August Sourdough Surprises - Crackers

Once upon a time, oh, about a year or so ago, the Daring Bakers' Challenge was for us all to make crackers.  At the time, I chose to make a variety of sourdough crackers that were both simple and delicious.

So when Sourdough Surprises chose crackers for the August theme, I automatically thought of those delicious crispy snacks.

But if I am going to do a challenge, I want to do something new, and this was no different.

There are so many different sourdough cracker recipes out there to choose from, but I quickly chose this one, a multi-grain cracker with a delicious seed mix on top.

The recipe calls for a mix of whole wheat and rye flour. I was actually out of whole wheat flour (what?!), so used all purpose and rye. Add to that some flax seeds and you're in a multi-grain happy place.

I did make a couple of adjustments to the recipe as written in order to make it friendlier to little man's allergies. The first change was to substitute coconut oil for the butter that is called for.

This dough comes together very much like pie pastry - the fat (coconut oil for me, butter usually) is cut or rubbed into the flour(s), and then the wet ingredients are incorporated. In this case, a bit of olive oil and a bunch of sourdough starter.

Now, much like pie pastry, it is important not to overwork the dough. So a quick mix with a spatula and my dough was...

...a little rough. But some gentle kneading brought it together enough to be able to roll out and begin cutting shapes.

Little miss chose the cookie cutter.

And little man wanted to have a turn, too.

Then there was one final step. The recipe calls for the cut crackers to be brushed with an egg wash then sprinkled with a seed mix. I substituted olive oil for the egg wash and the kids helped me sprinkle.

The crackers needed a few extra minutes to turn brown and crispy (I don't think I rolled them thin enough...), but the finished product was pretty darn tasty!

Little miss, who usually tells me she doesn't like sourdough, loved them, kept "sneaking" some, and even shared them with a whole bunch of our neighbors.  And I decided to have these as part of my lunch, with hummus for dipping!

So what kind of crackers did you sourdough this month? Link up and share!

Seeded Sourdough Crackers
(slightly adapted from Delectable Tidbits)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used all-purpose_
1/2 cup rye flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons flax seeds
1/4 cup cold butter (I used coconut oil)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup active sourdough starter

For the topping: You'll need about 3 tablespoons of seeds - I used a prepared seven-seed mix, you can create your own using your favorite seeds.


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, salt and flax seeds. Using a pastry cutter (or your fingertips!), cut cold butter (coconut oil) into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse corn meal.
Make a well in the flour mixture. Pour in the oil and sourdough starter. Mix with a silicone spatula until well combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and lightly knead to make sure all the flour and liquid is mixed well. Do not over knead, you just want to make sure everything is combined.
Form the dough into a ball, flatten it out and roll out to about 1/8” thick. Using a 2” round cookie cutter (or cutter of your choice), cut dough. Transfer cut crackers onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
Brush with egg wash or olive oil and sprinkle with your seed mixture. You will have lots of scraps. When you are done cutting the first round of crackers, gather the scraps and carefully press them back into a ball (do not over work the dough), flatten dough and roll out to 1/8”, proceed with cutting more crackers and topping them with seeds. You can do this with the scraps a couple of times until most of the dough is used up. Once all of the crackers have been cut and seeded, transfer the cookie sheets to the hot oven. Bake for 13 – 15 minutes until browned, rotating the sheets from the upper to the lower racks of your oven halfway during baking for even browning. Mine needed closer to 20 minutes, so keep your eye on them!
Remove crackers from the oven and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Enjoy!

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