Thursday, March 4, 2010

Langues de Gene Simmons (aka. Olive Oil Crackers) 2 Ways:

Debbie and I got crazy in the kitchen with a borrowed pasta machine the other day and whipped up 2 kinds of lovely rustic crackers. Much fun! First recipe we made was found on a blog I read and uses white unbleached flour. Not my favorite thing to use in the kitchen as my tastes run more towards whole grains. That doesn't mean they weren't fantastic crackers though. We added some fresh rosemary from my garden and fresh cracked black pepper to the dough too. Fabulous.
I had to try another batch using my favorite spelt flour, so we mixed up a 1/2 batch using the spelt and a mix of seeds. Yum!
All this to say...you really need to be making your own damn crackers people! So much fun, so easy, and you'll knock your friends socks off (this has not been proven). Put whatever you'd like in them and they'll be awesome. You sure don't need a pasta machine to make them, but it was fun to use. A rolling pin would work well too I'm sure. You will however need a scale if you go by the recipe I'm posting, since all Nourish Me's instructions were in metric grams.

Rosemary and Black Pepper Olive Oil Crackers:
(base recipe from Nourish Me's blog)

250g of sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
125 ml of water
2 Tbs good olive oil + more for brushing
flaked sea salt

Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl (or the bowl of a mixer), then add rosemary and pepper.
Make a well in the center and pour in water and olive oil.
Either mix by hand or use the paddle attachment on your mixer to work to a dough.
Turn out onto a very lightly floured bench and knead until smooth.
Wrap in Saran wrap or a clean tea towel and rest in fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425.
Dust the bench and keep flour close at hand.
Cut off or pull off walnut-sized blobs and roll them out in long, thin tongues if using a rolling pin. Or alternately, use a pasta machine going to ~5 thinness. We took them all the way to 6, but I found I liked the slightly thicker ones much better.

Arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet and brush liberally with good olive oil. Lightly sprinkle each with flaked sea salt. Less is more we found. Bake in batches for 6-8 minutes.
Look for a pale gold but no darker...Nourish Me says pale gold is good; deep gold is burnt.

Seedy Spelt Olive Oil Crackers:

250g whole spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbs sesame seeds (we actually used sesame Gomasio, but I'm not sure about the seaweed flavor)
2 Tbs chia seeds
2 Tbs flax seeds
1/2 tsp garlic powder
125g water (might need about 1 Tbs more)
2 Tbs olive oil

Sift spelt flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add seeds and stir.
Make a well at the center and add water and olive oil. Mix until all comes together as a dough.
You won't really have to knead this one. Just make sure there's enough water and olive oil to bring it together in a smoothish dough.
Wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425.
Follow instructions for recipe above at this point...rolling out into long thin tongues of dough, brushing liberally with good olive oil, and sprinkling lightly with flaked sea salt. If using a pasta machine, you'll only be able to take these to about a 4 thinness. The seeds will get stuck and rip the dough beyond that.
Bake until lightly gold...or as near as you can tell, given it'll be a darker cracker. Make sure you're standing at the oven as they can go from perfect to burnt fairly quickly.
We ate these with curried green pea soup. 5 ingredients...you've gotta try it. Delish!

3 comments:

Nate @ House of Annie said...

thanks for the recipe! I really gotta get a pasta maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid.

Since you're using homegrown rosemary, show off your dish in our "Grow Your Own" roundup this month. To participate, find the details here:

http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2010/03/announcing-grow-your-own-40.html

Ferdzy said...

Oh my, I love the name. The crackers look pretty darn good too.

Erndog said...

Thanks Ferdzy! They really were fun to make and I love that you can really change things up to suit individual taste. Love your blog...have found many a wonderful cauliflower recipe there! :-)

Nate@House of Annie...looks like your blog will be a fun one to explore, and thanks for the comment. Just got back into town, but I'll check into your "Grow Your Own" round up once I've gotten caught up!