Homemade Soda Crackers (Saltines) | Best Laid Plans & Other Disasters

Welcome to the book tour stop for the latest book by Amy Rivers, Best Laid Plans & Other Disasters. I didn't realize until after I'd read this book that it was the second book in a trilogy. I may have originally been told, but if I was, I forgot. While I think it stands on its own just fine, there were a couple of instances where the main character, Gwen, referenced something that previously happened to/with her cousin and best friend, Val. That did make me wonder if I'd missed an earlier book, but I convinced myself this wasn't a series, and that was just the way it was written.

Hemp-Chia-Flax Einkorn Crackers | #EinkornExperiment

It's time for another edition of The Einkorn Experiment! This month I decided that I wanted to try my hand at using einkorn to make crackers. Homemade crackers are usually pretty simple to make, and always leave me feeling a sense of accomplishment as I pull them from the oven.

Since I'm still getting comfortable with einkorn flour and its slight differences from all-purpose in a recipe like this, I chose this recipe by Cathy from Bread Experience via Einkorn.com as a starting point. So, here's the thing about einkorn flour—it absorbs liquid slower than all-purpose flour, so you have to take things a little slow, and take care not to over-mix in an effort to incorporate everything.

Pretzel Crackers

Did we skip September this year? I have no idea how it's already the sixth day of October...the sixth day and the first Tuesday...and that means it's time for another edition of Twelve Loaves! Our host this month is Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla, and our theme is Crackers, Crisps, and Flatbreads. Pretty fun, right? I think so.

I actually knew what I was going to make the minute Camilla announced our theme. I've had these pretzel crackers sitting on the backburner of my brain for a couple of years now, so what better time to finally get around to making them. You may know that I am one in a family of pretzels lovers—because I've talked about it numerous times in the past. And while I've made my fair share of soft pretzels in the past, I've never ventured into making my own hard pretzels.

I guess I can't say that today is any different since I'm not technically making hard pretzels, but I am making crackers that have the taste and crunch of hard pretzels...so I'm one step closer. I've slightly adapted a recipe from one the most-loved cookbooks from my shelves, Pretzel Making at Home. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to bake my way through that entire book before too long (it's also where I got the genius recipe for these pretzel croissants).

So, I guess you're probably wondering how the crackers actually tasted? They tasted like thin, crispy pretzels, so - INCREDIBLE! The batch didn't last much longer than 24 hours. The key is rolling the dough out very thin so that that they will be crisp all the way through. I used some of them to as a base for the Apple-Cheese Spread that I made last week, but they're also good just as they are.

Don't forget to scroll down past the recipe to see more cracker, crisp, and flatbread recipes from this month's Twelve Loaves bakers!

Pretzel Crackers

This homemade pretzel cracker recipe gives you that classic pretzel taste in a thin, crisp, buttery cracker.

by Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez

Prep Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (includes resting time)

Cook Time: 12 to 15 minutes

Keywords: bake appetizer snack vegetarian

Ingredients (48 crackers)

• 255 grams (~2 cups) all-purpose flour + more for work surface
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, diced
• 1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons ice water

to finish:

• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons baked baking soda (see notes at bottom)
• coarse salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

Whisk the flour, brown sugar, and salt together in a medium-sized bowl. Drop in the diced butter and use your fingers to rub the butter into the mixture, much like you would when making a pie crust, until you have crumbles the size of rice.

Add the water and use a rubber spatula to stir until it comes together in a shaggy mass.

Turn out onto a work surface and knead until all of the flour is incorporated, working as quickly as possible so that you don't melt the butter pieces. You will have a dough that is slightly tacky, but not sticky.

Cut the dough into two equal portions, then wrap each one in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Put the 1 cup of water into a small spray bottle, then set a funnel over the bottle and add the baked baking soda. Put on the lid and shake gently until all of the baking soda has dissolved. Set aside for now.

If you have two racks in your oven, place one in the upper third of your oven, and the other in the lower third. If you don't, just leave your rack in the middle and bake in two batches. Preheat oven to 400° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Lightly flour our work surface. Working with one portion of dough at a time, roll out into a thin rectangle that is roughly 10" x 16" and between 1/8" and 1/4" thick (I found the thinner you rolled it, the more pretzely they were). Use your hands to gently pull and stretch into form if need be (you can also trim and straighten the edges and corners with a metal bench scraper). Brush any excess flour off of the dough.

Give your spray bottle a gentle shake, then evenly spray a fine mist of the solution over one of the sheets of parchment paper that you've set on a baking sheet. Gently pick up your sheet of dough, using your rolling pin to help, and lay it on the sprayed sheet of parchment. Try to do this evenly, because it's really hard to reposition the dough once you've set it on the wet parchment.

Use a metal bench scraper or pizza roller to cut the dough into 24 even rectangles.

Spray the top of the dough evenly with a fine mist of your solution, taking care to coat the entire surface. Any part that isn't wet will not turn that dark, burnished pretzel color when baking.

Sprinkle coarse salt over the wet dough. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Slide into preheated oven and bake until brown and crisp, 12 to 15 minutes. If you're baking both sheets at once, rotate the pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking. If just baking one pan at a time, rotate the pan so the back is in the front halfway through baking.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store cooled crackers in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Notes:

To make baked baking soda, preheat the oven to 250° F. Scoop about 1/4 cup of baking soda onto the bottom of a pie plate and shake to spread evenly. Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool completely, then store in an airtight container at room temperature indefinitely. You can make more or less in the same manner. Use this to replace the lye that is called for in pretzel-making recipes.

-slightly adapted from Pretzel Making at Home by Andrea Slonecker

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Savoring Italy and runs smoothly with the help of Heather of All Roads Lead to the Kitchen, and the rest of our fabulous bakers.

Our host this month is Camilla from Culinary Aventures with Camilla, and our theme is Crackers, Crisps, and Flatbreads. For more bread recipes, visit the #TwelveLoaves Pinterest board, or check out last month's mouthwatering selection of #TwelveLoaves enter last month's #TwelveLoaves Seeded Breads!

• Cheddar Cheese Crackers from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Lemon Oregano Pita Bread from Kudos Kitchen By Renee
• Pane Carasau from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Parmesan-Thyme Cream Crackers from A Baker's House
• Piadina (Italian Flat Bread) from Cake Duchess
• Pretzel Crackers from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
• Quick Raspberry Flatbread from Cheap Ethnic Eatz
• Rye Crispbread from The Bread She Bakes
• Senbei - Japanese Rice Crackers from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Three Seed Crackers from Hostess At Heart
• Thyme and Black Pepper Crackers from blackberry eating in late september

If you'd like to bake along with us this month, share your Crackers, Crisps, and Flatbreads using hashtag #TwelveLoaves!

Homemade Graham Crackers

Homemade crackers taste so much better than storebought crackers. It's a fact. No matter how many times I make them, the level of goodness never ceases to amaze me. Not to mention, if you've never made crackers at home, it's so much easier than you may think.

Crackers are a popular snacking choice in my house. I won't claim to make all of the ones we eat from scratch. But, I try. I've tried many sort-of copycat kid-pleasers such as cheese crackers, club crackers, sociables, homemade goldfish crackers, and butter crackers. But the type that I make most often are more of the "pinkies up" varieties. The type that are seemingly more sophisticated (yet the kids still devour them). Crackers that fall into this category are usually thin and crisp, and often have seeds of some sort studded throughout, and sometimes they include yeast or sourdough, such as flaxseed and black pepper, olive oil and seed, or crunchy seeded crackers.

Whole Wheat Peanut Crackers inspired by The Terminal

I first (and last) watched The Terminal all the way back in 2004, when it was just released. I remembered liking it, but I hadn't really thought much about it since. Then Evelyne came along as this month's Food 'n Flix host, and challenged (invited) us to watch it, draw inspiration, and head into the kitchen. But as things always seem to go, when I went to check it out from the library, they didn't have it. Like—at all; system-wide! It wasn't on Netflix, either. Of course this only happens to me when I proscrastinate. And procrastinator just so happens to be in my unwritten job description. So, I ordered it from Amazon.

It's the story of Viktor Navorski (played by Tom Hanks), a man without a country—temporarily, at least. As his plane lands at JFK, he is pulled aside by security and informed that a war has broken out in his homeland (invented for this movie), Krakozhia. The United States no longer recognizes it as a country, therefore, they cannot accept his passport (and subsequently confiscate it). And without a passport, they can't allow him onto US soil. So, they give him some food vouchers and a phone card, and encourage him to wait it out in the International terminal.

Well, there's a language barrier, and Viktor is a bit dazed and confused by the turn of events. Let's just say that he winds up staying in the airport terminal for longer than anybody expected. He makes it his temporary home. He works. He makes friends. He goes on a date. He enters the heart of people living normal lives around him. People root for him; well, all but one...Frank Dixon (played by the amazing Stanley Tucci, who I believe has been in about 7 of our food 'n flix movie picks!). But you'll have to watch to find out why!

Raspberry-laced S'mores

So, I've kinda-sorta taken over Food Fanatic today. But for totally good reason! It's a twofer, complete with boozy, melty, raspberry liqueur-laced homemade marshmallows and the homemade graham crackers to go along with them! And you know as well as I do what marshmallows + graham crackers means, right?

Chocolate and fire are nearby!

In this instance, it's dark chocolate studded with little bits of raspberry, perfectly playing up the Chambord in the marshmallows. They're not just good S'mores, they're CRAZY GOOD S'MORES!

Sourdough Grissini

Lately, I've been feeling pretty darn proud of myself for not killing my sourdough starter.  Don't judge, it's far too easy to do.  I've done it a couple of times before.  The jar winds up getting shoved to the back of the fridge.  Soon, it's blocked by other jars, cartons, and containers.  I eventually uncover it several months later when the fridge has gotten so ridiculous that I can stand it no longer.

So, with my latest starter (let's call her Ruby), I've made some conscious adjustments.  Her jar stays on the top shelf, at the front of the fridge - no matter what.  That is first and foremost.   The other, equally important, conscious choice  - use her weekly - no matter what.  She needs to be fed weekly, anyway, and I have the biggest issue with throwing perfectly good, living sourdough away.  It has to be done for a starter to survive, but I hate it.  So, instead of throwing away the portion that I remove each week, I am required to bake something with it.  It could be a loaf of bread, a batch of rolls, some yeasted crackers, or an addictive batch of these long sticks of Grissini (aka crunchy bread sticks)!  These two things are going to keep me accountable.

I'm always on the look-out for other ways and new recipes for sourdough, so if you've got 'em (and you want to share 'em) - hook a sistah up.

Crunchy Seeded Crackers

Well, summer has come and (almost) gone in a matter of moments, it seems.  My fingers and toes* are crossed in the hopes that autumn is cool, crisp, and filled with cozy sweatshirts and crackling bonfires.  And in no hurry to hand the baton to winter.

And, since life doesn't seem to slow down just because I wish it would, I was pretty happy that the Babes baking adventure for this month was a (relative) quickie.  We pushed aside our bread pans, and pulled out our rolling pins - and enough seeds to make all the birds in my neighborhood happy for weeks - and we got crunchy.

Yes, I'm talking crackers

Cashel Blue & Hazelnut Shortbread

I have been nibbling on a wheel of Irish Cashel Blue cheese for a couple of weeks now.  It's creamy, almost buttery texture, and it's delicate, green Roqefortii-veins have a way of beckoning me to snag a crumble and let it melt into a primal, musky puddle on my tongue.

Much to the chagrin of the other inhabitants of my home.  Aka, the family.  The only ones in my house whose senses trill at the presence of blue cheese are me ...and the cat.

But that's not all bad.  That means that I wasn't batting off advances toward my wheel of Cashel Blue as I tossed around recipe ideas and commenced testing.  Mine.  All mine.  Though in all honesty, it would be nice to share.