Sourdough Rye Crackers
Hi, longtime lurker, first time poster...
Love rye bread? Love crackers? Hate throwing your unfed sourdough starter discards down the drain? Then I have a recipe for you!
First, credit where credit is due, this is adapted (and much of the recipe copied directly) from the King Arthur Flour website recipe for Sourdough Crackers, which are also delicious:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-crackers-recipe [1]
I basically subbed rye flour for the whole wheat and caraway seeds for the herbs, and added a few of my own notes. These are crunchy-good and rye-tastic.
Ingredients:
1 cup rye flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup unfed ("discarded") sourdough starter
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
oil for brushing
coarse salt (such as kosher or sea salt) for sprinkling on top
Instructions:
- Mix together the flour, salt, sourdough starter, butter, and caraway seeds to make a smooth (not sticky), cohesive dough.
- Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a small rectangular slab. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to a couple of hours, until the dough is firm.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Very lightly flour a piece of parchment, your rolling pin, and the top of the dough.
- Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough to about 1/16" thick. Try to keep the edges as neat as possible.
- Transfer the dough and parchment together onto a baking sheet.
- Lightly brush with oil and then sprinkle the salt over the top of the crackers.
- Cut the dough into 1 1/4" squares; a rolling pizza wheel works well here.
- Prick each square with the tines of a fork.
- Bake the crackers for about 18-20 minutes, until the squares are starting to brown around the edges. Keep an eye on them because if they overbake and brown too much, they will taste bitter and burned.
- When browned, remove the crackers from the oven, and transfer them to a cooling rack. Store airtight at room temperature for up to a week; freeze for longer storage.
Yield: about 100 crackers, 20 servings.