Daring Bakers: Crackers

Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this challenge - I didn't expect to get excited by making crackers, but it gave me a chance to try out a couple things that were already on my list of recipes to try.  And despite the lack of sugar in the recipes, I really enjoyed the results.

The first cracker I made was a spicy cayenne hand-rolled cracker.  I had some trouble finding a recipe and when I did, it was in Dutch.  I could tell the spices were exactly what I had in mind, so I went to the trouble of translating the recipe.  Don't be impressed - I just used an online translator.

The second cracker I made was a Rosemary-Parmesan icebox cracker.  Since cheese was most of the recipe, I splurged and bought real Parmesan cheese and grated it myself, and I'm SO glad I did.  These crackers were awesome, and the real cheese was more than worth it.

I had intended to make a third cracker - pita chips.  That's right, I had big plans to go above and beyond the challenge.  I was even going to make the pita bread from scratch.  Go me.  I had pictured making these amazing pita chips and posting on the Daring Bakers forum and having the other members ooh and ahh over the extra work I had put in.  What actually happened?  About 4 minutes into baking my pita bread, the smoke alarms started going off and I had to abandon the project.  Lesson Learned: my oven does not handle 500 degrees very well.

The pita was a bust, but I did successfully make the other extra item I had wanted to try:  white bean hummus.  That turned out to be a little bit of an adventure as well.  I had just bought a food processor to use for this, but it completely failed me - I didn't manage to get a single pulse of the darn thing (I'll be returning it soon).  Instead of using the food processor to mash the beans, I put them in a large plastic bag and went at 'em with a rolling pin.  That got them mashed pretty well and after moving them to my stand mixer and going a couple of rounds with the whisk attachment, I was able to get a pretty smooth humus.

Cayenne Crackers, White Bean Hummus, Rosemary-Parmesan Icebox Crackers

Overall, I liked the results very much.  The hummus turned out very smooth and the cayenne crackers went great with it.  The Parmesan crackers were better by themselves than with the hummus.  You know how great it is when scraps of cheese drip onto a frying pan and get crispy?  The Parmesan crackers tasted like that, except sturdier and less greasy.

Spicy Cayenne Crackers
(source: here) 

125 grams flour

¼ C (50 ml) milk

1 tbsp (15 grams) butter

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp coriander

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1. Heat the milk, but do not let it boil.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
3. Mix the flour, the herbs, and the softened butter.
4. Mix the lemon juice through it.
5. Gradually pour the hot milk to the flour mixture while you keep mixing.
6. Knead the dough with your hands into a ball.
7. Lightly flour a rolling pin and a worksheet with all-purpose flour.
8. Roll the dough out as thinly as possible (but make sure that it is strong enough to stand out).  Use a round shape to cut out the crackers.  Put them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
9. Bake the crackers for 5-8 minutes until they are lightly browned and slightly raised.  Let them cool down for 5 minutes on the baking sheet.  Remove them from the baking tray and let them cool completely on a rack.

Notes:

•     The dough will be very dry.  I had to knead with my hands, but I didn't have to add extra liquid.
•     I was able to substitute soy milk for the milk with no problem.
•     I was able to roll the dough out very thin (< ⅛ inch) and still have sturdy crackers.

Rosemary-Parmesan Crackers

(source:  Williams-Sonoma)

 

¾ C all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp coarsely ground pepper

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

4 tbsp (½ stick) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces

1 C grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

¼ C heavy cream 

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, salt, pepper and rosemary and pulse twice to mix. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add the cheese and pulse twice to combine. With the motor running, pour in the cream and continue processing until the dough forms a single mass.
2. Transfer the dough to a work surface and roll into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
3. Preheat an oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Cut the dough into 1/8-inch-thick slices and place on the prepared baking sheet. If desired, using miniature decorative cutters, cut out the center of each slice, then place the cutouts on the baking sheet. Bake until the crackers are light golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack. When the crackers are cool to the touch, transfer them to the rack. Makes about 24 crackers.

Notes:

•     I used my stand mixer with whisk attachment instead of a food processor and it worked just fine

White Bean Hummus

(source:  George Duran, Food Network) 

1 (24-ounce) can cannellini beans (or ½ pound dried cannellini beans*)

1 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 garlic cloves, chopped

½ cup tahini paste

Salt and pepper

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

*To cook the dried beans, soak them overnight in plenty of water. Drain, put them in a pot, and cover them with fresh water by 1-inch. Bring them to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until they are tender, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Put the beans into the bowl of a food processor. Add the lemon juice, cumin, garlic, tahini paste, and salt and pepper, to taste. Turn the processor on and slowly pour in the olive oil. Process until smooth and thick.

Notes:

•     Again, I did not need a food processor

June's Daring Bakers: Battenberg Cake

The June challenge for Daring Bakers was the cutest challenge I’ve participated in.

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

I spent a long time making up my mind about what flavors to use, but I ended up going with raspberry and almond cake with raspberry jam to hold the layers together.  I thought about using chocolate ganache instead of jam, but that seemed like it would too heavy for the cake.

The cake was easy enough to make – I think I spent more time making a wicked awesome divider for my cake pan than mixing cake batter.  Even as a software person, I like to show off my mechanical skills every now and then, and this is about as good as it gets:

Foil - expert level

The cake rose beautifully and I trimmed it down into even strips as well as I could and ended up with a plate a snacks, er, scraps…

Strips and "Scraps"

This was my first time ever working with fondant and I think it went pretty well.  I should have wrapped the cake in the fondant so that the bottom was covered too, but oh well.  I also should have rolled the fondant a little thinner – I like the taste of it, but it was definitely too thick.

Fondant aside, this is one of the prettiest things I’ve ever baked!  And it tasted as good as it looks.  The cake was really moist and the raspberry and almond flavors were perfect together.

Finished!

May's Daring Bakers: Challah

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

Challah has been on my list of things to try for a while, so I was pretty excited for this challenge.  I love making bread (or at least trying to make it) and challah is just so pretty.  I also love the cultural aspect of this challenge – Ruth provided a lot of explanation on the significance of challah in Jewish culture, and I really appreciate that.

Challah Fail

The first time I tried this, it didn’t go too well.  I used the “Easy Challah” recipe because I only had 2 eggs on hand.  I could tell early on that something was funky – the dough was really wet, and the rising didn’t work properly.  The loaves tasted OK, but they didn’t even pretend to be fluffy.

Just the dough

After I got over my laziness enough to pick up more eggs, I went for the “Honey White Challah” (because anything with honey can’t go too far wrong).  I ended up using about 8 cups of flour total.  Lucky for me, that was noted in the recipe – I always get nervous when I have to add a lot more flour to a bread recipe.  Everything went smoothly until the braiding.  I’m braiding challenged.  As you can see in the picture, I didn’t quite manage even a 3-strand braid.  Something went wrong there in that middle section where I sort of have 2 super wide strands.  The ends look like braids though.  As for the round one, it’s a little off center but it’s round and I’m calling it a victory.

Braids no more :(

With a bigger work surface and little more practice, I could make them much prettier.  It would also help if I stopped nibbling on the dough while I was trying to shape it.  Is it crazy that I like bread dough?  I mean, cookie dough is understandable, everyone likes that.  But bread dough?  I don’t get it, but I like it.

My second and worst mistake was underestimating the magnitude of the second rise.  This is NOT a one-cookie sheet project!  I left the loaves on the same cookie sheet (because I only own the one) and after the rise, they were stuck together.  I had a tough time separating them, and I lost anything resembling a braid when I moved the round bread to different pan (I had to resort to a 13×9 cake pan).  It was a sadness – I had been pretty proud of that braid.


Despite the less-than-perfect appearance of my loaves, the taste and texture are amazing!  This is definitely a thing I will try again.The finished product:

The Finished Product