This week's Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Peter Reinhart's recipe for Lavash Crackers (which you can get from his book below, starting on page 178-180). Friends joined me in the kitchen and together we had a lot of fun topping our lavash crackers with an assortment of spices.
The dough for these crackers is really straightforward - bread flour, salt, yeast, honey, oil and water. The ingredients are combined and allowed to ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. We then rolled the dough out very thin on a large cookie sheet and let it relax before topping.
The fun is all about the toppings. For our crackers, I raided my spice drawer and used rosemary, paprika, Hawaiian red and black salts, dill, oregano, thyme, etc. We were pretty creative by sprinkling the spices in lines on the dough. Once our toppings were set, some of us pre-cut the dough to make it easier to pull apart after baking while others left the dough whole to create shards. We then baked the dough in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until the crackers started to brown evenly across the top. We removed the baking sheet from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. It's amazing that crackers are this simple to make!
After making these, it boggles my mind how lavash crackers can be priced so high at the grocery store. I definitely encourage you to try making lavash crackers from scratch. I would imagine they would make a great savory gift for the holidays too!
