I do not understand why these are not famous, why they are not marketed nationally. Maybe it's the expense of sun-dried tomatoes. If that's the reason, then it's a shame, because the world really could use the awareness of the splendor of these simple crackers. These were dinner tonight. They barely had a chance to make it to a platter from the oven because my gaping maw was between.
I did not use a processor this time. Just a bowl and my fingers.
* One bag of sun-dried tomatoes. They were sticky so I coated them with flour.
* Two cups of A/P flour into a bowl. The whole bag of sun-dried tomatoes coated at once. Diced beyond recognition. It's a terrible thing to do to a bag of sun-dried tomatoes but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and destroy a perfectly fine product.
* 1/2 cups whole wheat flour.
* 2 level teaspoons baking powder. I wanted the crackers to be light as possible without being gross with baking powder.
* nine fierce grinds of black pepper. A lot of pepper. More than you'd think reasonable.
* 1/2 cup olive oil. This is a lot of olive oil comparatively. Mixed in by hand. The flour became fully oil-saturated and a little bit clumpy. I considered adding more flour but resisted the notion.
* Water to suit you. Create the kind of dough you wish to roll. I started with 1/2 cup, but remarkably, it was still too dry. Even with all that oil. I added another 1/4 cup, and then another 1/4 cup, so finally, 1 full cup of water. I wanted a wet dough that would roll easily. That was my preference.
To counter all that water, I decided to bake at a slightly lower heat for slightly longer period and see how that worked out. It worked out fine.
* roll out onto a Silpat or onto parchment paper pre-measured to fit your baking tray. This is easier if the dough is on the wet side. Trim the edges for professional presentation, or leave them rough for a rustic care-free childish effect. Salt the surface of the rolled dough to suit your preference for salt intensity. If you forget the salt then everything is ruined and you can just forget about the whole thing.
No seriously, dough is totally BLAH-ACH without salt. Score the salted dough sheet for ease of post-baking cracker-separation, dock each cracker to prevent puffing. That's the part I keep forgetting, so half my crackers come out puffy. I don't mind the puffery. But that does explain why all commercial crackers have little holes in them. They're preventing cracker-puffery too.
* 380℉ for 13 minutes. Your mileage may vary. This produced three trays plus a little extra. Incidentally, that extra was rolled out last, of course, and inserted into the oven a few minutes after the third tray. It was placed on the upper oven shelf and finished before the third tray, which had to bake longer because the final tray was blocking its air circulation. So that goes to show ya, something about something. Physics or something. Probably. Whadayacallit, conduction, or something.
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