I have to admit that when my parents first told me they had made homemade crackers, I rolled my eyes. I find store-bought crackers perfectly satisfactory, so I couldn’t imagine wanting to make my own, since I prefer to spend my time in the kitchen cooking and baking things that are significant improvements upon store-bought varieties, like homemade chocolate chip cookies. Over the holidays, however, I realized that homemade crackers (paired with hummus, cheese, etc.) would indeed be a simple but nice appetizer when people come over for dinner. You can easily mix in other ingredients to make different varieties—parmesan, chili powder, or various herbs, for example. If you want to make them really unique, you could even cut them with cookie cutters to make heart-shaped crackers, stars, dinosaurs, anything really! I don’t know that I’ll be making crackers rather than buying them on a regular basis, but the homemade ones certainly are nice every now and then and for special occasions. My teenage self would be cringing at this, but I have to say – my parents might be on to something…
- 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- kosher salt for sprinkling
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, combine flours, salt, black pepper, onion powder, and rosemary. Stir until well-mixed. Pour in oil and water and stir until combined. You may prefer to use your hands to knead the dough a bit at the end.
- Divide dough into 4 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece very thin (no thicker than 1/8 inch). Transfer rolled-out dough to ungreased rimmed baking sheets.
- Using either a knife or a fluted pastry wheel, cut dough to form squares or rectangles – the dough does not need to be cut all the way through. Prick each cracker two or three times with the tines of a fork. Sprinkle with kosher salt and press down on the salt lightly with your fingers.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until crisp and lightly browned. Since the baking time may vary depending on how thinly you rolled out the dough (thinner crackers will need less time than thicker ones), keep an eye on them in the oven to make sure they don’t get too browned too quickly.
- Once cooled, remove crackers from baking sheets and separate individual crackers. Store in an airtight container.
- Makes about 200 crackers.
- You can also use fresh rosemary (about three sprigs) and dry it in the microwave. To do this, wash rosemary and pat dry. Place on a paper towel and place another paper towel on top. Microwave for about 2 minutes, pausing every 30 seconds to make sure the rosemary is not burning. Once the leaves crumble easily from the stem, the rosemary is sufficiently dried. Be sure to remove the stems and flowers before incorporating the leaves into the dough.
Thanks for the tip on drying rosemary in the microwave! The crackers look very tasty too… 🙂
Thanks! Yes, there’s some rosemary in the backyard and it’s so quick and easy to dry some to use in recipes – I love it!