Avocado Rye Crackers work in progress
Not being in the Avocado capital of the world but swimming in avocados, I decided to try an experiment using only avos (avocados) for my liquid. Started with the basics and going from there. I happened upon some watery thin skinned fruit that I am told are known as "Florida avocados" and thought at first interesting but then reality set in, sure enough... less fat, more carbs and more water. Hmmm not exactly what I value in an avo but good enough for a cracker experiment and maybe a bread.
Peeled the avo and diced it into a bowl on the scales. Added equal weight of rye for a reference point and began to squish it all together. Went much faster than I thought, and they weren't even mushy avos! Let that sit for a while to soak and soften lumps wondering about the dough turning brown, should I add lemon or sourdough? Does one even add leavening to crackers? Nibbling on the dough, well, it needed something. 2% salt would be about 4.4g on my 220g flour and I had black olives calling out from the fridge. Half dried chili peppers would be colorful (threads?) and crushed garlic would also be good, black pepper? Bread spice? Cumin? Curry? Petunias? Had to start somewhere. What makes them puffy? Resting time and hot baking the water in the dough.
First Run:
220g Florida Avocado (the watery kind)
220g medium rye flour
2 garlic cloves
10 black olives (cut from pits, salty)
1 chili pepper (mine was thumb size and medium spiced)
flour/raw seeds for rolling
oil for 3 sheets of parchment (1 tsp each sheet, flavoured or not)
salt
Remove seed and skin from avocado and cut into pieces, weigh. Add equal weight rye flour. Pinch and mix with hands until it becomes a firm dough and lumps of avocado are well blended into the dough. Autolyse or allow to rest covered for 30 minutes. Then arrange on a nice plate photographic piles of pressed garlic, finely chopped olives and a rounded tablespoon more or less finely chopped fresh chili pepper. Add to dough, forget to make a photo, check moisture, it should be a bit sticky now but still firm enough to roll out, yet soft enough to do so easily. Rest another 30 minutes.
Divide dough in half, shape into a rectangle hamberger shape and roll into a mixture of flour and sesame seeds to coat, this helps with the rolling out of dough. Wrap up one to prevent drying. Roll out dough as thin as possible between two layers of lightly oiled parchment paper. Anything squishing out can be cut off and stuck back on in a needy spot under the parchment. Carefully peel back top sheet of parchment. Sprinkle with seeds/salt. Score if desired to facilitate breaking and transfer to baking sheet.
Bake middle of oven at 200°C or 400°F until medium brown, rotate to avoid burning back corners. Allow to cool on rack. Break apart.
Flavour tweaking needed. I found it smelled and sort of tasted like teriyaki beef jerky, a little bitter (I did get it brown) without any sweetness. I chrunched on half a sheet of the stuff trying to decide my next step. Maybe brushing the rolled out cracker with honey water or using some sourdough or aging of the dough 24 hrs to bring out sweetness. Lots of different directions to try. Tempted to turn down heat a little bit to help dry while baking.
This is an open experiment, all comments and jumping in to experiment and post more than welcome!
Comments
flavour is coming out and chili has diminished. I can see crisping these up in the oven with some shredded cheese and more chili. Turns out the bitter tastes is coming from sesame seeds that "went off." Always taste before using!
Hi Mini. I hope you get this recipe down pat as I would love to give these a try. What a creative idea!
Sesame seeds go off so quickly. I rarely keep them laying around the pantry more than a month.
John
wow.. avocado crackers! is it possible?? love to see the crackers.. must be lovely.
evon
My cookie sheet is wavy so I don't get flat crackers, did get some bubbles and would not call this a tough cracker. Got light flakiness in the crumb so I would call that successful. The sesame seeds kept my cracker from getting too thin. I think scoring would also help get nice edges. Have another avo sitting here but they are weak in the flavour department. Might get some regular avos too.
You can see that the dough is not green with a nice olive oil sheen.
It might be that you want to dehydrate these crackers more than bake them. I would opt for a lower oven temp,baked longer. Too bad about the "off" sesame seeds but I have experienced that, also. I finally learned-never buy too much on sale!The savings is an illusion.
Were the crackers tough? Chewy? Could a tsp lemon and a little baking soda puff them up a bit? Roll out and let sit for 10 minutes before baking if you add the acid/baking soda.
Since this was the "Florida" avocado (lower in oil), maybe adding a little oil?
if dried completely. Today some of them were a little chewy, I left them sitting in the cold oven all night. It did occur to me that one sheet could be par baked, filled with cheese and baked again rolled up and served break apart crispy with gooey cheese. Sounds hot messy and fun.
A little sourdough starter is next to try, and lemon and leaven.
Hi Mini,
Your posts always bring a big smile on my face. Avocados are a big love of mine, so I can't help waiting with baited breath for the outcome of your experiment. Would love to try adding palm sugar and sea salt as my favourite Avocado juice has them with a bit of condensed milk. To have it in form of cracker - heaven!
Try it yourself. The rye does tend to dominate over the avocado.
Hi Mini,
Avocado oil is a near equivalent to olive oil when it comes to cooking. Following that line of thinking I found the following recipe which uses WW and Semolina flours. Surviving the avocado taste through the baking process will be problematic. I suggest acidifying the avocado [yes, guacamole it] with lime juice or better yet key limes if available [key limes make the best guacamole by the way].
Guacamole crackers?...,
Reference Olive Oil Cracker recipe: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/olive-oil-crackers-recipe.html
Bien Cordialement,
Wild-Yeast
my double digit B-day. I can also serve them with salsa and guacamole dip. Though I love sour-cream & garlic too!
I also have sesame oil and chili vinegar, and Green pumpkin seed oil. I don't want to add wheat, I feel wheat can always be added. I'm going for the 100% rye! (crowd cheers!) I just think it's cool to mix avos and flour and get a nice dough. Will try to puff it up (Micro is good for that!) Busy day tomorrow. :)
that crackers need some kind of leaven otherwise they are like matzos. Even sparkling water would improve them - but not much :-) No telling what BSoda or B Powder would do - especially if mixed with some yogurt whey. Your a hoot Mini! I think they woudl bake real flat between two cookie sheets too - but that would take all the waves out of them and they would be more boring,
I guess it comes down to a difference in density of what one expects from a cracker. DB, is your idea of a cracker puffy? Will include crumb shots from now on. Sounds also like full circle back to rye crisp bread.
it becomes bitter if cooked. So the bitterness might be both the old seeds and the avo. Served best in hot food when warmed the last minute before serving. Now doesn't that sound depressing! I have just smashed another avo (216g) with a teaspoon of rye mother starter.
Another interesting combination with coffee is mentioned.
After and 1.5 hrs., I added to the sd guaca-gotch 100g medium rye flour and one tsp of bread spices (combo caraway, coriander and fennel) covered, and let it sit another hour. This has the familiar feel of high hydration rye paste dough.
At noon, I added 14g of lime juice as the rye paste showed light signs of oxidation/turning brownish from green. Also 2g Baking powder and 2g salt. Blended well and smeared on baking parchment an area about the size of a sheet of typing paper and about 3ml thick. I scored with a wet spatula forming strips cleaning up the edges. Decorated while waiting half an hour to bake in a 190° C oven. I think I invented Avocado Rye Pita Bread. The baking powder forced the pocket to form between the top and bottom layers. Puffed up and fell while cooling. Cut the flowers apart after baking. Not dry yet but I filled a few of the sticks with cream cheese and ate them for lunch. Not sure what I think of the total flavour. Rubbery mouth feel at this time. Much sweeter with some fermentation but hardly sweet.
Mini
hippy, dippy flower, SD, Rye Pita Crackers That's more than an invention Mini don't you think. My apprentice says it's more like a miracle but she often exaggerates in German and no one knows. I'm thinking these need some yeast water in place of the B Powder if you want crackers. I like Ritz crackers. You can put anything on them and they just don't seem to mind.
I haven't had time to experiment with this yet (I generally only bake every two weeks). BTW, soda crackers are leavened, either with yeast or sourdough. Aren't crackers baked until dry? With something that well baked, I think you can consider baker's ammonia for leavening.
For the bitterness, perhaps the avocado should be diluted? Perhaps even minimized? Avocado.org.au has cooking guidelines. They assert Hass avocados work fine cooked.
Often fresh avocado is mixed with salsa fresca: tomatoes, chile peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro (not coriander), lime, and vinegar (that makes one variety of guacamole), those may be considered complimentary flavors. There's a level of sweetness in fresh tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Black pepper is another complimentary flavor.
There used to be a steak restaurant in town, now closed, that served tempura battered avocado with various dips. As with anything fried, moderation is called for, and I haven't tried to duplicate it at home, but probably should give it a try. The restaurant had three or four sauces they served it with, one of which was ranch dressing. Others were less fatty, one was similar to salsa fresca, but pureed. They were outstanding as appetizers, served at the bar as well.
If you can't manage the bitterness any other way, perhaps just using avocado oil would be possible, and using complimentary flavors in the cracker, to be served with fresh mashed avocado.