I never even thought about making homemade crackers but now I would say these are probably my favorite freshly milled baked good. I learned a bunch of tricks from various recipes and have a pretty nice assortment of options. Here is the basic cracker, made with Einkorn flour. Many variations are possible with spices and flour option.
This is probably an intermediate level skill but if you are patient with yourself, it is learnable.
Basic Cracker
400℉ oven
Yield: 13.5 oz. of Crackers – Dough ~550g
312g (about 3C) Freshly Milled Einkorn Flour (plus a bit 2Tbs or so, if needed, for rolling out)
104 g (7 Tbs + 1-1/4tsp) softened Butter (melted butter also works)
33g (2 Tbs + 2-1/4 tsp) Sugar (or sucanat with honey if on hand)
1 scant tsp Salt
95 ml (6Tbs + 1-1/2 tsp) Ice cold water
1 tsp black pepper (opt)
Preheat oven to 400℉, racks set centered with a few inches between to allow air flow for two pans of crackers.
Blend together with a whisk flour, salt and sugar and optional dry spice. This ensures that these ingredients will be evenly distributed.
Cut in butter with pastry blender (fork will work too) about 1 Tbs at a time until all butter is well-distributed and dough looks like coarse sand throughout.
Optional method if you have an Ankarsrum mixer with single wire cookie attachment in Tritan plastic bowl (probably works with Bosch single wire); cut in butter as directed above, just with your mixer.
Drizzle in, small bit by small bit, cutting in briefly after each addition, just enough ice cold water to allow the flour/butter mix to come together to form dough that sticks together and is a little sticky/shaggy. It definitely should not have pieces crack off or crumble when pressed.*
*Be sure not to overmix or dough will become tough; see our article on Gluten Development, “Does It Matter Which Size Pan I Use?”
Prepare to Roll Out on either a (approx. 13’ x 15”) baking stone or parchment paper on a cookie sheet will work. If using a baking stone, you will roll out directly on it.
Rolling Out Dough: Cut dough in half with bench scraper and wrap one in plastic wrap or wetted towel and set aside. If using parchment paper/cookie sheet, you’ll roll out with parchment on counter and transfer to cookie sheet for baking (this will work fine but crackers may not be quite as flat as using a stone).
Take one half of dough, ~275g and tear into 6 smaller pieces and place, about 1” apart, on baking stone or parchment.
Using your hand, flatten dough pieces. Then using a pastry roller, roll out dough, first to connect the 6 pieces, then, working the dough out, as evenly as possible, roll the dough to about 1/8” thick, covering about 2/3-3/4 of an approx 13” x 15” area.
- This is a skill to be mastered and is also useful in pie crust making, and tortillas.
- This dough has no levener (rising agent) so crackers will be as thick as you roll them out. Aim for 1/8”, keeping it as even as possible.
Salt the entire cracker surface.
- I like extra fine salt for this.
Cut into squares or rectangles of desired size*, using your bench scraper or pizza cutter, gently cutting all the way through to stone or parchment surface.
- To neaten up edges, trim the outer edge (do not remove these edge pieces) on all 4 sides to give a straight edge to the crackers. (We eat the wiggly little edge pieces as samples, kids will love these!)
*I usually do like a Wheat Thin size/shape.
Place baking stone in preheated 400℉ oven for 14-16 mins. OR with Baking sheet & parchment will vary widely so start at 8-10 and check for "signs/tests..." below.
How crackers bake up depends on how evenly the dough was rolled, causing crackers to finish baking at different times on your sheet. Check for browning on edge pieces and lightly browned crackers and pull these off the pan and return crackers to oven for 2-3 mins.
•Signs/tests if your crackers are done: light browning, cut lines widen, crackers lift off/release from surface easily, gentle pressure from fingernail or toothpick does not penetrate surface easily.
•Total baking time usually about 14-16 mins. on a baking stone +/- 2 to 3 mins depending on your oven.
Repeat with second half of dough.
