For anyone who has been to my restaurant, you will know these from my cheese board. They are super healthy and delicious on their own, smothered with cheese or just smeared with butter.
TOP TIP: If you haven’t got any buttermilk, in a jug pour 70ml of lemon juice and top with 330ml of whole milk. Give it a stir and leave in the fridge for 20 mins and you will have buttermilk to use for the recipe
Get ahead for Christmas. You can cook the loaves, cool them and freeze them if, like me you are making a lot. I then defrost them and slice them when they are still cold.
The cooked crackers will keep in an air tight container for at least a month but you’ll probably eat them before the month is up.
You will need 2 loaf tins.
Makes 40 Crackers
Butter for greasing (Butter spray is good)
150g plain flour
150g malted brown flour (or wholemeal is fine)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70g pumpkin seeds
70g sunflower seeds
20g linseed
Leaves picked from 1 sprig of rosemary and chopped
100g hazelnuts
170g dried apricots roughly chopped
55g soft light brown sugar
400ml buttermilk (see TOP TIP above)
STAGE 1
Preheat the oven to 180C fan. Butter or spray your tins.
Put all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir in the buttermilk until well combined. Divide between the two tins and bake for 30 mins. When cooked they should sound hollow when you turn them out and tap underneath. Leave to cool completely.
I have found that putting them in the fridge helps to slice them quite thinly.
STAGE 2
Preheat the oven to 150C fan
Using a really good bread knife, cut each loaf into slices. Lay them out flat on two baking sheets, you may have to cook them in batches if you run out of space. Put in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove, turn them over and bake for another 15 minutes. I have found that this is not an exact science and towards the end of cooking I regularly check them for crispness. They should be hard.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack then store in an airtight container
Seedy crackers
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g plain flour
- 150 g malted brown flour wholemeal is fine if you can't get malted
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 70 g pumpkin seeds
- 70 g sunflower seeds
- 20 g linseed
- 100 g hazelnuts
- 170 g dried apricots roughly chopped
- 1 tsp rosemary chopped
- 55 g light brown sugar
- 400 ml buttermilk
Instructions
Cooking the loaves
- Preheat the oven to 180C fan. Butter or spray your tins.
- Put all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir in the buttermilk until well combined. Divide between the two tins and bake for 30 mins. When cooked they should sound hollow when you turn them out and tap underneath. Leave to cool completely.I have found that putting them in the fridge helps to slice them quite thinly.
Slicing the loaves to make crackers
- Preheat the oven to 150C fan
- Using a really good bread knife, cut each loaf into slices. Lay them out flat on two baking sheets, you may have to cook them in batches if you run out of space. Put in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove, turn them over and bake for another 15 minutes. I have found that this is not an exact science and towards the end of cooking I regularly check them for crispness. They should be hard.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack then store in an airtight container
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