Homemade Whole Wheat Thins

So yummy!

One of my cousins asked me on facebook today how I make my crackers.
Funny she should ask, as I had recently taken pictures to do this little post & share my favorite cracker recipe!

This is adapted and tweaked from the "More Food that Really Schmecks" cookbook by Edna Staebler. ( I love this cookbook series by the way. I own both "Food that Really Schmecks" and this one, and they read like a letter from an old friend.)

Here is the original ingredient:

4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt, (optional)
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup shortening
2/3 cup water or milk, more or less

I made a batch of these the other day for David- he had been complaining that we were all out of savory snacks, and we are doing our best to not buy pre-made anything if we can help it. These crackers are great for snacking on plain, or eating with cheese- I  plan on making more whenever we run out so we can always have them on hand. Today I made a batch of hummus... and hummus + these crackers made a very yummy lunch!

Edna recommends adding various seasoning to the top of the crackers while you roll them out, but this time I decided to try adding some herbs and garlic straight to the dough itself. Play around with whatever you feel like adding. That's the best part of her recipes and cookbooks- They are very chill and free- a happy framework in which you can play around with to suit your personal tastes.

Here are all of my ingredients & tools sitting out (You have to include on of those staged ingredients photos when you're blogging right? ;) )

You start by measuring out your dry ingredients- flour, herbs, salt, etc. (I didn't add any sugar to mine, and I honestly like them better this way) I used:
4 cups ofhome ground whole wheat flour
Approx. 1 Tablespoon parsley
Approx. 1 Tablespoon Oregano
Approx. 1/2 Tablespoon Basil
Approx 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
Approx. 1 teaspoon dill
Sea salt (not pictured- I didn't measure mine, but in the future I plan on a) putting in at least the recommended teaspon, and b) grinding it first- the stuff I have is a little course)

Cutest little kitchen helper ever!

Anyway, give that all a stir, and then when it is well blended, you can start working in your 3/4 cup of shortening.

If you have a food processor, you can use it to wiz the shortening and flour mixture together. If you're like me and have yet to invest in one, you can build your muscles and use a pastry blender:

Well blended dry ingredients

Next step is to add water. Edna says to add 2/3 cup of your liquid, more or less... and at least with this batch I needed to add more. I was probably closer to a 1/2 a cup. I dumped the full 2/3 of a cup to start, started mixing it with a fork, and quickly realized it needed more liquid, so I added in water a tablespoon at a time. (I always try to dump it on the flour that hadn't yet incorporated into the dough, rather than the dough itself- you end up with a more even dough that way)

This could still use a wee bit more water

Again, if you've got a food processor, this whole mixing thing should be pretty easy. If not, you might eventually give up on the fork and just use your hands for the last little bit- that's fine too.

Edna says to divide the dough into 4 parts and roll each one out as thin as parchment. I divide mine into 5 parts- my cookie sheets aren't big enough to hold 1/4th of the dough rolled out that thin. You might have to experiment with yours.

How thin?

As thin as you can manage. You should be able to see light through the dough very easily: I find it helpful to pick up the dough and flip it over frequently while rolling to prevent it from sticking, which also helps me roll it thinner too.

See all the light?

Transfer your super thin dough to your ungreased cookie sheet. If you've got random peninsulas of dough that are too wide or too long, just cut them off and use them to fill any empty spaces on the cookie sheet. Since they are all going to end up in cracker sized pieces anyway this isn't too big of a deal. Speaking of cracker sized pieces, go ahead and score them now, before they bake. I like to use a pizza cutter, and I am SO not OCD about the size and shape of the pieces. :)

One last thing that has to happen before you put them in the oven- they need to be pricked! Edna says "To prevent bubbling, prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork- let it bounce." I didn't really realize there was such a thing as a "bouncing fork technique" until I tried it thanks to this recipe- just hold your fork loosely at the end to control the bounce and let the fork fall semi-horizontally onto the dough. It's pretty fun!

Scored and Pricked!

Finally. Bake for about 10 minutes in a 400 degree F oven. They should look crispy, but not too brown on top. D Slide them off onto a cookie sheet to cool. Once they are cool, break them along your score marks and toss them into a tin or other storage container.

Or just eat them for a snack right away.

 Enjoy! Let me know if you make them- or if you have another favorite cracker recipe!

Week 11/12

Hah.

I attempted to start this bog post at the beginning of last week, but I never had the time to finish it. Yikes!

For the record:
Week 10's goal: To bed by 11:00 and menu plan. I modified my bed time to 12:00, mostly cause it fits better with David's schedule... I made a menu plan, but I'm still struggling with that one.

Week 11's goal: (This last week) I focused both on having devotions first thing in the morning (This was my first goal when I started at the beginning of the year, but I haven't been taking the time for it lately, and so that meant that it was back on the table for being worked on again.) and working out 5-6 times a week. I think I only missed one day of Devotions this week, which was good, and I put in two formal work outs, with "running up and down the stairs a million times today" counting for aerobic training once, and "winding 2,000+ yards of yarn on the re-skeiner" counting as strength training once... for a total of 4ish workouts- it could have gone better.

This coming week, Week 12, my plan is to do spring cleaning. The last time my parents were here, my mom bought me a book called "The House That Cleans Itself". The big idea behind the book is changing the house to fit the behavior, rather than changing the behavior when it comes to cleaning. I'm reading it today, and I plan to start working through it over the next 2- 4 weeks as my main focus. While I'm working through that, I'll be going back and revisiting some of my old goals to make sure I'm still on top of them- like working out, devos, drinking tea (I didn't at all last week cause I was so busy and didn't have the time, and boy, did I ever miss my cuppa tea!)  and wake up/bed time etc. I'm excited.

I'll try to keep you updated with how this deep cleaning/streamlining of my house goes. To give you a little taste of how the book is set up let me share with you how the author Mindy has you CONVERT a room into the HTCI system:
C-clear out the clutter
O- open up and clean
N-neaten, organize, and solve problem spots
V- verify and set up Stations as needed
E-examine Sight Zones
R record future improvements needed
T take steps now for ongoing maintenance

So far I've read up to the "V" chapter. It's the most unique book on organization/cleaning systems that I've read. Not like there have been that many that I have read.... She talks about the different personalities of people who clutter and have disorganized lives, and how different reasons for clutter need to be approached in different ways.  She also talked about Home base zones (that one place in the house that if you've got it clean/clutter free you feel peace even if the rest of the house is a disaster) and setting up a devotion "station" with your bible, journal, pen, devotional books etc before you jump into working through cleaning out the rest of the house. I'm pretty excited! I'd like to finish reading the book tonight so that I can start working through it tomorrow morning.

Rather than leave you with a picture of DJ- here is a link to videos from the Church services at Trinity. By tomorrow afternoon (Monday, March 21st) the video from today should be up. Trinity just started a choir, and I'm in it! Not only that, but last night right before practice the director asked me to be on the "front line"- she has two people from each part sing with mics to make it easier to make sure the parts are balanced through the sound system. We really had a good time and God really showed up. It was awesome.

The link:
http://trinitywired.com/media/service  The whole service is about an hour, but the music portion is probably only 15 minutes or so. I hope you enjoy it!