Cracker Bread

When I went on my vacation to Utah, I had so much fun learning new things.  I came home with a plethora of new recipes and I'm going to share some of these with you in the next few posts.  The first one is for cracker bread.  I'd been hearing good things from my sister about this mysterious bread.  She loved it so much, she even made it for her wedding and served it with several cheese spreads.  I was excited to try it for myself, because I was clueless as to what it could be.  But when I saw it, I knew exactly what it was, although I knew it as crispy flatbread.  I have on occasion (special occasions) bought it at Fresh Market to go with some really great cheese.  Four or five flatbreads in a little package are pricey, so it was an indulgent treat.  

To say that I was excited to learn how to make it myself, would be a bit of an understatement.  It would taste as good, or better, I had no doubt, than anything you would buy off a shelf, and could only costs pennies to make- it's basically only flour and water.  Ding, ding, ding.... this is a winner!

So while I was at my friend J'nae's home, we spent one morning in her kitchen making several kinds of breads, and cracker bread was the first on the list...

Here's the recipe for the bread dough:

Cracker Bread

3 1/2-4 cups water

2 T. yeast

1/4 cup sugar

a glug of oil (j'nae said that's probably 1/4 cup?)

Don't you just love those cooks who don't have to measure?

4 cups flour- and additional cooked grains if desired

2 T. salt

Mix together in this order and add enough flour to make

a stiff dough.  Knead for about five minutes.  We did this

in her Bosch bread machine, but could be done in any mixer 

with a dough hook or by hand.

Once the dough had been kneaded, we cut it into small pieces.  Did you notice the little flecks in the dough?  We added some spice blends with the flour to flavor the crackers and she may have added some cooked grains to it as well.  I can't remember. 

Each piece of dough was rolled as thin as possible and then placed on a baking sheet.

It doesn't matter that each one comes out a different shape and size.  That's part of the handcrafted, rustic appeal of these crackers.

Once on the baking sheet, we pricked them with a fork,

and sprayed with a little water,

before sprinkling on the toppings.  These are so good with a generous amount of coarse salt, but we also used some other fun blends that she had, along with za'atar that she brought home from Jerusalem.  Chopped, fresh rosemary would be wonderful with salt and I'm sure to try that combination when I make these at home.

We baked them at 425 degrees until they puffed slightly and were lightly browned.

Don't they look amazing?  And oh my, they are good!  When eating, you just break off a piece and top with a delicious spread.

The next day,J'nae took these to a dinner social she was attending, along with a pimento cheese spread I'd mentioned to her that I had been making at home.  She didn't write down the recipe, but remembered the ingredients I had told her were in my nana's very famous ( in our family, anyway!) pimento cheese.  It must have turned out pretty well, because one of the ladies at the social stood up at the dinner and asked who made the pimento cheese that took her right back home to NC?  She was a transplant from the south.  Isn't that funny?  I love that story and the reminder of how powerful food memories can be.

Because it's so dry in Utah, these crackers stay fresh sitting on the counter for days. That's not going to work here.  They will need to be eaten right away, so I've been waiting for a special occasion that lends itself to some great flatbread and cheese or other yummy spread.  Someone invite me over and I'll bring you an amazing hostess gift...

Thanks to J'nae for teaching me how to make these wonderful crackers.  We also made bagels and artisan bread.  Recipes for those are coming up soon, as well as a killer stromboli.  Stay tuned...