Homemade Saltines
My
first attempt, starting from a recipe found online and an
excellent
photo essay in the Time-Life Cookies and Crackers volume (which
surprisingly, did not include a recipe): I adapted it to
whole wheat,
and enriched with butter in place of shortening, and added the
malt
powder and pepper.
These are pretty darn good, and not that
difficult to make. The floured layers make laminations
that function
like the butter rolled into flaky pastry, to separate layers and
make a
more delicate crisp cracker. Without the flour
laminations, a plain
yeast bread of the same thickness would break your teeth.
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon dimalt (not malt
sweetener, but enzymatically active malt) (optional)
350 grams hard white wheat, milled
very fine with 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
OR
2 1/4 cups all purpose or bread flour
plus 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Mix
275 grams or 1 3/4 cups flour with the yeast, malt and water;
cover and
keep in a warm place, and let rise until doubled in bulk; at room
temperature, this should take about 16-24 hours.
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (not for
leavening; it neutralizes the acids from long fermentation so
the crackers are not sourdough)
1/2 tablespoon water
Dissolve
soda in the water in a small bowl.
4 teaspoons buttermilk
2 teaspoons barley malt powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Stir
these into the soda and water.
1/4 cup cold butter, grated
Mix
the soda, grated butter, and sponge together with the remaining
flour
(about 75 grams or 1/2 cup) and knead well. Let rise again
another 3-4
hours, covered.
Preheat oven
to 550°F (no, that's not a typo).
Punch
down and knead lightly. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick.
Sprinkle very
lightly and evenly with the flour. Fold over in
thirds. Roll out
again 1/4 inch thick, sprinkle with flour, and fold over
again. This
will be the last rolling, so cut the folded dough into three equal
pieces. Roll it directly out on a nonstick liner for your
baking
sheet, if you have one, and roll it out to 1/16-1/8 inch thick.
Thinner is better, and giving the dough some extra time to
relax
halfway through this last rolling will help roll it thinner.
salt for tops, to taste (optional)
Sprinkle
lightly with salt, roll again briefly to press it in.
Dock and use a
rolling cutter to mark the lines between the crackers but do
not
separate them fully. Slide the liner onto the baking sheet,
and bake 8
minutes. (see the cracker
primer if this explanation doesn't make sense).
Pull
from the oven, separate the crackers at the prepared seams, and
flip
them over, and let cool that way while waiting for the rest to
bake.
After the last crackers are baked, turn the oven to 250 degrees,
opening the door a crack to let it cool down a little.
Return the
crackers to the oven, turned upside down and piled on top of each
other
if need be, and let them dry out for another 1-2 hours at this low
heat. This is the easiest way to get them fully dry and
crisp without
scorching.
Because I really like these, I often triple the recipe, and I use
buttermilk powder instead of buttermilk since I don't always have
the real thing on hand; plus I've started using ammonium carbonate
for leavening to lighten the sodium a bit. Here's my current
version as of 2023:
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3 cups warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons dimalt
1050 grams hard white wheat
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
Mix 825 grams flour with the yeast, malt and water.....
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon buttermilk powder
2 tablespoons barley malt powder
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons ammonium carbonate
1/3 cup water
Whisk together to get the lumps out
1 cup cold butter, grated
Works well to grate frozen cubes of butter and every 1/2 inch
or so, collect the grated shavings and add to the bowl of dough
while mixing on very slow speed.
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