Semolina Crackers

It's no secret that I love cheese.  While a good, crusty bread is typically my preferred accompaniment, I'll occasionally find myself staring at four dollar cracker boxes wondering if the selection is worth the money.  Making my own always sounded like a good solution, but the various recipes I tried yielded unexciting results -- until recently. 

 

Nick and I hosted a birthday party for our friend Harold a few weeks ago and I came upon Wild Yeast's excellent cracker recipe just in time for the occasion. Susan's recipe calls for some special equipment like a kitchen scale, pasta roller and a baking stone. I don't own a pasta roller, so I decided to try my luck rolling the dough out with my trusty french rolling pin. I was able to get the sheets of dough very thin without much effort (just make sure your working surface and your pin are generously floured).  I will say that the kitchen scale and the baking stone are important elements of the recipe, however.

I only made one change to the recipe.  In lieu of sesame seeds I made one batch with freshly ground black pepper and one batch with caraway seeds.  I dusted both with coarse Kosher salt before baking. 

I agree with Susan, it will be a long time before I purchase packaged crackers again!