Going Crackers

I took a fancy to a hot bath/early night/soft music/bottle of wine scenario this evening. A bottle of wine has been selected and the bath water is heating.

I don’t know if it is my age or what it is but I find it difficult to drink more than a half a glass of wine without something to mop it up. I decided that some crackers would fit the bill nicely. I recalled a recipe in the River Cottage Handbook #3 (Bread) for Poppy and Caraway Seed Crackers. A brief chat with Mr L, who agreed that it would be fun to make crackers, resulted in our going off-piste with a Celery and Cumin Seed variation, with added sea salt.

This was my first go at crackers. I’m reasonably pleased with  the outcome (tasty) but not thrilled. They came out a little on the sturdy side. Experience now leads me to the notion that what I thought was extremely thin rolling out fell well short of the required mark. These would be good with hummus or with a pâté starter in place of melba toast, where the sturdy quality would be more of an asset. As a light nibble with a glass of red, they really do need to be lighter and crispier. I’ll be having another attempt soon.

The dougfh was very elastic, so rolling it out was challenging

A small round cutter makes shapes to be further rolled out

Ready to bake

After 10 minutes in the oven

Giant crackers