Make these delicious homemade crackers with stone ground corn meal and honey to wow all of your friends and family, without you having to do a lot of work.
Crackers, the classic American snack.
We have grocery aisles full of them. We can't get enough for the crispy texture and the salty taste.
And cheese. Cheese loves crackers.
How many of us have thought about actual making crackers ourselves?
Several years ago I was reading a recipe by the good people over at Bob's Red Mill. They are one of the leaders is all things grains and seem to have everything you are looking for. In that book were recipes to make your own crackers.
I was intrigued. Never thought about making my own crackers before. Before long I was playing around with my own cracker recipes in the kitchen.
My most exciting creation has been Honey Cornbread Crackers. The recipe was inspired by the the Blue Cornbread Honey Muffins. that I love to make. I used that recipe as a jumping off point for the cracker recipe.
The Ingredients I Chose
What ingredients did I use to make these crackers? Here is what I use:
Bob's Red Mill Fine Grind Corn Meal
Bob's stone ground corn meal has an amazing flavor. I like the fine grind for the crackers as I found that larger grinds got stuck in my teeth.
You can use any stone ground corn meal. Just make sure you are getting stone ground for the most nutrition and flavor.
Sourwood Honey
You can use any honey you like. I want the best honey at my disposal. I like a honey that is strongly favored. Buckwheat honey makes a great choice, but I like the sourwood honey. It has a nice spicy bite to it with hints of maple. They honey is collected in the southeastern United States in states such as Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina
Any good wildflower honey would be good here too. If it doesn't taste good don't use it.
Rumford Baking Powder
I like to use Rumford Baking Powder, Why? Because it is a Non-GMO Baking Powder, and whenever I can avoid GMOs I will.
Zulka Morena Pure Cane
Zulka Morenna pure cane sugar has not been refined and is also another non-GMO. Check out my review to learn more about it and where to find this non-GMO sugar.
How to Make Crackers
The cracker making process isn't very difficult to do. If you got fingers and a rolling pin, you really don't need much else, but the oven to bake them in.
Start by combining all your dry ingredients. Then you cut the butter into cubes and place it on top of the dry ingredients.
Using your finger tips you rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks like as you see in Step 4.
The milk and honey is mixed together than added to the bowl. Stir it until a dough forms but don't overwork it or your crackers may end up tough.
On a floured surface I form the dough into a disc and then cut that in half.
Working with one half of the dough at a time, I roll it on as thin as I can get it without ripping it. I prefer to use a French style rolling pin that doesn't have handles. It's basically a giant wooden dowels with tapered ends.
Once you get the dough rolled out, then using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into cracker sized pieces. I like to use a Zyliss Pizza Slicer as it gives me more control than the pizza cutters with long handles - it appears I am anti-handle!
I bake the crackers on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake tie is between 12 and 16 minutes depending on your oven and how thin you got the crackers.
When the crackers come out I brush them with melted better. I have an Oxo Pastry Brush that I have loved for years that does a good job and is easier to clean than brushes that look more like they belong in art class.
Other Things You Might Want to Bake
Chocoapocalypse Chocolate Cookies
Alton Brown's Healthier Biscuits
Honey Cornbread Crackers
Ingredients
- 6 oz all-purpose flour a little over 1 cup
- 4 oz yellow cornmeal about 1 cup
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 4 tablespoons cold butter cut into 8 pieces
- ¼ cup raw honey
- ⅓ cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing on finished crackers
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Make sure you mix well to evenly distribute all the ingredients.
- Take the butter and with your hands rub it into the flour mixture. This is called cutting in the butter. Do this with your finger tips, you don't want to melt the butter with your warm hands. Do this until the mixture looks like a bunch of crumbs.
- In a small bowl, mix together the honey and milk. Add to the large bowl and mix to form a dough.
- Divide the dough in half. Place some flour on flat surface and using a rolling pin, roll each half of the dough to about ⅛ to 1/16 of an inch.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut the crackers to your desired size and shape. Try to keep the crackers the same size for even cooking.
- With a fork, pot holes into each crackers. Add some additional kosher salt to the top of the crackers.
- Place the crackers onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Make sure the crackers are not touching.
- Bake for 12-16 minutes. Checking on them 5-7 minutes in. Crackers go from down to burnt quickly, so keep an eye on them and pull them when they look golden brown.
- Place onto a cooling rack. Brush with melted butter.
- Allow to completely cool before eating. Place them into an airtight container, where they should last 2 weeks, if you don't eat them sooner!
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