Another recipe that makes the whole book worth it. These are awesome.
You make a super easy yeast dough in your mixer using olive oil and shredded Parmesan, and then bring it together by hand on the countertop.
The dough rests at room temperature only for a short while, then it is placed in an oiled bowl and chilled entirely in the refrigerator. It never really rises or proofs. Once chilled, you can portion it into the pieces that will become the individual crackers.
Then you’ll need to use a pasta machine or pasta attachment for your mixer to flatten the dough. You can roll the individual crackers by hand, but let me tell you, after making these I think that would take so much strength and effort to get them thin enough! You’d be so tired!
I played around with the thickness of the crackers and what I found worked best was to:
- don’t hesitate to cut the portions even smaller than the MSBH instructs – I did this with some of them and preferred the smaller portions;
- flatten each piece of dough a little with your fingers – this will also help warm the dough up a little so it will pass through the rollers more easily;
- use the thickest (I used #1 on my KitchenAid attachment) setting to run the dough through first, then run it through again on a thinner setting without having the dough tear (for me this was #4).
- Thin dough makes for the prettiest, crispest, tastiest crackers!
They go on a baking pan and get brushed with egg wash and topped with Parmesan cheese, course salt, ground pepper, and fresh rosemary before going right in to the oven.
They baked up best for me on my convection setting, developing big, bulbous air bubbles and an uneven, warm golden tone around the edges and on the tops of the bubbles.
You can see the difference between the thicker crackers and the thinner ones in the photo below. The thicker crackers (in the background) stayed fairly anemic in color and did not develop big air pockets. They were chewy and more like pita bread. The thinner cracker in the bottom right corner baked up crisp and crunchy, just like a cracker.
They taste so, so good. I will definitely be putting these on heavy rotation at my house.
These look incredible Amber–I can practically smell the rosemary wafting from your photos! I’ll definitely have to pull the pasta roller from the cupboard and give them a try, keeping in mind your tips regarding thinness. Thanks for sharing!
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