Homemade Whole Wheat and Sesame Crackers

I love a nice snappy whole-grain cracker for snacking, eating with cheese, dipping in humus etc.  But name-brand wheat crackers are too greasy and salty.  They're also full of artificial coloring and preservatives.  The more natural ones cost a bundle at places like Whole Foods.  I decided to experiment and see if I could make a whole wheat cracker that was both delicious and nutritious.  

I've been baking bread since I was 16 (I realized one day that whoever I married may not be able to make home-made bread like my mom and I couldn't stand the store-bought white breads available at the time so I asked my mother to teach me).  My first attempt was simply to make a batch of my whole wheat bread, roll it out thinly and bake it slowly on a pizza pan.  It turned out to be crunchy and tasty enough but I decided it could be improved with more flavor so I opted for whole-wheat sourdough embedded with sesame seeds.  That added just the right rich nuttiness and actually made the crackers even lighter and crunchier.

I realized that this could be done with any leavened dough (e.g. dark rye with caraway seeds) and flavored in so many ways (e.g. roasted garlic and parmesan).

What follows are directions for making your own delicious whole grain crackers:

• Make or buy bread-dough of your choice
• Oil a counter-top and roll the dough out as thinly as you can in roughly the shape of your pan (I use about a pound of dough for our 16" pizza pan)

• Transfer the dough to the pan and roll out again to fill the pan and retain a uniform thinness

• Sprinkle with any seeds or nuts you'd like to embed in the crackers and press them into the surface of the dough with your hands or roll them in with a rolling-pin

• Place the pan(s) in a slightly warmed oven to proof (raise)

• Bake for 30 minutes at 250 degrees fahrenheit and then remove cut the dough into cracker-sized squares (I used a pizza cutter)

• Return to the oven and bake at 250 until the edge pieces are crisp and dry, remove those and spread the center ones out a bit and return them to the oven to finish crisping
• Leave the crackers on a rack until they reach room temperature and then store them in Zip-Loc bags or in some other air-tight container

They're great for a light lunch with cheese, pesto, or avocado.  They are fantastic for dipping in humus. They are crunchy enough that I used them to keep me awake while driving on long trips.  They're delicious and natural and YOU decide what goes into them.

Give it a try and let me know how it turns out.  I'd also appreciate any other ideas of flavor combinations.