Wednesday, December 23, 2009

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

15 comments:

  1. Making crackers seems super daunting to me. Possibly because i don't own a rolling pin so getting them really thing would be close to impossible. I really like your cookie cutter idea though! How fun. These definitely sound like they taste delicious though. Perfect for some slices of cheese...

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  2. Oh how fun, I've never made crackers before these look so good, just like wheat thins.

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  3. Okay, now I'm tempted to try and make crackers. How very fun.

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  4. I applaud you for making your own crackers. That is something I wouldn't think of attempting. They look fabulous and with butter in the name, hey, can't go wrong.

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  5. I make cheesy crackers, which my kids gobble right up...these are "grown-up" crackers! I can't wait to try these!

    Merry Christmas!

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  6. making crackers... who knew

    loving this recipe

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  7. Yummo!! Merry Christmas to you and yours:-)

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  8. This looks so good. I'm planning to try it today.

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  9. Oh wow, these look fantastic! I didn't see this recipe, but now I think I must make it.

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  10. I've never made crackers but have been seeing them around a lot. You may just inspire me to try them. The good thing is that once you roll it out you can use the entire sheet - no need to reroll...unless you are doing funky cutouts. Even then, I guess you could just cut the remains in cracker size pieces. How very fun. Thanks for making FNCCC something fun!

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  11. I made them, and they turned out great! By the way, I didn't have dried chives, so I used some onion powder instead. Tasted great. This recipe is definitely a winner! My first time making crackers (not my last!)

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  12. I'm definitely going to give these are try!

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  13. Such lovely cookies! These look amazing =D.

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  14. i made these and blogged about it!
    http://omgigotablog09.blogspot.com/2010/02/not-about-climate-change.html

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  15. I've never tried making crackers. These look really good. I predict my kids could polish them off in less than 15 minutes ;)

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Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you; especially how you're finding JOY in your kitchen.

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