Cumin Seed and Cayenne Crackers *updated*

Making your own crackers is not all that difficult. If you are a person who does your own baking all the time *cough, cough Rachel* then these'll be very easy.

And you can change around the seasonings too! Nothing wrong with experimenting around with flavours as Naturelady certainly knows all about that.

I got the idea for these from a cookbook (I have a whole bookshelf of those darned things), but I'm not going to tell you which one as not only were there numerous typos throughout all the recipes, but the crackers (which didn't include cumin seeds or chili or SALT or turmeric) tasted HORRIBLE! I also had to change around the amounts of dry stuff.

Kinda tells you about the editing prowess of the folks at Newscorp, eh?

Anyways, here's a fairly simple recipe for making your own crackers and not having to worry about pronouncing all the unpronounceable chemicals in the commercial crackers.

What you need:

1 cup of flour
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp baking powder (I know it seems low, but we are making crackers, not bread)
1/2 tsp raw sugar
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp cayenne powder OR 1/4 tsp chili flakes (double it if you really like spicy stuff)

1/4 cup of milk
2 tbsp olive oil


What you do:

Mix all the dry ingredients together --that'd be the first 7 of the above list. Add the milk and olive oil and stir lightly, then knead a few times.

THIS DOUGH WILL BE CRUMBLY! But that's OK.

Now let's roll this out! Grab off about half or a third of the dough, plop it on your counter, and start rolling! You want to get it to betwixt 1mm and 2mm thick. I like to err on the thin side personally.

Once you have it rolled out, you then get to cut the dough into cracker sized pieces. Before you do that though, you can prick the thin rolled dough with a fork if you so desire. Cookie cutter, kitchen knife, pizza cutter... whatever you want to use to cut the dough into whatever sized crackers you prefer. Your choice!

Then, of course, roll out and cut the rest of the dough.

Sprinkle some sea salt on a baking tray, put the crackers on it (you can crowd them, no worries) and sprinkle a bit of salt on the top.

Bake for about 10 minutes in a 350-400 F oven. Once the bottoms are slightly browned, then turn em over and bake for about 3 or 4 more minutes.

LET THEM COOL! They are *ok* when hot, but soooooo very tasty once they've cooled. They're also strong enough to scoop up any amount (or type) of dip you care to use.

Making your own crackers is an easy thing to do, and you get to stay away from all the chemical crud in the store-bought crackers.

*update*

Feel free to play around with the flavourings, please let me know if you find a really great spice/herb/seed combo, thanks for that.