If you learn how to make crackers, your rock-star-home-cook status among your friends and family will be assured for life. For whatever reason, people just flip out over these stupidly easy crisps of flour. I’m sharing my basic recipe here, but once you make them a couple times, you won’t need it. You’ll be creating cracker variations all your own on the spot. Some suggested alterations: sub melted butter for the oil, use all white or all wheat flour, incorporate a little wheat bran in place of some flour, add finely grated cheese, and minced herbs or dried spices. The sky is the limit!
Basic Crackers
Serves 4
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Combine the flours and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir in the water and oil with a fork until a rough dough forms. Knead once or twice by hand to ensure a smooth and evenly blended dough. Divide into four equal pieces, and cover three with plastic wrap and set aside while you roll out the first piece.
I use a pasta machine to roll out sheets that are about 1/16 of an inch thick; you can also use a rolling pin to roll out thin even pieces.
Place the crackers onto baking sheets and use a dough scraper or other dull blade to score the crackers into whatever size you wish. (Alternatively: don’t bother. Just bake them whole and break them into pieces after the fact. This presentation screams “homemade”.)
Bake for 8 minutes, rotating the baking sheets at the halfway point. When cool enough to hand, break along the lines you scored (or not). These are best with delicious fancy cheese (see photo) that has spent most of the day coming to room temperature. Homemade crackers are wasted on too-cold cheese.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
made these crackers, brought them in to work. i WAS a rock star that day and people are still giving me atta boys for making homemade crackers! you rock joy!
These look great. I can’t believe this is all that goes into making homemade crackers!
Hey Joy, Do you save the other 3 parts of dough for later or just cover them and bake later?
Hey, Colleen! Sorry about the ambiguity. You only cover them until you finish rolling out the one you’re working on. You just don’t want them to dry out–that’s the purpose of covering them while they are waiting their turn. I am going to rephrase the recipe for clarity. Thank you!
No problem Joy, I just tried to make them but I don’t think I made the dough thin enough because they are a little thick, I’ll try again!
The thinness is key–I am not great at getting them even with a rolling pin, but it can be done. If you have a pasta maker handy, do give that a try. It does a perfect job.
What kind of pasta maker do you have?
Joy, I made these crackers this weekend and they are fantastic! I used a mix of whole wheat flour and white whole wheat flour, and added 1 1/2 tablespoons of FitFlax (a mix of roasted flax and chia seeds) to the flour. Prior to baking, I dusted the top of the crackers with a bit of Fleur de Sel and some sweet paprika … they were spectacular!
I used a rolling pin to roll them out very thin, about the width of the seeds really – and, honestly, they’re the best cracker/flatbread I’ve ever had. I’m making another batch today. Thank you!!!
Oh, by the way, I’ve linked to this post in my post today. These crackers are too good not to share. I may never buy crackers again.
Diva–that sounds like a really good variation! Yum. Half the fun of homemade crackers is the limitless ways you can improvise.