Thursday, 20 March 2014

THM sourdough crackers

Sourdough crackers, I recently had some experimenting time and successfully caught wild yeast in the home and made sourdough bread and crackers. I was quite impressed on the product and how it turned out. 

First a good friend of mine gave me some info on getting started and I went from there. Put 1cup of whole grain flour in a bowl scalded with boiling water first. Along with the stirring utensil. I then added 1cup of warm water. Stirred well and covered loosely with a plain cotton cheese cloth for plenty of air to get in. 

Every day for a week I cleaned the bowl, rescalded it and a utensil with boiling water and added more flour and water, same amount. By a week I had a wonderful sour, yeasty smelling concoction all ready for business. Like all fermented creations, I saved some of my sourdough for the replenishing of another mixture. I would repeat the same way as I started, only this time I have at least a cupful to use as my base starter
. I first made a batch of sourdough bread, which I really enjoyed. But this is about crackers so I'll get to that another day. I took about 2 cups of starter and mixed in some rye flour, you can use any kind but I wanted lower in carbs so I chose rye. My sourdough mixture is mainly ground kamut and some ground whole wheat and ground barley. I then added some salt and mixed it in to a workable dough that would spread easily on a parchment paper lined pan. I would spread it very very thin. Then the crackers will bake quickly and dry faster and not be too hard to eat. This is one of the next things I will do better. Be creative with herbs and spices, other than salt I will be trying garlic and basil for my next batch.. I baked it very low, around 200, for about an hour, by them I could peal it off and bake the other side. At that point I baked another 1/2 hour and then I put them in a warm dry place to further dry till brittle. 
   I keep them in a glass jar on my counter for easy eating. I like them with oil and balsamic vineagar, Greek yogurt mixed with herbs, dunk in soup. If you make them too thick they go a long way in keeping your mouth busy so you don't eat toomuch or too quick. Could be good for kids that way.