Sourdough Saturday – Whole Wheat Spelt Crackerbread

I grew up eating crackers, and even as a child loved the thicker, tastier types like Crown Royal. But when I gave up all hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats, and worked to really limit palm oil in my diet, most crackers were suddenly off the menu. So for the last few years I have been playing around with making my own healthy crackers. This recipe, inspired by one in the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, is the easiest and most flavorful cracker thus far. The sourdough tang really adds a special “something” to the recipe. Even better, the flavor actually improves as the cracker ages, so it tastes even better on day 3 than it did on day one!

Recipe:

• 2 cups sourdough starter (find out how to start yours here)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1Tbsp salt
• salt, pepper, and poppy seeds for sprinkling
• Olive oil

In a large bowl or the bowl to a stand mixer, combine starter, water, flours, sugar and salt. Stir to combine and knead until dough is smooth. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 2 hours. Deflate the dough, divide into 3 balls and let rest 10 minutes or so. Grease 3 half-sheet pans (13 x 18 inch baking sheets). Roll one dough ball out in pan as thin as possible, filling the sheet pan as seen in the above photo. Brush the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds, salt and pepper. Lightly push down into dough, so the seeds will stay on the crackerbread! Bake in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for 10 – 15 minutes, or until well browned. Remove from oven and let cool. Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem crisp when you take it out of the oven, it will become crisp as it cools.

This experience has me searching for more crackerbread recipes. A couple that I will be trying out over the  next few weeks are BBQ crackers from Cookistry and Olive Oil Wholemeal crackers from Melanger, both found (along with my crackerbread recipe) at Yeastspotting.