Onion Crackers

So, why make crackers? I can't say that I can actually justify this properly aside from mentioning that homemade crackers not only taste homemade, but they're much more flavorful. I suppose I just had a hankering for my fingers to be dough-covered and my hands busy. I like experimenting with relatively simple recipes (crackers definitely fall under this headline) in order to improve my working knowledge of doughs and batter. Crackers really can't be more easy to make (mix flour, liquid, flavor, cut thin), however I've made 2 variations of polenta crackers and i can say with great certainty that i'm ready to move on from that texture. The biggest headache with crackermaking is getting the dough thin enough. Since I used a polenta base it came up very sticky and didn't like to come off of the parchment once i got to the 3rd portion of the batch. Though this is to be expected, I really don't like to add a lot of extra flour considering how much flour is used to begin with, and the crackers have the tendency to come out tasting like raw flour.

My next experiment is to use a pulse or bean flour that would dry the dough out in addition to adding a little nutty something. I've been passing by chickpea flour every time I go to the co-op without having a good enough justification to buy it, and maybe this would be a good application for it. I also hear it's good in savoury veggie pancakes.


Okay, so these crackers are really tasty. I minced some onion and spread it out on a baking sheet and baked for ~30 minutes @ 250 F to dry out any moisture that would affect the dough consistency. It would have been nice to add some parsley or dill to this mix in addition to the grated parmesan but I didn't have any kicking around that looked halfway usable. the dried onion flakes tasted really good on mashed potatoes, FYI, but also made the house and my clothing smell like a junior high dance.




The crackers on the top half of the above picture were rolled a lot thinner and baked longer in a cooler (325 instead of 350 F) oven, so they're more cracker-y. THe ones on the bottom were softer and a little bit thicker.