Giant in the Kitchen: Whole Wheat Rosemary Crackers
For some time now I have been struggling with a personal admission of guilt. I go back and forth in my head on how to admit - no, come to terms with - what I have become.
I am a thief.
On dark nights I slink around my neighborhood, sifting through other peoples' property and taking things which do not belong to me. Oh, it was easy to rationalize at first: a bit here, a bit there - "This house is enormous, they're rich and won't miss it" or "It's their own fault for leaving things lying about" or "They're growing it as a shrubbery - they aren't even using it as an herb". Once you get into this frame of mind, there's no turning back. At this point it's been about 8 months, and I can't imagine not going out late at night and snipping sprigs of other people's rosemary.
Now, hear me out, the quantities here in Winston-Salem are really quite staggering. In my small neighborhood, I can think of at least 15 rosemary bushes the size of Smart Cars. So who's really going to care if I take a bit of rosemary for a batch of crackers? (There I go, rationalizing again...)
Whole Wheat Rosemary Crackers
The challenge with having so much rosemary at hand is finding ways to use it. I've really focused on baking this past year and have come to enjoy strong flavors like rosemary and chive in my savory baked goods. These whole wheat rosemary crackers are great with runny cheese (St. Andre, anyone?) and the dough is firm enough to cut into shapes with cookie cutters. I picked up some killer animal-shaped ones at Ikea last week, but I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies, so they're now officially cracker cutters. Who doesn't want to eat cheese off of a rosemary-flavored moose?
What you'll need:
1½ cups whole wheat flour
1½ cups whole white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons minced rosemary
½ cup olive oil
1 cup water at room temperature
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Give a cookie sheet a light coat of spray oil.
In a mixing bowl combine your dry ingredients and the rosemary. Make a well in the center of the mixture and poor in the oil. Using a sturdy spoon, stir the oil into the flour. Slowly stir in the water a little bit at a time until the dry and wet ingredients are incorporated and you have a somewhat floury dough. You'll probably only need ¾ of a cup of water, but measure out a full cup just in case things are especially dry.
Dump your dough onto a counter and knead it for 8-10 minutes. This is a tough dough to knead, so if you aren't breathing hard after about 5 minutes, you're either totally buff or not kneading hard enough. The dough should be firm and not at all sticky.
Take a quarter of the dough and using a rolling pin, roll it into an amoeba-like shape. The dough should be the thickness of two nickels (do you even use nickels anymore? I do...to measure my cracker dough). If the dough is not rolling out well, try flipping it over and rolling the other side.
When the dough is rolled out, you have options. You can either make shapes with cookie cutters or go for the standard one inch square shape using a pizza cutter. If you are going for squares, transfer the dough to the greased cookie sheet and then cut a grid of lines into it with the pizza cutter. The squares will separate easily after they are baked. If you are opting for the awesome animal shapes, cut them on the counter and place them on the pan ½ an inch apart.
Bake the crackers for around 12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet 180° after 6 minutes. The crackers should be just slightly browned on their outside edges.
Remove the crackers to a wire rack and enjoy when they're cool enough to eat. The crackers should keep for a few weeks in an airtight container.
