How to make Tuscan sourdough crackers

I mentioned yesterday that I've been keeping a handle on morning sickness by eating crackers as soon as I feel any nausea. This has worked really well, but unfortunately the crackers I've been eating are the unhealthy store-bought kind, full of non-food things like flavours, colours and emulsifiers.

So I finally got around to trying a homemade cracker recipe I found at Kitchen Stewardship. I started it last night, and finished it this morning. The result - yummy! I'll definitely be making these again.

If you don't already have a sourdough starter, check out Kitchen Stewardship's instructions for how to make one. I was given my starter so I couldn't tell you how easy it is to make one or not.

Ingredients

• 1c sourdough starter 
• 1/4c lard / coconut oil / 57g softened butter
• 1 - 1.5c whole wheat or spelt flour
• 1/2t sea salt
• Olive oil for brushing
• Coarse sea salt and Tuscan or Italian seasoning to sprinkle on top

Method
1. In a large bowl combine starter and butter. Mix thoroughly.

2. Mix in salt and 1/4c of the flour. Knead in bowl, adding flour in 1/4 cup increments until you have formed a stiff dough. In total I used 1.5 cups.

3. Cover with wrap and leave at room temperature for more than 7 hours. I made my dough in the evening and left it over night to ferment.

4. Preheat oven to 160°C. If you will be using a pizza stone to bake the crackers, heat this in the oven now too. Pizza stones work well with crackers because they help them crisp up.

5. Take a third of the dough and roll out on a sheet of baking paper/parchment until very thin.

6. Brush with olive oil, spreading to the edges.

7. Lightly sprinkle with coarse sea salt and Tuscan seasoning. (I sprinkled too much on mine and had to scrape some back off after they were cooked.)

8. Cut vertically and horizontally with a pizza cutter.

9. Transfer baking paper onto pizza stone in oven and bake at 160°C for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

10. While the first batch is baking, roll out and prepare your second and third batches. If you have more pizza stones, you can bake two lots at once.

11. Allow crackers to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Here L is eating a plain cracker. Next time I might top it with some almond butter or cottage cheese and tomato.