Other than raising poor white trash;
How do you make a cracker???

I try to make a salteen type cracker and always end up with salted pie crust type squares.
Any help on making a thin crisp cracker would be greatly appeciated.


The recipe I'm using:

4 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup bacon grease
cut fat into flour until pea size
Add:
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
mix together

In a 1 cup measure, stir together,
3/4 cups milk
1-2 tsp. vinegar
mix and stand 10 min. to sour milk

Blend and mix dry with wet ingredients and work into a ball.
Roll ball out on a very lightly floured counter until very thin and salt the tops. Cut into cracker size squares.
Pierce with a fork several times and bake at 350 F. for 10-12 min.

For some reason this turns out as a salty pastry that is not like those crackers you get from the store.

If you have a good cracker recipe, I'll give it a try............
I'll give any recipe a try if it dosn't cost too much................





[edit on 17/10/2005 by anxietydisorder]

[edit on 17/10/2005 by anxietydisorder]

Saltines and other similar commercially produced crackers undergo a super secret yeast fermentation process, but I do have a solution for you. Actually two solutions, here is the first one...

If you have a Homemade Bread recipe it can also double as a cracker recipe. Just mix your bread dough as normal and roll it out as thin as you can get it. Cut it into whatever shape/size you want then let it rise on a sheet pan. Poke them suckers full o' holes, sprinkle with salt and bake at 350 for 10-15(or until dry and crispy).

...and heres the second

Regular ol' White Crackers

2 c All-purpose flour
1/4 ts Salt
2 tb (1/4 stick) butter or
Margarine, softened
1 c Milk
Salt for the tops (opt.)

Preheat oven to 325 F.

In a large bowl or in the food processor, combine the flour and salt.

Cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Slowly mix in enough of the milk to form a dough that will hold together in a cohesive ball. If necessary, add up to 1 additional tablespoon of milk.

Divide the dough into 3 equal portions for rolling.

On a floured surface or pastry cloth, roll the crackers paper thin. They will look almost translucent.

If desired, lightly sprinkle the tops with salt and gently roll over the dough with your rolling pin. With a sharp knife, carefully cut the crackers into 2-inch squares.

Handling them gently, transfer them to an ungreased baking sheet.

Prick each cracker in 2 or 3 places with the tines of a fork.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Cool on a rack.

Yield: 95-100.

Hope this helps!

I bake bread 1-2 times per week because we never buy bread or buns. We just make our own.

I have never thought of making crackers from bread dough.

Thanks adamneldon, I'll try the first one first and see how it goes. The yeast idea makes so much sense now that you've mentioned it. I'll post back to this thread and let you know how it goes.
Sunday is a baking day.............

One other thing I might try is substituting Crisco for the bacon grease in your recipe -- that may make it less salty and lighter.

how did it work out for ya?