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Friday, July 27, 2012

Daring Bakers' July Challenge: Crackers

 Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

I was only able to make one cracker recipe, but it was definitely a good one.



Whole Wheat Crackers
1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup of unbleached flour
¼ cup of finely chopped nuts or small seeds
(I like to use sesame seeds)
1/8 to ¼ cup of raw sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of salt free butter
½ cup of low fat milk
Heat up the oven to 325 degrees and get ready to go crackers! Whisk the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl.


Cut the butter in to smallish chunks and drop in the flour mix. Either cut in the butter or squish them with your fingers, till the mix is crumbly. Slowly mix in the milk till the dough comes together in a nice mass.

On of piece of baking parchment paper, roll the dough out as thin as you possibly can. If you leave it kind of thick you could possible break your teeth on the crackers. (just possibly) Slide the dough on the parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Cut the crackers with a pizza cutter into strips, squares, diamonds or whatever strikes your fancy. Spray with a fine mist of water and sprinkle with something fun, like black sesame seeds. Pop in the oven and bake for anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on how thick they are. You can tell they are done when the edges start to brown and the middle is firm.
Some different flavor ideas-
1) Add 2 tablespoon of cumin seeds and 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika to the batter. Sprinkle with smoked paprika before baking. (my fav!)
2) Add 2 tablespoons of dried basil and 2 cloves of pressed garlic to the batter. Sprinkle dried basil before baking
3) Add 2 pieces of crumbled bacon and 2 tablespoons of finely grated sharp cheddar to batter.
4) Add 2 tablespoons of herbs de Provence and 2 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese to the batter, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
5) Add two tablespoons of finely crumbled blue cheese and walnuts to the batter, sprinkle with finely chopped walnuts.


Saturday, July 21, 2012

Mocha Marble Cake with Whiskey Mocha Frosting

This is one of the many treats I have for sale at Carabosse's Bakeshop on Etsy. Stop by and check it out!
It is a lovely blend of dark chocolate and coffee, each enhancing the other, with the tang of whiskey to top it all off. Not to be missed!