Saturday, January 21, 2012

Kitchen Diary 2012 – Seeded Crackers, or Hardass Flatbreads


Crackers:
- 1 ½ cups graham flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons maple sugar
- 1 packet instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Cup warm water (120-130 degrees F)
- 2 Tablespoons flax meal
- 2 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Topping:
- Raw pepitas, toasted sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 F
- Put the flours, sugar, salt, and yeast in the mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook. Mix everything to combine.
- With the mixer running, pour in the water. Knead until the dough is smooth.
- Knead in the flax meal and sesame seeds. (We’re still disturbed that we actually had flax meal handy)
- Transfer into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap, set aside until doubled, about 90 minutes.
- You have some freezer paper, don’t you? You should. Because at this point, you tear off a hunk and, on the paper side, trace out a 14”x9” rectangle with a marker. Then you flip the paper over and roll out half of the dough into a 14”x9” rectangle, about 1/8-inch thick.
- Stab dough repeatedly and evenly with a fork, transfer to a baking sheet.
- Roll out the remaining half of dough on another piece of freezer paper, stab with fork, transfer to a second baking sheet.
- Turn your attention to the first slab of dough: move it back to the counter and spray evenly with water. Strew the topping mixture over it, and run a rolling pin over it to press the seeds and salt down into the dough. Flip the dough, spray with water, strew, and roll.
- At this point, we cut the dough into squares, then – mostly successfully – transferred the squares onto the baking sheet.
- Repeat with the other slab of rolled-out dough.
- Time for a drink! Let the crackers rise for about 30-45 minutes.
- Bake in a 350 F oven for 20-35 minutes, until golden (we rotated the baking sheets halfway through because our oven is shitty).
- Now: turn the oven off, wait 15 minutes, then slightly open the oven door and let them cool completely.

The first time we took these out at the 20-minute mark they were alarmingly raw in the middle. We baked ‘em for another 15 minutes, and let them cool.

Transcript of notes from the actual Kitchen Diary:
They taste good with just a bit of butter, but these guys are hard as fuck. Not “break your tooth and shred your gums” hard, but they’ve not only left the City of Light and Crunchy they’ve shaken the dust off their sandals.

Then:
Update: Monday night. After 48 hours they are delightful. Magic? Or am I drunk?

And they do keep well: the sesame flavor comes out more and they chill out with being so tough.

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