Rosemary and Thyme Crackers

I have this annoying habit of buying fresh herbs for making one dish, then leaving the rest of them in my fridge, forgotten, until they eventually dry up and I have to throw them out. I hate when I do it. Tell me you do it too so that I don’t have to feel guilty.

I had some leftover rosemary and thyme hanging out in my fridge that I really, really didn’t want to let go to waste. I did get to put some of them in the dough for some sandwich buns that I made one night for our dinner, but after that I still had leftovers. When I did some brainstorming as to what else I could put them in, I realized that it’s been a while since I last made some crackers from scratch.

I know that traditionally, cookies are the treat of choice when it comes to Christmas baking and gift giving. But not everyone has a sweet tooth, and even if you do have one, that doesn’t mean that sometimes you won’t want to take a break from something sweet and taste or give the gift of something a little more on the savory side.

The dough for these is a cinch to put together, but I do recommend that you allow it to rest in the fridge for at least one full day. The dough is very very soft when you first make it, and you want to give it enough time to firm up enough to be rolled out without too much of a mess. The rosemary and thyme flavor will also deepen the longer you let it rest.

You can cut these into whatever shapes or sizes that you like. I did some that were about the size of a Ritz cracker, and then some that were around the size of an oyster. Regardless of the size, I have to say that the most important piece of advice I can give when making any recipe for them at all, is to roll the dough out as thin as you possibly can. There’s no point in baking crackers if they don’t have that snap when you break them in half, and they won’t if they’re rolled too thick. Also, the coarse salt that gets sprinkled on top before baking is highly recommended. That salt helps to further enhance the flavor of the herbs. I really liked these, and I think you will too should you choose to try them out.

DAY 1: VANILLA RED PINWHEELS

DAY 2: CHRISTMAS ELF BITES

DAY 3: THREE FRENCH HEN PIES

DAY 4: CRANBERRY BUCKLE

DAY 5: GINGERBREAD MARSHMALLOWS

DAY 6: HOLIDAY SPICE S’MORES

DAY 7: CRANBERRY ORANGE ROLLS

DAY 8: GINGERBREAD CUT OUTS

DAY 9: ROSEMARY & THYME CRACKERS

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Rosemary & Thyme Crackers

Recipe Adapted from Served From Scratch

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely minced
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cold vegetable oil
2/3 cup water, plus more if needed
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
coarse salt, for sprinkling

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, herbs, baking powder, sugar and salt together and stir with a fork.

Use the large holes on a box grater to grate the butter into the dry ingredients. Cut the shortening into small cubes and add the to the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

Make a well in the center of the ingredients. Pour in the oil and water and use the fork to stir together until it makes a rough, but still homogenous dough. Shape into a disc, wrap tightly in plastic wrap then refrigerate for at least 24 hours. (The longer it sits, the better the flavor will be)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide the dough into quarters and keep the other 3 in the fridge while you work with the 1. Sprinkle a clean work surface with flour. Roll out the dough very VERY thin (as thin as you can get it), using more flour if it sticks. Cut out the crackers into desired shapes, then remove to the lined baking sheets. You can use cookie cutters, or a pizza wheel, bench scraper or sharp knife to make your shapes. Any shape will do. Refrigerate the cut out crackers for 5-7 minutes.

Bake the crackers until light golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes

(Note: no one oven is the same, & different baking sheets bake crackers differently. Keeping this in mind, I will ALWAYS test bake one cracker before baking entire sheets of the whole batch, just to get a good idea of how long they should be in the oven and if I need to adjust the way I’ve cut, rolled them out, etc. I highly recommend that you do the same.)