LAW 70: Homemade crackers anyone?

We've been eating out of the freezer for the last couple of days. Brrr! It's been very cold, and four days until i get paid(it really does suck getting paid once a month), so….. when i decided to make fish chowder for supper the other night i was only momentarily flummoxed by the lack of crackers, oyster crackers specifically. After all isn't that what Dr. Google is for? Bingo! A very simple looking recipe popped up immediately courtesy of serious eats.com. It was very simple to make, although my crackers didn't puff up the way i felt they should have. This was probably due to a not hot enough oven. If you don't know; Mungo and i cook on a kerosene Butterfly stove top for which we purchased a small box reflector oven. Ahem, can i say temperature control is always an issue? Why yes i can. But i digress.

Oh ya, don't forget to line the cookie sheet with parchment paper

With my typical disregard for scrupulously following any ingredient list i went ahead and substituted the ingredients i had on hand: whole wheat flour for all purpose white flour, salted butter for the unsalted the recipe called for. I mean, really, butter without salt? Tres boring. Ya ya, i know. So the upshot, crackers that weren't quite as puffy as i would have liked. They were also surprisingly sweet, and just a little to salty. Next time i will cut the salt to 1/2 tsp, and probably omit the sugar completely. It is only there to feed the sugar addiction that most of Americans have. It's not like its feeding a yeast.

Really, there were more than this

So, the recipe as written:
1 cup flour (your choice, but remember, whole grains are so much better for you)
1 tsp each, salt, sugar, baking powder. Mix all dry ingredients together. ADD 2 Tbls cold butter, cut up into little pieces. Work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. ADD 1/3 cup of cold water. Once more, use your fingers to mix and knead the ingredients into a smooth ball. Don't over work. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 375. Generously flour your work surface, divide your dough into workable portions. Roll out to 1/8" thickness and cut in what ever shape you wish in the 1/2" range. Bake for about 15 minutes, the bottoms will start to color. Turn off heat, open oven door part way and allow to cool in oven. The crackers will continue to crisp up during the cool down period.

Since my oven is a baby one i only baked about half of what the recipe made and refrigerated the rest. You could easily cut the recipe in half as well. Mungo and i ate up what i made, and would have eaten more, so this was a good strategy. Oh ya, the fish chowder was really yummy too.

Yummy fish chowder, Cod to be exact

More later,
Bon appetite
Moregainne