Saltine Crackers

Good afternoon!  Today we were out of everything and decided to make our own saltine crackers!  Depending on if you have little helpers or not and, also, depending on how helpful they actually are, you could make these in about 20 minutes.  These are really easy and fully customizable.  We decided to make star-shaped crackers but you can also make the traditional, wavy-edged, holes-in-rows kind.

You can also use different kinds of flours, herbs... even cinnamon and sugar!  We chose to make these with half unbleached all-purpose and half white whole wheat.

Saltine Crackers

• 2 cups unbleached flour, whole wheat flour, or whatever suits your fancy.
• 4 tablespoons of melted butter 
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Add the flours and salt to your food processor (or a bowl) and mix it up.

Drizzle in the melted butter and mix.

Lastly, add the water as you are mixing in the processor (or stirring!), being careful to not add too much.  The dough should stick together in a ball but not be squishy.

Roll it out as thinly as you can and cut into desired shapes.

We added stars shapes in rows (not pressing through the dough completely) and the used a pizza cutter to outline the square crackers.



Bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.  Cool before breaking apart, if you can keep from munching on them first!



In order to make the edges straight, I just cut with a pizza cutter and baked the uneven edges, taking them off after baking.  The little crooked strips are yummy, too!  That way, none is wasted AND you don't have to spend too much time trying to make all the dough straight.

So, there you have it!  Saltine crackers... And, even cooler than the ones in the grocery store because they are STARS!!  You could make initials, logos, messages - whatever you imagine.  Another good part is that people with sensitivities to gluten, malted barley flour, or, for that matter, hydrogenated oils, refined flours, high fructose corn syrup, soy, trans fats, extra salt, artificial flavorings and colorings, etc. can have their OWN crackers and free themselves from the tyranny of eating stuff that the big companies don't want to tell you about...  If so-called "natural flavor" was something to be proud of, why not list what it is instead of masking it with just the word "natural"? 

Happy Crunchin' Munchin'!

~Jessica

P.S.  For some bizarre reason, my quotation marks are rebelling... Don't know why, but it is NOT a typo when you've tried consciously to fight it... It works on my preview:(  If anyone knows how to fix it, please let me know.

Flaxseed Pizza Dough

We love making our own pizza dough!  Making pizza dough from scratch is actually easier for us - I know this may sound dubious - than loading everyone up into jackets and into the carseats, discussing which toy "friends" are allowed to come with us in the car, driving all the way to town, unloading into the store, fighting the intense whining to get paraffin-based, rainbow-coloured, fruit-shaped corn syrup products and other sundries, waiting in line next to the candy sneakily displayed at child's-eye-level...  You get the idea...

After much messing with other's recipes, old and new, I've finally come up with my own that pleases everyone, I think.  And, I secretly add omega-3s with the addition of flaxseeds!

Confession:  I have yet to discover a way to make good marinara from scratch.  We like Newman's Own sauce and use Hormel turkey pepperoni.  I've tried to make pepperoni from scratch but it turned out weird, and I could never find nitrite-free curing salts.  I also can't find nitrite-free turkey pepps.  We have tried Hormel Naturals beef pepps, but they are so greasy!  I figured that turkey pepps with a big glass of orange juice to cancel out the nitrites (see link) was better than the greasy beef ones. 

Making bread is one of those things that quickly becomes second nature and you don't have to keep looking at the recipe after you've done it a couple of times...  It just becomes part of you and you develop your own ways of doing it.  Hope you find yours!
Happy Pizza-kneading,
Jessica


Jessica's Flaxseed Pizza Dough  

• 2 cups of unbleached flour (more to mix, if needed)
• 1 cup of King Arthur Flours white whole wheat flour (more to mix)
• 1-2 Tablespoons of WildRoots milled golden flaxseed
• 2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 cup 120-130° F water
• 2 Tablespoons canola oil
• Cornmeal (maybe a 1/4 cup)
• dash of salt 

Preheat the oven to 400° F.  Mix one cup of each of the flours into a large bowl with the yeast and flaxseed.  Add a couple of shakes of salt.  (Your family may desire more salt - we go with less when possible.  Adjust to your tastes.)

Put water and oil into a glass container - like a Pyrex measuring cup - and heat the water to the proper temperature, checking with a cooking thermometer.  The water must not go over 130° or the yeast won't work.
 
Add the water to the flour mixture and then add enough flour to make the dough not sticky.

Knead the dough until it changes into an elastically texture - 1 to 2 minutes.  Sprinkle the ball of dough with cornmeal and let it coat all sides.  Rest the dough for about 5 minutes.

Prep a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Roll out the dough and stretch it to meet all sides of the cookie sheet (or pizza pan!) and be as thin or as thick as you prefer a pizza to be.

Cook for about 5-10 minutes until it appears set but not entirely done.

Get creative with sauces and toppings! 

Cook until veggies are as roasted as you like and TADA!  Homemade pizza quicker than take out and better for you!

Raspberry Syrup

Going with the theme of my first post on homemade coffee creamers, here is yet another way to make those recipes down-to-the-bones MIY...  making homemade raspberry syrup instead of using purchased coffee flavoring syrup.

Homemade Raspberry Syrup

 

Makes 2 1/4 cups

• 6 cups raspberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water

1. Combine raspberries, sugar, and water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally, until raspberries break down slightly and release some of their juice, about 6 minutes. 
3. Remove from heat; let stand for 15 minutes. 
4. Strain mixture through a fine sieve, pressing down on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. 
5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Syrup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. 

From Martha Stewart Living, June 2010

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Raspberry Syrup - Martha Stewart Recipes

Sweetened Condensed Milk

The last post about coffee creamers can be even MORE make-it-yourself-ified by making your own sweetened condensed milk to go with the recipes!  Some recipes for this use canned evaporated milk, but to be even more nuts-and-bolts, this recipe doesn't even need that... 

Sweetened Condensed Milk

This recipe will make 1 can's worth - or 14 oz. - of sweetened condensed milk substitute.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 cup non-fat powdered milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter (optional)

In a blender or with a hand blender, mix the water and milk powder.  Add other ingredients and blend until smooth - about 30 seconds.  Revel in the fact that you just saved yourself a trip to the store!  :)

~Jessica

P.S.  I just read that sweetened condensed milk can be frozen?  I never have tried this, but that would be handy.

Coffee Creamers

Though the flavored coffee creamers in your grocery store's freezer might be yummy, they are also expensive and reek the tang of mysteriously-unnamed artificial flavors, preservatives, and hydrogenated oils (i.e. transfats)... not to mention lots of other complex chemicals and additives.

In the spirit of simplifying life while still embracing yummy coffee flavors, here are some recipes for homemade coffee creamers that I featured at a coffee party this weekend with a few friends...

These fit perfectly in pint jars, which also add to their aesthetic appeal.

Each individual flavor contains half of a can (7 oz.) of sweetened condensed milk and 3/4 cup of 2% milk.  You can also customize them to contain whole milk, skim, or nonfat condensed milk.

Add the following to your milk base to make each flavor:

French Vanilla ~ 1 tablespoon pure (not the fake stuff) vanilla extract.  You can also add another tablespoon of vanilla coffee syrup to make it even more vanilla-y.

Amaretto ~1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract and 1/4 teaspoon pure orange extract

Chocolate Almond ~ 1 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder and 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

Chocolate Truffle Mint ~ 1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract and 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Chocolate Raspberry ~ 1 tablespoon raspberry syrup and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Cinnamon Strudel ~ 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

~Happy Sipping,
Jessica