cracker/digestive biscuit recipe for cheese?

[cherrylime]

Does anyone have a recipe for some sort of cracker or savory cookie to
have with fancy cheese? I'm guessing something baked in the oven..?

[gabby29]

Martha Stewart has a recipe for Seville Olive Oil wafers in her Baking Handbook (pg. 89). These are very similar to the Matiz cracker sold in gourmet stores. It has a savory sweetness that is divine! Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

[Melanie Wong]

Oh yes, please, gabby! I just had Matiz crackers for the first time two months ago and I'd love to reproduce them.

[geminigirl]

These might also be good, it's armenian cracker bread and you could tweak with flavorings/spices as you like. I haven't made this exact recipie before but I have made cracker bread and it's very easy and makes a lot...

Cracker bread (PAHTZ HATZ)
-Mary Mergerian

2 cups water, lukewarm
2 tsp. salt
1 yeast cake
5 cups flour
¼ cup shortening
¼ cup butter

Melt shortening and butter together. Combine water, salt, yeast cake, shortening and butter. Add flour and knead thoroughly until smooth. Divide into 10 balls and set aside for ½ hour. Roll each ball of dough into circle as thin as you can with 1" dowel type rolling pin.

Bake about 1" above the bottom heat of preheated 500F oven on an inverted preheated cookie sheet.

Makes 10 breads

http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php...

[cherrylime]

Is this kind of a Lavosh Bread type of deal? We LOVE that stuff..will definitely give it a try.

[geminigirl]

not sure really what lavosh is...this cracker bread is like a big cracker (abt the size of a small-large pizza depending on how many you make and how thin you roll them) so it is more crisp than soft. but the beauty of it is that you can dampen the cracker, let it sit for a while, and then use as a wrap sort of thing...let me know how it turns out and if you like it! I've gotten lazy lately and buying it at the local ethnic market...

[cherrylime]

Yes the crispness and dampening possibilities definitely sound like Lavosh..we
buy it and use it as a pizza crust. Really awesome.

[Non Cognomina]

I just tried geminigirl's recipe tonight--turned out great! I substituted 1 package active dry yeast for the (fresh) yeast cake, used veg oil instead of shortening, used AP flour. After rolling, spritzed with water and sprinkled with sesame seeds just before baking. Baked directly on a pizza stone on the lowest rack in oven, slapped them on by hand, fished them out with tongs. Turned out beautifully!

Crispness is definately a function of how thin it is rolled. Be careful to make sure it is rolled to equal thinness. A few of my first ones were hastily rolled and were thicker in the middle than the edges--edges started to burn and middles were still undercooked. Bake time is fast--so keep an eye on them!

I think these would be delicious with an herb or some spices kneaded into the dough. I'm thinking of cumin or 5 spice, or rosemary and garlic. I had them with a lovely stew for dinner. Thanks for the recipe, geminigirl!

[Melanie Wong]

Excellent, many thanks, you made the two subs (oil and active dry yeast) that I would have tried, so I'll be two steps ahead in experimenting. I'll try my hand at this in a couple weeks for a wine tasting. I'll use olive oil and rosemary.

[geminigirl]

not sure if this is what you are looking for but recently made them again and seems like they would work well with wine/cheese as well as cup of tea... the recipie is from the Scottish Lion restaurant in North Conway NH, but not sure if the restaurant is still around...this is probably 20+ year old recipie to me...

1 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups quick rolled oats
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup milk

sift dry ingredients together;
cut in butter thoroughly ( I did this all in my food processor);
gradually add milk until dough is formed;
roll dough on lightly floured surface to 1/8 thickness; (I let mine chill in the fridge a couple of hours before rolling)
place on greased baking sheet at 375 for 12-15 minutes or until slightly browned; (i rolled out the dough and cut into circles using a small wine glass, and re-rolled scraps...

[cherrylime]

Hey thanks! I'll definitely try this..it looks like the perfect recipe. I got too overwhelmed by fancy party recipes to actually try this. 20+ years would qualify as tried and true I reckon. I'll report back.

Yes Melanie! crackers are pricey. I had never thought of making my own until I made some butter almond cookies at christmas and thought hmm I wonder if these would work with cheese? Well they didn't quite. I'm going to try out these gemini digestifs!

[Melanie Wong]

Those oatmeal digestives sound like they'd be the perfect accompaniment for some good Stilton blue cheese and a glass of Port.

I think I'll try making one of the lavosh recipes on the web to try to get closer to the flatbread made by Panzanella and then tweak it from there.

[Melanie Wong]

Yes, I'd love to know how to make croccantini at home similar to La Panzanella, http://www.lapanzanella.com/ . Those are running $7 per package.