Seeded Cracker Parade

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Seeded Cracker Animals321

These are the seeded crackers from Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. They are some of my favorite crackers. I used the Noah's Ark cookie cutters my boyfriend got me last Christmas. I also used a dinosaur one.

Here's the recipe from WGB:

8 oz (227 g)    whole wheat flour

2 oz (56.5 g) sunflower and/or pumpkin seeds, ground into a flour consistency (I usually use both)

2 oz (56.5g) sesame seeds, whole

1 oz (28.5g) flax seeds, ground

1/4 tsp (2 g) salt

5 oz (142 g) water

1 oz (28.5 g) honey

1 oz (28.5g) vegetable oil

1. Combine all ingredients, add flour or water as necessary to achieve a firm dough.

2. Knead for three minutes on a lightly floured surface.  The dough should be should not be soft and sticky or crumbly.  It should feel like modeling clay (the book specifies the modeling clay thing, and take this seriously for it really does feel like clay).

3. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.  Either put in an oiled bowl, cover and let rest at room temperature for the night (recommended) or roll and bake right away.

4. When you're ready, roll out the dough.  Roll it on a lighty floured surface until about a quarter of an inch thick.  Let it rest for a couple minutes then continue to roll out to about an eighth of an inch thick.  I find it helpful to stop every few strokes and take a bench scraper to the edges and sort of gently lift the sheet an inch or so off the board and give it a little up and down motion (kind of like you would do with a blanket when making the bed, only much more gently) to make sure it isn't sticking to the board.  Be careful with this dough though, what with all the seeds and junk in it there's a hint of fragility to it.  Cut it with cookie cutters (as I enjoy doing) or take a pizza roller to it and cut it into squares (the more practical idea) and tranfer crackers to parchment papered and oiled cookie sheets.  I usually find that it takes about four cookie sheets worth of space and for me that's two batches.  They won't spread so they can be pretty close.

5. Bake at 350f for ten minutes.  Rotate and bake for another ten minutes, but start checking them at like seven minutes as you really don't want them to burn.  Then again you also don't want them to be undercooked or else they won't be at all crispy.  Look for a medium sort of browning color (does that mean anything? Hopefully...) No pale crackers and no really dark brown crackers.  They get crispier as they cool, so you can't judge their doneness that way.  You can cool them in the pans, but I usually don't just because I need to do a second batch.

That's all.  They're quite marvelous.  Have fun.