If you have read other posts on our blog, you know that we have been trying to find a cracker recipe that would be easy to make. We eat a lot of crackers and cheese around here, and we go through store-bought boxes like they are candy. This has gotten expensive! Plus, we are scared that Mom is going to start looking at those pesky labels again, and it would be disastrous without crackers. We have tried rice crackers and sour cream and onion crackers and both recipes left us looking for something better. This recipe looked very easy, and we had high hopes that it would finally be the cracker recipe of our dreams.
Ingredients for our Cracker Recipe:
We started by mixing our dry ingredients and slowly added the water and olive oil. This was going to be easy!
When the dough pulled away from the sides, we took it out and cut it into fourths.
The Problems Begin:
As directed, we started rolling out the dough. Right away, we ran into problems. It was sticky and kept tearing. We thought maybe the dough was too wet. So we sprinkled some flour on our silicone mat and started again.
This time it did get flat, but there were still some holes in the dough. From our other experiences, we know that cracker dough needs to be very thin to create a crispy cracker. So we decided to keep the holes and move on.
After we rolled out the dough, we took a fork and took out some frustrations by stabbing the dough over and over again. This was to keep the dough from bubbling up in the oven.
Next, we took a spray bottle, and wet the top so that the salt would stick to the top of the crackers.
Finally a Crispy Cracker:
We followed the directions and did not take it out of the oven until it was stiff enough to lift one side without it bending. The crackers ended up having some brown spots, but they did not look too burned.
After letting it cool for about 10 minutes, we started cutting them into crackers with a pizza cutter. This did not go well. It broke off tiny pieces everywhere and made a mess. We found it was much easier to just break them into pieces with our hands.
We were so relieved! We did it! These crackers were actually crispy and tasted good.
So Why Are We Done Making Crackers?
After having our fill of our homemade crackers, we made sure they were completely cool and put them into an air-tight storage container. Four hours later, we went for our usual cheese and cracker snack. Ugh. They were stale. Seriously, how could they go bad so quickly? We made sure they were completely cooled before storing them, and they still had a chewy texture after a couple of hours.
This is not going to work. Although we love baking, there is no way we can make homemade crackers every time we want to have a snack. I guess there is a reason why they put all of those preservatives in store-bought crackers. Sadly, I think our experimenting with crackers is over.
Never Again: We Tried One More Cracker Recipe
This recipe looked very easy, and we had high hopes that it would finally be the cracker recipe of our dreams. They lasted 4 hours and were stale. FOUR HOURS
Ingredients
- 2 Cups All-purpose Flour
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 + 1/2 Teaspoons Granulated Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Everything Bagel Seasoning
- 3 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/2 Cup Cold Water
- Flaky sea salt or coarse salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 F.
- Add all the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl. Turn the machine on low speed and mix for 10 seconds to quickly blend everything together. Add the olive oil and water. Mix again for two minutes or until the dough forms and it no longer sticks to the bottom of the bowl.
- Remove the dough and form it into a ball. It should not be sticky or moist. If it is, lightly flour your hands. As you hold the dough, pat or knead the flour from your hands into the dough until it’s no longer moist. Divide the ball into four equal pieces.
- Transfer the first piece of dough to a silicone baking mat or a piece of parchment paper that’s the size of your cookie sheet. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough as thinly as possible. With a fork, prick the dough all over to keep it from bubbling up. Transfer to a cookie sheet.
- Lightly mist the surface of the dough with cold water. Pinch and crush a bit of flaky sea salt between your fingers as you sprinkle it over the top of the cracker dough.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the edges become lightly golden brown. Once out of the oven, if you lift a corner of the flatbread cracker with a spatula it should be stiff. After about three minutes you can lift the cracker and
transfer it to a cutting board. Allow to cool completely (about 10 minutes.) - Snap or cut the cracker into several pieces, as desired.
- Repeat this rolling, baking, and snapping process with the other three pieces of dough.
Notes
Adapted From Confettie & Bliss