Homemade crackers and hummus - Dairy Foods

Mmmmmmmm....homemade crackers. They are just pure awesomeness.  I love everything about these crackers; the freshly cracked black pepper, sea salt, the crunch.  And they are really easy to make.  If you have flour, salt, pepper, sugar, butter and milk you can have homemade crackers in about 30 minutes.

Hummus goes really well with these crackers.  And I found the absolute best hummus recipe (see below). 

The cracker dough about to go into the oven.

Freshly baked crackers.  If this isn't beautiful I don't know what is.  Seriously.

Salt and pepper crackers (recipe from My Recipes)

Ingredients

2 cups flour, plus more for rolling
1 tablespoon sugar
About 1 tbsp. salt
About 1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2/3 cup milk

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, 1 tbsp. salt, and 1/8 tsp. pepper. Add butter and rub with fingers to work it into the flour mixture until no discernible pieces remain. Stir in milk. (Or you can pulse flour, sugar, 1 tbsp. salt, and 1/8 tsp. pepper in a food processor to combine, add butter, pulse until no discernible pieces remain, and whirl in milk.) Turn mixture out onto a floured work surface and knead; form into a ball.

2. Divide dough ball in half. Working with one half at a time, pat each into a rectangle. Roll rectangles paper-thin and transfer each to its own baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut lightly (not necessarily all the way through) into 2-in. squares. (Cut off uneven sides or simply have some uneven crackers.)

3. Bake 10 minutes. Switch position of sheets and continue baking until dough is starting to brown but is still mostly white or golden, about 5 minutes. Let cool on pans. Break into crackers and serve.
I probably didn't get the crackers quite as thin as they should be.  Rolling out the dough was the most challenging part, be sure to have plenty of flour on the counter and rolling pin because the dough is a bit sticky.  I didn't mind thicker crackers.
 


Hummus (recipe adapted from Epicurious)

Ingredients

2 cups drained canned chickpeas, liquid reserved
1/2 cup tahini, with some of its oil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus oil for drizzling
2 garlic cloves, peeled, or to taste
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon ground cumin or paprika, or to taste, plus a sprinkling for garnish
Juice of 1 lemon, plus more as needed
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Preparation

1. Put everything except the parsley in a food processor and begin to process; add the chickpea liquid or water as needed to allow the machine to produce a smooth puree.

2. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve, drizzled with the olive oil and sprinkled with a bit more cumin or paprika and some parsley.

Note, I halved this recipe and it was still plenty.  Be sure to add salt and pepper slowly to taste.  I really enjoyed the addition of cumin. 

This is the perfect snack and fairly healthy, too.  Enjoy!