Caraway Crackers

Ingredients

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 (200 °C; 400 °F).

Line two baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.

Cube the butter and keep it chilled.

Blitz a quarter of the caraway seeds in a coffee grinder, or grind them using a pestle and mortar.

Beat the egg with 15ml water.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flours with the baking powder, salt and ground caraway, and add the butter. Rub with your fingers and between your hands until the butter is in tiny pieces and the mixture resembles coarse flour.

Mix together the milk and the honey (I use a salad dressing shaker for this).

Gradually add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix either with a wooden spoon or using your hands until the dough comes together into a ball.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until smooth. Adjust the dough with literally a sprinkling of flour or milk as necessary.

Put the dough ball into a small bowl and seal with cling film. Chill for 30 minutes. You will have about 650 g of dough at this point.

When you are ready to bake, take about 100 to 150 g of dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, until the dough is 1 mm thick. Trim the edges and transfer to a baking tray; a long thin spatula is helpful for this.

Using a tool such as a pastry wheel, pizza cutter, or a double handed herb knife, cut the dough into cracker sized shapes. Reserve any scraps for the next batch.

Brush the crackers lightly with the beaten egg and sprinkle them with the caraway seeds. You can press the seeds lightly down if you wish.

Bake until the crackers are golden brown around the edges about 10 to 12 minutes.

Watch carefully to make sure the crackers do not burn.

Cool the crackers on a wire rack and store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Note

Thinness is the key to good home-made crackers: 1mm is the target. Any thicker and they will end up like cardboard.