There are times when austerity and economy are good kitchen partners. These crackers come from Ottolenghi's excellent cookbook, and not only look impressive - they do - but they are incredible to eat. More refined
if you use white flour, but a mixture of white and wholemeal is not a
bad idea. Last time, I added a heaped teaspoon of chopped rosemary
needles to the dough. Recommended.
Worrying about neatness when rolling here is not the point - the more irregular, the better. The blistered tongue shape is integral to their charm and each one should be unique. Rustic is good. Cheap is good. Embrace it.
Olive oil crackers
From Ottolenghi the Cookbook. By all means, use the dough hook on your free-standing mixer. Lugging out the mixer each time I fancy a cracker seems ludicrous, so I find that making them by hand is just as successful and only slightly more work. My mixer,
bought for looks rather than functionality, is bloody heavy.
Sift 250g of flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder over a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in 125ml of water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Work to a dough, then turn out and knead on a very lightly floured bench until smooth. Wrap in clingfilm or a clean tea towel and rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
Set your oven to 220 C. Line a baking sheet with non-stick paper.
Dust the bench and keep the flour close to hand. Using a serrated knife, cut off walnut-sized knobs and roll them out in long, very thin tongues - you've no doubt seen how thin sheets of pasta need to be rolled, so use that as a guide. Dust heavily with flour as you go. Arrange on the baking sheet, brush liberally (go on) with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Bake in batches for 6-8 minutes with an eagle eye on the clock. Pale gold is good; deep gold is burnt.
Cool on a rack and try not to eat too many.
