poppy fennel seed crackers

holaaaa friends,

it’s officially day 3123081 of quarantining! okay, it’s been a full month but it’s felt like foreveRrr!

i was going through my photo album from the past 30 days indoors and all of the things that happened in early march seem like literally forever ago. there’s so much that’s been going on in the world especially with all the constant updates with the news, that it makes it seem like not AS many eventful things have happened in the walls of my apartment.

work has been incredibly busy and has occupied maybe 90% of my time and brain space. ON THE OTHER HAND, BECAUSE the markets have been down, merman’s workload has slowed down a bit so he’s VOLUNTARILY become my resident jip saram aka house person. merman has cooked DELICIOUS breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and i feel sooo lucky that HE ENJOYS GETTING A KICK OUT MAKING USE OF WHATever WE HAVE in stock to make SHAKSHUKA with LEFTOVER PIZZA SAUCE OR CHICKEN MOLE TACOS with MOLE WE MADE IN 2019 AND STORED IN THE FREEZER.

OUTSIDE OF EATING and working, WE’VE SPENT TIME LISTENING TO A BAZILLION PODCASTS, WATCHING NETFLIX, AND MY FAVORITE: BLASTING MUSIC AND DANCING LIKE DING DONGS TO RELIEVE SOME STRESS AND PATHETICALLY ATTEMPT TO BURN OFF the CALORIES FROM MY DAILY INTAKE OF CHOCOPIE.

ok and……BACK TO EATING.

WHEN I FINALLY HAD ROOM TO COME UP FOR AIR FROM WORK, I felt that TIME WOULD BE BEST SPENT MAKING SOMETHING TO MUNCH ON TO OCCUPY THE BOREDOM IN MY MOUth. my mouth craved something savory, crisp, carby, light, and simple so i opted for my faaavorite cracker recipe. in the past, i rolled these crackers out for special occasions and gatherings with friends and set them as an accompaniment to a bowl of dip or a cheese board. this time around, it was just to fulfill my snack craving!

making these crackers also checked off one of the most important rules for consumption during #quarantining, which is to stretch high demand items like toilet paper and flour.

btw, is flour supply down because people are stress baking or is it because we all have time to grow our own sourdough starters? where has all the flour gone in all the land of brooklyn?! on every grocery store run that i’ve made in the past month, the shelves have been fully cleared of any kind of flour - even the gluten free kinds. i luckily had my brother snag a few bags of flour before coronavirus, but i’m now down to my last 10 cups of flour, and i don’t know when i’ll be able to replenish my supply.

this recipe definitely makes good and full use of just 2 cups of flour. it yields 16 long and flat sword-like strips of crackers that can be cut down into a lot of smaller bits. you can also throw in almost anything into the dough like dried herbs, seeds and ground nuts, garlic that’s borderline sprouting, parmesan cheese, whatever is just about to go bad and is dried for the most part will work here!

these crackers reminded merman of everything bagels so he naturally cured salmon (which is another way to preserving and stretching the goods in your fridge) so that we can enjoy them together like we would with salmon lox bagels. all i have to say is that i fully appreciated the feeling of having a little decadence but in actuality, we were preserving and stretching what we had.

xo, christine

p.s. if you were wondering…as for stretching the toilet paper, don’t worry. i’m not peeling 2-ply into 1 or using 1 square at a time. i’m actually challenging myself to use juuuust enough before tearing into the other side. hahahahaha >:]

poppy fennel seed crackers

yields 16 very long crackers

time: 1 hour; ~30 minutes prep time, 30 minutes baking time

ingredients

cracker dough

2 cups bread flour

3 tbs poppy seeds

1.5 tbs fennel seeds

1 tsp kosher salt

1.5 tsp baking powder

+

4 tbs olive oil

3/4 cups cold water

+

2 tbs olive oil for brushing

1 tbs flaky sea salt for sprinkling

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special equipment

baking sheet

rolling pin

parchment paper

grocery store list

baking: bread flour, baking powder, poppy seeds, fennel seeds, kosher salt, flaky sea salt

other: extra virgin olive oil

notes

prep

1. preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit

2. cut parchment paper large enough to fit your baking sheet(s)

cracker dough

1. making the dough: in a medium sized mixing bowl, combine flour, seeds, kosher salt, and baking powder. stream in olive oil and incorporate into the dry dough to the best of your ability - your dough will be very loose clumps at this point. then, pour in cold water and knead into the dough using your hands or large spoon/spatula for 3-4 minutes - the dough should be able to be formed into a neat ball.

2. divide and rest the dough: cut the dough in half, then fourths, and then into eighths. let it rest for 15 minutes in your mixing bowl or on a clean working surface.

3. stretching a test piece: after the dough has rested, it should feel looser and tender. cut one of the 1/8th pieces in half and using your rolling pin, roll and stretch on your working surface. the dough may initially resist and roll back, but once your spread it thin enough, it’ll become workable. also, do not flour your surface - doing so will cause the dough to slide around and it’ll prevent it from having any traction on the surface to be stretched. there should be enough oil in the dough to prevent sticking from happening. how thin and how large? the goal is to stretch until your dough is as thin as a credit card but not to the point where it’s starting to tear! i aim to have each piece be about 16 inches long and 3 inches wide to fit lengthwise on my baking sheet. either way, play around with this test piece to inform the size of how large/small the dough bits need to be.

4. baking the crackers: carefully peel the strip off the working surface and transfer to your parchment paper lined baking tray. lightly brush olive oil on the top and sprinkle on some flaky sea salt. place in the oven for about 4 minutes for the first side (or until the edges start to turn golden) and carefully flip using tongs and bake for another 2-3 minutes on the bottom side. remove from the oven and allow it to cool down before enjoying!

5. also - while the first round of crackers are baking, continue rolling out the remaining strips. repeat step 4 until you’re done!