ROSEMARY-THYME CRACKERS
Feeds 6
Over the past 10 or 15 years, interesting crackers started showing up at picnics and dinners around the country. No longer relegated to processed cracker circles out of a box, Americans have come to love rough-hewn shards of crackers, full of flavor and toppings like sesame seeds and olive oil. This cracker recipe, adapted from Gale Gand’s Lunch!, comes from Paul Kahan, executive chef at Blackbird and Avec in Chicago. They are a little fussy, since the recipe requires making a sponge, then a dough, both of which sit and rise for a couple of hours. But trust me—most of the work is in the waiting. Full of flavor, crisp at the edges with just a tiny bit of chew in the middle, these crackers are far more delicious than the flavor of boxed crackers could ever be.
- 560 grams All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend
- 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1¼ cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon psyllium husks
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Make the sponge. In a large bowl, whisk together 200 grams of the flour and the yeast. Add the honey and slowly pour the warm water into the bowl. Using a rubber spatula, gently mix it all together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place. Let the sponge sit for 2 hours.
Make the dough. Put the remaining 360 grams of flour, the salt, psyllium husks, rosemary, and thyme into the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. With the mixer running on low, drizzle in 4 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the sponge and mix the dough until it is well combined. It should slump off the paddle a bit when the mixer stops running. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise for at least 1 hour and no more than 2 hours.
Let the dough rise again. Gently, move the dough to a clean surface. It should be fairly kneadable at this point. Knead the dough a bit to work out any air bubbles. Form a smooth dough ball, put it in a bowl, and let the dough proof for another 2 hours.
Prepare to bake. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Ready the dough. Cut the dough in half. Roll out one dough ball between two pieces of lightly greased parchment paper, rolling it out as thinly as possible into a long sheet of dough. (Make the sheet of dough as long as your baking sheet.) Peel off the top parchment, and move the bottom piece of parchment paper with the sheet of dough to the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough ball, carefully moving the sheet of dough onto the baking sheet. Poke both sheets of dough with a fork over the entire sheet. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the dough, and sprinkle with a bit of salt and the pepper, if you wish. Bake until the crackers are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow the crackers to cool on the pan, then break them into rough shards about 3 inches long.