Another great discard recipe and it makes the most delicious crackers, perfect for healthy snacking or to eat with cheese.These have been a fixture for our many Covid-19 lockdown aperitif!

I use my weekly discard to make them as they do not need to raise so we do not need any of the yeast activity of a fresh starter. It the perfect way to use use up my discard, so not to discard it. My mantra is the kitchen is no food in the bin!

The original recipe, by the amazing Kevan Roberts from Bake Ahead bakery in London, calls for light rye flour but I did not have any so used an ancient grain, Einkorn flour, and it worked just fine. I would recommend using an high protein flour, such as wholewheat or rye, so to absorb all the water in the recipe and give them their crispiness.

They are very easy and fast to make to make and always a hit with the family!

Ingredients

• 40g Liquid starter
• 200g Einkorn flour
• 100g Cold water
• 1/2 tsp Sea salt
• 1 tsp Caster sugar
• Mixed seeds for topping

Preparation

1. Mix the flour, the sugar and the salt in a bowl until nicely combined

2. Mix the water and starter in a small bowl until fully dissolved, pour it in the bowl with the dry ingredients and bring it all together using the help of a dough scraper

3. Once it is all combined, use your hands to compact it and make it into a ball. Put the dough on the bench and work it with your hands the back of your hand until it is all well combined. I worked it for about 5 minutes.

Use the back of your hand when working the dough as it is not very elastic. The dough is relatively hard to the touch similar to a stone.

I usually do my crackers by hand, as they are very easy to make, however if you want to use a mixer make sure to use the hook attachment and mix it on a speed 2, not higher.

4. Let the dough rest covered for 10 minutes.

5. After the 10 minutes, put the dough on a floured bench and sprinkle some extra flour on top. Start rolling it out with a rolling pin by turning it around as you roll it out and making sure the surface of your bench has plenty of flour so it doesn’t stick. You should roll it out to about 29cm x 40cm and 1.5mm thick

Don’t worry if it breaks on the edges as you will be able to reform it and roll it out again at any time.

6. Dock the dough all over with a hand roller or a fork making sure your roller or fork goes all the way through the dought and touches the bench as do it.

This step is to avoid the dough making bubbles while it bakes.

7. Spray a little bit of water and then sprinkle the seeds and/or spices the top of the dough. Put a piece of greaseproof paper over the dough and push the seeds slightly into it applying some pressure with your hands

If you do not have a spray bottle, you can dab water over the dough with your hands. The water allows the seeds to stick to the dough

8. Cut your crackers using a cookie cutter or a knife and place them on a baking tray, covered with greaseproof paper

If using a knife, make use you do one sharp cut, guillotine style, when cutting the dough

9. Any leftover dough can be reformed, rolled out and cut again

10. Bake for 12 minutes in a preheated oven at 200C Fan

I usually make two batches of 5cm round crackers with the amount of dough in this recipe, baking one batch right after the other and using the same baking tray.

11. When out of the oven, they are usually soft to the touch so let them to rest for about 30 minutes on a cooling rack. They will dry out and get crispy

I made mine with a combination of mixed seeds, nigella seeds and coarse Maldon sea salt, but you can use any spices and herbs such as chili flakes or provencal herbs. I would strongly recommend adding Nigella seeds as it gives them a smokey kick, but any combo will work really!

These keep for a while in a airtight container, I usually store mine in a tin I got as a present from Hong Kong!

If you want to make this recipe and share it on your social media please tag me using @prepandproperrecipes and using the tag #prepandproperrecipes and #nofoodinthebin