Herbed Butter Crackers

I've been looking for a yummy cracker, but am only at my beginning stages of cracker making.  I've tried my hand at a cheesy cracker, which has yummy flavor, but is not the easiest cracker to make. 

These crackers...



are a step in the right direction! Frog Prince took one bite and said, these are good.

Herbed Butter Crackers- Adapted from Emeril 

1/2 C butter, room temperature*
1/2 C warm water
3/4 C whole wheat flour
1 1/4 C all purpose flour**
2 tsp. milk
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. rosemary, dried
1 tsp. chives, dried
1/4 tsp. thyme, dried
1/8 tsp. black pepper
Sea salt, or garlic salt (to taste)

Cut butter into T and place in the mixer.  Cover with warm water (about 120 degrees) and allow butter and water to sit for 5 minutes. 



Then, using your mixer, cream the butter and water together. Keeping the beaters running, slowly add in the wheat flour, the herbs, sugar and salt.



Continue mixing, and slowly add in the remaining flour and 2 tsp. milk. Mix until the dough clumps together.



Then, change out your mixing utensil to the dough hook. Knead the dough for 3 minutes. {or, you can knead the dough by hand}



Cover, and allow the dough to rest for an hour.

After an hour, divide the dough into 4 or 8 pieces (depending on how much space you have to roll out dough). I've found that the smaller the pieces the easier to roll the dough thin enough to make crispy crackers.

Then, roll the dough out into a very thin rectangle (I found using extra flour was unnecessary... the dough was very buttery). Sprinkle with sea salt or garlic salt and lightly press into the dough to stick.



Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into crackers.



Or, use a fun cookie cutter.



Transfer the crackers to an ungreased cookie sheet. Yep, there is no need to grease the sheet... they have enough butter in them that you need to be careful they don't slide right off when they are baked.



Poke each cracker with a fork so they don't puff up while baking.

Then, bake at 400 for about 10 minutes, until crackers are lightly browned. But, watch carefully... they will burn quickly.



Allow the crackers to cool slightly, and then transfer them to an airtight container.



*Next time, I'm going to try reducing the butter by a couple tablespoons. 
**You can use white whole wheat in place of the all purpose flour.

This post is linked to the Food Network Chef's Cooking Challenge, Ingredient Spotlight