Mea Cracker

Dear Gumdrop:


Um, I guess I kinda sorta need to apologize for all my cracker grumblings. So... sorry. I will happily admit that baking homemade crackers was one of the most comforting things I’ve ever done. There was something so entirely honest and homely about it all. I was so content, I wound up dancing around my kitchen working with this unbelievably silken dough. It was one of my favourite challenges so far!

I chose this olive oil cracker recipe from 101 Cookbooks. An excuse to use the dough hook on my kitchen aid is never to be missed (although I’m in no hurry to drop the mixing bowl on my toe again anytime soon. My poor toe is still black and blue, but at least it goes with the purple polish). The dough itself was easier than pie and came together lickety-split. My absolute favourite part was shaping the dough and rubbing it with olive oil -- it was just this amazingly relaxing tactile experience. I actually felt connected to the food I was preparing.

Having let the dough rest, it was now time to roll ‘em out and splash on some flavour flourishes. I chose a few different toppings – sesame seeds, poppy seeds, cracked pepper and sea salt. The one tip i have is to roll the dough out to almost the desired thinness and then add the topping and finish rolling. It helped press the seeds and things in a bit more.

The other thing I did, which was probably just a misunderstanding of the directions was to bake the crackers on the cornmeal. It was a bit messy when eating, but I really adored that extra crunch.

I arrived at the cottage with some seven-year-old Canadian cheddar and some stinky gooey riopelle, which along with the delicious homemade crackers, made for a crowd-pleasing afternoon snack. My brother was impressed to learn I had made the ‘amazing flatbreads’ from his favourite restaurant. The old me may have jumped at the chance to call these the more impressive sounding ‘flatbread’, but the new me is dazzled by the honesty of ‘cracker’. After all, they even pleased my three-year old nephew’s discriminating taste buds. Who can argue with that?

Pickle x