Today: herb crackers. These are fantastic thin sheets that I prepared with sourdough starter but you can easily make them with common baker’s yeast as well. They are thin, crunchy, light, tasty—actually delicious. You absolutely must try them. Obviously, if you prepare them with sourdough the proofing is long and that is perhaps the only drawback, but those who use this kind of leavening already know it and don’t even mind. In return, the result is superb. Attention: they disappear before they even cool!
Other cracker recipes not to be missed:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 6 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 6 servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 255.04 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 39.71 (g) of which sugars 0.20 (g)
- Proteins 5.53 (g)
- Fat 8.20 (g) of which saturated 1.18 (g)of which unsaturated 0.21 (g)
- Fibers 1.18 (g)
- Sodium 529.64 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 60 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for the herb crackers
- 2 cups type 1 flour
- 3.5 oz sourdough starter (refreshed)
- 3 1/3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp water (warm)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp dried Herbes de Provence (dried)
- fleur de sel (to sprinkle on the surface)
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- Rolling pin
- Fluted pastry wheel
- 2 Baking sheets
- 1 Fork
Preparation of the herb crackers
If you prepare these herb crackers with dry baker’s yeast, mix it directly with the flour. If you use fresh yeast, dissolve it in the warm water just as I did with the sourdough starter. As for quantities, aim for about 2 g of dry yeast (roughly 2/3 tsp) or 5 g of fresh yeast (about 1 tsp).
In a bowl, dissolve the sourdough starter in the warm water.
Then gradually add the flour, mixing with a spoon.
When the flour has absorbed the liquid, add the oil and incorporate it into the mixture.
Finally, add the aromatic herbs and the salt. Dried Herbes de Provence can usually be found in the spice aisle of the supermarket. Otherwise you can purchase them online by clicking HERE. They are a bit more expensive than common mixed herbs but they taste great.
Incorporate everything, then transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead it by hand for a long time until you get a smooth, homogeneous dough that is not sticky. Shape into a ball.
Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in volume (a closed, switched-off oven is perfect). It will take about six hours, but the time depends a lot on room temperature. Obviously, if you use baker’s yeast, the times are shorter.
After the proofing time, spread the dough on the work surface and roll it out with a rolling pin into a thin sheet about a couple of millimeters thick: the thinner the sheet, the crispier your crackers will be.
Roll to about 1/16 inch thick (≈2 mm) for best crispiness.
At this point, use a fluted pastry wheel to cut strips from the rectangle of dough and transfer them to two baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Now cut rectangles (again using the fluted wheel) and dock them with the tines of a fork.
Sprinkle everything with fleur de sel. This type of salt is ideal because it’s midway between fine salt, which would be too small, and coarse salt, which would be too big. If you can’t find it at your usual supermarket, you can buy it online by clicking HERE.
Bake the herb crackers in a preheated fan (convection) oven at 374°F for 10–15 minutes. Then turn off the oven and leave them inside for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and, if you’re skilful, let them cool slightly before enjoying. Enjoy! Paola
