough. You don’t have to pull them apart; they’ll break easily after they’re baked. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Monitor them carefully. It’s a fine line between golden brown and burnt! 

I brushed this batch with olive oil and sprinkled poppy seeds on them. Too many seeds rolled off the end result so I decided to put them in the dough from now on. If you want to have seeds on top, a little egg wash over the top would probably make them stick better.

Cool and enjoy!

Think you have a different great flavor combination?  Please comment in!  Read about my cracker inspiration in One Drop at a Time!

I hope you enjoy a bit of time with your family around the bread bowl making these crackers.  I have just one piece of advice left:  try not to eat them all in one sitting!  (It’s happened here at our farmette!)

As always,

Mary