I love our neighborhood. It has wonderful restaurants, shops, and parks. People are always out walking around, and running errands. One of the fun little shops is a specialty cheese store. It is always a joy to browse and taste. Unfortunately, this cheese shop is so expensive, that I only go in for special occasions. The last time I went in, I ended up buying ridiculously overpriced crackers. Don’t get me wrong, they were quite tasty, and much better than normal store bought crackers, but they were about $5.00 for a little package! This got me wondering how hard it could possibly be to make your own crackers?
I can now attest to the fact that it is amazingly simple (and cheap) to make your very own gourmet specialty crackers. All you do is throw flour, olive oil, salt, water, and your signature spice into the food processor for about 30 seconds, roll it out very thin and cook it for 15 minutes! What could be easier?
Becca’s Herb de Provence Artsy Crackers
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tsp Herbs de Provence or other spice (note: the 365 brand Herbs de Provence is the best I’ve ever tasted. You can get it at Whole Foods, but it isn’t that much more expensive than at a normal grocery store. What makes this variety amazing is that they put lavender in the mix.)
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tbs olive oil (or butter)
- 3/4 cup cold water
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 F
- Put dry ingredients into a food processor and process for a couple seconds to get it well blended
- Add all the oil and 1/3 of the water, process until mixed in (about 10 seconds)
- Repeat with the remaining water, being careful to not over process
- Take out 1/4 of the dough, quickly mold it into a ball, and roll it out on a silicone mat or parchment paper till it is nearly as big as the cookie sheet.
- Cut the dough into squares the size you want, and poke each square twice with a fork
- Cook for 15 minutes, or until nice and golden, being careful not to burn
- While it’s cooking, start preparing the next quarter of the dough
- Let cool on a rack. While still warm, brake up any squares that cooked together
- Enjoy with some wonderful cheese!
Those are some yummy looking crackers you have there!
You know how we were talking about quality the other day? I think you just proved the point. You made your crackers out of really good ingredients and they cost you way less than $5 to make but I bet they are a lot better and healthier for you than the ones you were going to buy. Even if they aren’t better quality the the $5 package ingredientswise (which I’m sure they are), they are better anyway because they are fresher.
Thanks for the wonderful discovery! Just curious…how long do these crackers last? In terms of storage at least…I can’t expect these to stick around because people would munch these gorgeous crackers up!
-Mei
Mei,
Sorry to say, I have no idea how long they last. In our house they are gone withing 3 or 4 days, so that long at least.
How funny. I made olive oil crackers for the first time just two days before you did!
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