I am a sucker for artisan crackers. It all started many years ago when those fancy Raincoast Crisp crackers hit the market. My mother-in-law bought them for Thanksgiving one year, and I was hooked. More recently I’ve come to love the Firehook baked crackers. They are so good, but so simple! I started to feel guilty about my expensive cracker indulgence, so I decided to spend the afternoon experimenting with different cracker recipes and figure out how to make some tasty homemade cracker morsels.
I started out with a super simple sourdough discard cracker recipe, but I didn’t love how greasy they came out. This cracker recipe was so easy I really wanted it to work. You literally mix 4 ingredients by hand and then pour it on a silicone baking mat and bake. If you love sourdough flavor, these are it.
Next up, I tried an artisanal rosemary cracker recipe. These were really good, but I missed the sourdough tang. Solution, a mash-up of the best of both crackers, and that’s how this delicious sourdough baked cracker recipe came to be! Now you can make these delicious crackers at home too. Let’s get baking!
Kitchen Tools Needed
This is very basic bread making, simple but you will need a couple of tools to get the job done. I have had the same KitchenAid mixer for going on 18 years and still love it. It is used and abused, and still going strong. I do have to buy replacement beaters and dough hooks occasionally, but otherwise, this mixer is a beast and worth the investment. Buy one for life!
As for rolling pins, I have a super simple french style olive wood rolling pin that I found at Home Goods many many years ago and it still works great. The best part of a rolling pin is the oils in dough naturally oil the wood. This is another item you buy once and will never need another one!
A pastry cutter is a new kitchen tool for me. I never thought I needed one and quite frankly I don’t want extra junk taking up space in my kitchen. My husband convinced me that pastry cutters are actually great useful tools and bought this super simple and affordable pastry cutter on Amazon. Let me tell you, it is amazing! So helpful in this recipe to cut the dough into smaller size bits. Plus, I love it as a clean up tool after working with dough. I can just scrape the counter and scoop the flour with the pastry cutter. No more scrubbing goopy dough with a wash cloth! If you like to bake bread a pastry cutter is a must!
How to Make Baked Crackers
Making artisanal quality homemade crackers is relatively easy. The hardest part is rolling out the dough. Not that that is hard, it just takes time. To make these baked sourdough crackers first add the flour and warm water to the bowl of a stand mixer. Then, using the dough hook attachment, mix the ingredients together. Cover the mixing bowl with a damp towel and let it rest for about 20 minutes for the dough to autolyse. Autolyse is giving your dough resting time to allow the flour to fully hydrate and the gluten to begin to develop which helps make the dough easier to roll out.
Next, add the sourdough starter, olive oil, and dried rosemary to the mixing bowl. Using your stand mixer and a dough hook, mix up the dough until it forms a ball and is not sticking to the bowl. This usually takes about 2-4 minutes of mixing on medium to high.
Transfer the dough ball to a floured work surface and cut the dough using a pastry cutter into 1/2″ chunks. Flatten each chunk to a super thin thickness using a rolling pin. The thinner the better! Move the flatten dough to a silicone baking mat on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt before popping in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes until the edges of the cracker begin to brown. Let them cool for about 5 minutes and then they are ready for nibbling!
Making baked crackers is a great activity with kids. They can roll out all those mini dough balls. This small size is much more manageable for kids to handle than, say, a whole pizza crust.
The Perfect Pair
These crackers go great with just about anything, but I especially love them with Vegan Spinach and Artichoke Dip, the healthier and dairy-free version of a good old classic! These baked crackers are also great with any spreadable cheese.
PrintBaked Crackers
Homemade artisan Mediterranean-style baked crackers. Perfect pairing for dips and cheese.
- Prep Time: 25
- Cook Time: 12
- Total Time: 37 minutes
- Yield: 40 crackers 1x
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup warm water (approx. 90°)
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sourdough starter
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- Large sea salt
Instructions
- Autolyse: Add the warm water and flour to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until incorporated using a dough hook. Then cover with a damp towel for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425°
- Next, add the sourdough starter, olive oil, and dried rosemary to the bowl. Using the stand mixer again with a dough hook, mix all the ingredients together until it forms a ball. Usually, about 2-4 minutes of mixing.
- Prep a work surface for rolling out dough. Flour your work surface. Cut the dough into approximately 1/2″ chunks. Then roll out each chunk into a super-thin, roundish shape using a rolling pin. You’ll want to continually flour the rolling pin so the dough doesn’t stick. This dough is easy to roll, think pizza dough. If you’re having trouble rolling out the dough, coat it in some flour and try again.
- Transfer the flat dough to a silicone baking mat on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt and pop it in the oven for about 12 minutes. If making a single batch, you’ll need two trays for all the crackers. You can bake them at the same time or one after the other.
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