Herb and Sea Salt Flatbread Crackers

I first saw these flatbread crackers on Chow Chow Linda - one of my favorite blogs. Linda adapted the recipe from the one she found here. The recipe reminded her of the flatbread served at Cafe Fiorello in New York City.  

I served them to friends and family and everyone loved them!  Even the non-bakers said they'd like to try making these.  They are delicious with Fromager D'Affinois (my favorite soft cheese), hummus or simply on their own with a glass of wine.  In a covered container they stayed fresh for about a week - if they last that long.

 

Herb and Sea Salt Flatbread Crackers

Adapted from Here and Here

Printable Recipe

1-3/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup water
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil ( plus more for coating the pans)
Dried herbs (I used a blend of equal parts dried California sweet basil and Turkish oregano from Penzeys, about 1/4 cup each, with 2 teaspoons of fleur de sel added)

California-style garlic salt (optional but delicious)

1 small egg whisked with 1 tablespoon milk

2 large sheet pans lined with parchment or silicone mats. Alternatively, you can oil the sheet pans.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir yeast into 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl. Stir in the sugar and allow to rest for ten minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, 1 cup of water and extra virgin olive oil. Stir in the yeast mixture and knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth - about 2 minutes. You can use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest in a warm place until doubled in size - about 30 minutes to an hour.

Punch the dough down and divide into 8 pieces. Keep dough pieces covered until ready to use so they do not dry out.

On a lightly floured counter, roll out a piece of dough as thin as possible into a large rectangle shape, dusting the top of the dough with a little flour to prevent the rolling pin from sticking. Place on a prepared sheet pan (tears are okay).

Brush dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the herb blend and garlic salt.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Watch carefully as oven temperatures vary.

Notes:

I used a pizza cutter to cut the flatbread into strips as soon as the bread came out of the oven, but you can also break them into irregular shapes by hand. Next time, I might even try cutting the dough into strips before it goes into the oven. 

Any left-over herb blend can be used to make olive oil dipping sauce for bread.

This recipe can also be used for pizza crust.

Cheese and Walnut Crackers~

Just a brief warning. These are like potato chips - you cannot eat just one. If you have a problem with that, just leave now - no hard feelings.

Here's a little treat for the adult tricksters, although I'm sure kids of all ages who enjoy nuts will enjoy these too. I used a combination of aged white and yellow cheddar cheeses in these. I also love the suggestion of using blue cheese and pecans as an alternate version - I'll be trying those next.

Crispy and delicious, these are great with cocktails or wine. The dough needs to be refrigerated before baking so this also makes it a perfect 'do ahead' recipe.

Cheddar and Walnut Crackers with Sea Salt
Adapted from Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen (Culinary Institute of America)
Printable Recipe

Yield: About 80-100 small crackers depending on diameter and thickness

4 oz/113 g butter
8 oz/227 g aged Cheddar cheese, grated
6 oz/170 g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp/3 g salt
1/4 tsp/1.5 g cayenne pepper (optional)
2 oz/57 g finely chopped walnuts
Sea salt for sprinkling over crackers

My note: The original recipes calls for 1 teaspoon of salt added to the cracker dough. I reduced that by half because I wanted to sprinkle a little sea salt on the cracker discs just before baking.

Cream the butter; add cheese and mix well. Add the flour and salt and mix well. Blend in the nuts.

Roll out into 3 logs, about 1 1/2 in/4 cm in diameter. Chill at least 1 hour.

Cut into slices 1/8 in/3 mm thick and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

Bake at 350°F/175°C for about 8 to 10 minutes until crisp. (In my oven they needed a longer baking time - about 10-12 minutes)

Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. Serve within 3 days.

Variation: Blue Cheese and Pecan Crackers: Substitute an equal amount of blue cheese for the Cheddar and pecans for the walnuts.

Whole Wheat CheeseBoy Crackers!

I'm still not baking - at least not cookies and not for my husband and myself. One more week to go of eating healthy! That's doesn't mean I can't make a treat for my grandson, though :)

 

However, these treats are not cookies - they're whole wheat cheese crackers!

 

I made these using the Christmas pastry cutters from Williams Sonoma. They're less than 2" long and just adorable. The crackers are healthy and delicious! I had a hard time keeping my husband from devouring them all.

 

I found this great recipe here after doing a Google search for cheese crackers. Mack loves cheese crackers and these are so much better than Goldfish.

Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers
Adapted from High Five Recipes
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, room temperature
2 cups whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cold water

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

In a large bowl, beat butter and salt until creamy. Add cheese and mix well. Gradually add flour, baking powder and water, mixing until dough begins to form a ball. Remove the dough from the bowl, divide in half and pat into two balls with your hands. Cover with plastic wrap.

Using one ball of dough at a time, roll the dough into 1/8 inch thickness between two pieces of parchment paper. Cut the rolled out dough in shapes with cutters or simply cut into 1 ½ inch squares. Place on parchment or silicon baking mat lined baking sheets.

Bake 15-17 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes before removing.

Lavash Crackers ~ Pasta Roller Style

Homemade lavash crackers!  I made these crackers last weekend and I was so pleased with they way they turned out. My pasta roller attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer were put to good use once again to make snack breads this past weekend. Last time, I used it to make Grissini.   Lavash is one of my favorite types of crackers to serve with a platter of cheese as an appetizer.  If you enjoy Lavash crackers also, you know how expensive they are at the grocery store.

I found this recipe in The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, one of the James Beard award nominees for 2010.  A wonderful book!  After I prepared the dough and allowed it to rest and rise, I divided it into workable portions and started running it through the pasta rollers, starting with the widest width and gradually going down to the thinnest setting.  This took a little trial and error and I had to allow the dough to rest a bit in between passes through the rollers, but I was able to achieve an even thinness that I don't think I would have been able to duplicate with a rolling pin.

After I placed the sheets of rolled dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet, I sprinkled them with a variety of seeds and spices, Kosher salt, paprika, sesame and poppy seeds and then cut it into rectangles.

They were crisp, very tasty and, I think equally good as those I have bought!   I've tried other Lavash recipes and this is the first one that I will happily make again.

Lavash Crackers
Adapted from The Bread Bakers Apprentice
Printable Recipe

Makes about 2 dozen crackers

1-1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
13 to 1/2 cup water, at room temperature
Seeds and herbs for topping such as sesame, poppy, cumin or caraway seeds, kosher salt, paprika, etc.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, yeast, honey, oil and only enough water to moisten and gather into a ball. You may or may not need the entire 1/2 cup of water.

Place the ball of dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes.

Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Divide the dough into about 4 sections and lightly flatten with your fingertips. Start passing the small section of dough through the widest setting on your pasta roller. Allow each section of dough to rest, covered with a clean towel for 5 minutes before proceeding. Keep adjusting the pasta roller narrower and narrower until it is paper thin and place the sheets on the prepared pans. Alternately, you can use a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface and roll out paper thin. Sprinkle with the toppings of your choice and then cut into rectangles with a pastry wheel or pizza cutter. You can also leave them whole and break into shards.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tops look evenly browned.

La Fête du Fromage at Chez Loulou with HBin5 Spicy Chili Crackers

Todays post is about cheese, beautiful cheese, or fromage, as they call it in France. I'm joining Chez Loulou for her International Fête du Fromage event on January 15. If you love cheese, please visit Loulou's blog since she shares some amazing cheeses made in France. She has invited readers world-wide to participate in this event.

Since Wisconsin is known as the 'Dairy State' in the U.S. and many fine cheeses are made in Wisconsin, I thought it would be a fun idea to showcase one of our fine artisan cheeses for this event.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Upland Cheese Company will be reviewed for this post. This cheese was included in a beautiful gift basket of cheeses and wines that we received from good friends as a Christmas gift. Since I was ill the entire week after Christmas, I was happy to finally taste it for this wonderful event.

I knew when I made the Spicy Chili cheese crackers for our HBin5 bread event this week (please see my previous post) that they would be perfect to serve with a hearty cheese and this cheese was perfect match.

The cheese was delicious! It tasted like a combination of an aged white cheddar and a fine French Gruyère. It was semi-hard and had a delightful nutty and slightly salty taste. I believe I could also detect a hint of clover.

Quoting from the Upland Cheese website:

"Pleasant Ridge Reserve is an artisanal cheese made from the non-pasteurized milk of a single herd of Wisconsin cows fed and managed using natural, "old world" practices. Our cows graze lush pastures from early spring through fall, just as all cows did before the industrialization of our food system...

Pleasant Ridge Reserve has received numerous prestigious awards. Most notably, Best of Show at the 2005 American Cheese Society conference, an accolade it won for the second time, having been awarded Best of Show in 2001 as well. Additionally, Pleasant Ridge Reserve was named U.S. Best of show 2001 and 2005 Champion at the 2003 U.S Championship cheese contest. Pleasant Ridge Reserve is the only cheese to ever win both national competitions. Most recently Pleasant Ridge Reserve was awarded the 2007 Gallo Gold Medal Award for Best Artisanal Dairy Product.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve is an original cheese inspired by farmstead cheeses from the alpine provinces of southeastern France. The aging techniques we use were originally developed in the Middle Ages when cheeses similar to Pleasant Ridge Reserve were aged in limestone caves and washed frequently with a brine solution. Washing the rind keeps it free of unwanted microbes and produces a variety of pleasing flavors. Because of the time-consuming hand work involved this practice is rarely used today.

Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese is the end product of a process linked to the seasons and life cycles of our animals as well as to the prairie soils and climate of southwest Wisconsin. The sweet flavors of the pasture grasses, clovers, herbs and wild flowers are experienced in every taste of our cheese."

If you do a web search for Pleasant Ridge Reserve or Upland Cheese you will likely find a source to purchase it. You can also find it here.

The recipe for the spicy chili crackers is from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg.

Thank you Loulou for the opportunity to showcase one of our fine Wisconsin cheeses! Again, please visit Chez Loulou on January 15 when she will post all of the participants.

Spicy Cheesy Shortbread Wafers

 
This morning, as I was working at my computer, I had the Today show on and saw a segment with Mark Bittman preparing a few recipes for quick holiday entertaining or drop-in guests. Since we just learned that some friends from out-of-town would be stopping here for a visit around lunch time tomorrow, I was happy to see this show.

Bittman's recipe for Cheese Shortbread sounded perfect as I had already planned to serve a platter of a sliced meat and cheese with crackers and baguette slices. These savory cookies sounded like a perfect addition to the platter. I adapted the recipe to things I had on hand.

I found the dough a little difficult to bring together into a log, but with a little extra pressing and prodding, I finally got it to stay together.

I refrigerated the dough for about 30 minutes but I think a longer refrigeration would have been even better. The recipe states that the dough can be rolled into logs, wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to a month. How perfect for quick entertaining!

I added some red pepper flakes and a couple of dashes of Tabasco which gives these a nice little 'bite'. They could be easily adapted to many different variations, which I'd like to try!


Cheesy-Spicy Shortbread Wafers

~recipe adapted from Mark Bittman
by Savoring Time in the Kitchen
Printable Recipe

8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold butter, cut into cubes
2 cups grated, aged white cheddar (you could also use Gruyère, Swiss or any other semi-hard cheese)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon paprika or ground cumin (optional)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 dashes of Tabasco

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place all ingredients into a food processor and pulse just until the mixture resembles a coarse meal being careful not to over process. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a pastry cutter or fork and blend the ingredients in a bowl to the coarse meal stage.

Form the dough into a ball and cut in half. Shape each half into a log about 2-2-1/2 inches thick and wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30minutes. The logs can be frozen for up to a month.

Cut the refrigerated or frozen dough crosswise into 1/4-inch slices and place on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet leaving a 2 inches space between them.

Bake until the slightly puffed and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.