A quick, wholegrain, no-fuss fruit and nut-studded Scandinavian-style crispbread for the cheeseboard, with soup or just for nibbling.
Just make sure and keep some for yourself.
Today’s crackers were a “prop” in my last post’s Sweet Onion, Cabbage and Wild Rice Soup (in essence, a healthier French onion soup), topped with dinky butter-fried figs. But they are truly cheeseboard crackers. Serve a pile of them with a few hunks of best cheese, some split figs, grapes and dark chocolate shards (yes, chocolate) and wait for the plaudits.
How to get the snappiest crackers
Cranberry and Hazelnut Crispbreads
A quick, wholegrain, no-fuss fruit and nut-studded Scandinavian-style crispbread for the cheeseboard, with soup or just for nibbling. xx
120g wholegrain flour (I used this gluten-free one from Free From Fairy)
100g wholegrain oats
50ml olive oil or a neutral-flavoured oil, perhaps avocado
50g finely chopped hazelnuts
1 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tbsp flaxseeds
25g dried cranberries or sour cherries, chopped
1/2 to 1 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp honey or mild maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
100ml warm water
50ml fresh orange juice
Zest of one small unwaxed orange
Method
1. Heat the oven to 180C/160C (fan)/350F. Take out two large baking trays and line with parchment paper.
2. Add all of the dried ingredients to a very large, spacious bowl, stir with your hands, then tip in the oil, juice and water. Stir very well. Squidge with your hands if needs be.
3. Ideally, rest the dough in the refrigerator for half an hour but the dough will hold even if you don’t. Divide the dough into two pieces and roll out each between two sheets of parchment paper. Go as thin as you can for a real good snap after baking.
4. Use any shape cutters that you like, or roll out into a rectangle and slice into rectangular crackers. If doing the latter you can just keep them as they are on the paper; no need to divide them up, just lift the loaded paper onto the tray.
5. Use a spatula to move the cut out pieces onto the two parchment-lined baking trays (or do in batches). Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, swapping around the trays halfway through. If you are doing rectangles and haven’t divided them up, you will need longer, perhaps moving the more done ones to the centre when you check on them.
6. Take the crackers out of the oven. After a few minutes use the spatula to transfer them to a baking rack. Let them cool completely before storing in an airtight container. They will keep up to 2 weeks.