I rarely use whole wheat flour exclusively in my recipes because, well, I love the taste and baking characteristics of white flour. Crackers are an exception. They don’t need to rise and you can pack a lot of flavors alongside wheat. Here’s my favorite cracker recipe which is simply a version of the basic cracker recipe I posted on earlier.

Ingredients
• 2 cups whole wheat flour (white whole wheat, traditional, pastry, or any combination)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
• 1 to 2 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• coarse sea salt to taste

Follow directions in basic cracker recipe, sprinkling sea salt to rolled out dough and gently pressing down with a rolling pin or by hand.

November through the new year is always a busy time for our family and I feel like I’m always in the kitchen! Here’s one must have food tradition for our family – oven roasted chestnuts, the next best thing to roasting on an open fire. The key to making them easy to peel is to keep them warm in the oven after roasting. Once the chestnuts cool off, the inner skin sticks to the meat making them much harder to peel.

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• With a paring knife, cut an ‘X’ on one side (to let the steam escape).
• Arrange on cookie sheet and bake about 20 minutes.
• Peel just when it’s cool enough to handle.

Note: If the chestnuts cool off too quickly, keep them in the oven at 125° F until ready to peel.

Crackers are one of the easiest, most versatile “quick breads” you can make. A basic cracker recipe contains just flour, fat, baking powder, and liquid. As for seasonings, anything goes! Once I discovered how quick and easy it was to make especially with the stand mixer doing all the work, I’ve not bought crackers since! Here’s my tried-and-true base recipe: Read More »