Rosemary Crackers
My homemade Rosemary Crackers are quite easy to make and are a perfect accompaniment to soups, salads and cheeseboards.
This recipe is very versatile and easy to modify. Replace the rosemary with coarsely ground fennel seeds, dried dill or thyme for a few variations that I especially enjoy.
On our recent trip to the Chianti region of Italy, the Foodies made some of these rosemary crackers to serve with our Roasted Eggplant, Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Timbales.
On our Foodie Trip to the Dordogne region of France, we prepare this asparagus salad with a goat cheese custard, shallot-walnut dressing and thyme crackers. Click here for the recipe.
For my Lobster Chowder, I use sweet potatoes in place of regular potatoes and top the soup with crisp bacon and fresh thyme leaves. On the side I serve some of my homemade crackers made with a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper.
For my Thai Beef Timbale with fresh sweet corn, pickled red onions and smoked tomato confit, I gently twisted the chive crackers strips before baking them to give them some additional interest.
Gather your ingredients and equipment. A food processor makes quick and easy work in this recipe. While a pasta machine yields perfectly thin sheets of cracker dough, a rolling pin and some elbow grease can also produce great results.
Place the flour and rosemary in the bowl of a food processor and blend for 30 seconds.
While the food processor is running, drizzle in the 3 Tablespoons of water until just combined.
Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin, occasionally flipping it over and dusting with flour as necessary to prevent it from sticking. Roll the dough as thin as you can. If you have a pasta machine, you can use that to roll out the dough to the thinnest possible setting.
I rolled this batch of dough out by hand with a rolling pin into a 16-inch circle to give you an idea of how thin you want the dough to achieve thin-crisp crackers.
Cut the crackers into any desired shape. I usually do triangles or irregular “rustic” shapes, cutting the dough with a bench knife. Diamond shapes, squares, rectangles…use your imagination…they all end up tasting the same in the end.
Place the crackers on a Silpat or parchment lined sheet pan. Lightly brush the top of the crackers with olive oil.
Sprinkle the crackers with Kosher salt.
Bake in the preheated oven for 10-11 minutes or until they just start to brown.
Here the crackers are starting to curl up a little, but still no color. This is about 6 minutes into the baking time.
Be careful not to brown the crackers too much. I rotate the pans in the oven about half way through the baking time to ensure even baking. Just as you see the edges beginning to brown, remove them from the oven.
Store the cooled crackers in an airtight container and keep at room temperature for up to a week.
Rosemary Crackers
Course: BreadCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy30
Crackers20
minutes10
minutesIngredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried rosemary leaves
3 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees F.
- Place the flour and rosemary in the bowl of a food processor and blend for 30 seconds.
- While the food processor is running, drizzle in the 3 Tablespoons of water until combined. The dough should be dry and just barely come together when squeezed. Sticky (wet) dough will be hard to work with and will stick to the rollers of the pasta machine.
- Place the dough on the counter and knead it for a minute to incorporate any of the flour that did not get worked into the dough.
- Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin, occasionally flipping it over and dusting with flour as necessary to prevent it from sticking. Roll the dough as thin as you can. If you have a pasta machine, you can use that to roll out the dough to the thinnest possible setting.
- Cut the crackers into any desired shape. I usually do triangles or irregular “rustic” shapes, cutting the dough with a bench knife.
- Place the crackers on a Silpat or parchment lined sheet pan. Lightly brush the top of the crackers with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10-11 minutes or until they just start to brown.
These were so much fun to make! Planning on trying them with almond flour for my gluten free daughter. A teenie box of almond flour crackers she likes is $6.