Whole grain crackers

I had two hours in hand before getting in to work. So I decided to try out making some crackers. They do not need fermentation, so they can be done really quickly. Peter Reinhart's book has a recipe that seems rather appealing. So I try it out with whatever ingredients I have in hand.

Recipe: whole grain crackers (make 1 large cookie sheet)

Ingredients:
dough
- 1 cup King Arthur whole wheat flour
- 3 TB flaxseeds, ground to flour
- 2 TB almond meal
- 3 TB sesame seeds
- 1/4+1/8 tp salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 TB water
- 1+1/2 tp white sugar
- 1 TB olive oil
Toppings
- oil spray
- sesame seeds
- fine table salt

Procedure:
1. Mix flour, flaxseeds, almond meal, sesame seeds, salt and sugar. Add olive oil. Add water incrementally 2 TBs at a time while mixing. When the flour is mostly incorporated, knead with hands to form a dough ball. The dough should feel like modeling clay, that is smooth and strong, not sticky to hand, and not crumbly.
2. Rub the counter with a small amount of oil dipped in paper towel. This helps moving the dough around when rolling out the dough into a sheet.
3. Allow dough to rest for a few minutes. Then roll it out, from center towards the edges in all directions, to a thin sheet. If it's too hard to handle the entire dough, cut into smaller pieces and roll out each part independently. After each rolling, gently lift up the dough sheet and flip it. Then repeat the rolling on side that is thickest. Roll out the sheet to as thin as possible, about 1/8". Then cut the sheet into small pieces using a pizza cutter.
4. To bake the crackers, preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the small pieces of dough uniformly on the parchment paper. Bake at 350F on middle rack for 17 minutes or until the crackers are nicely brown, but not burnt.
5. To apply toppings, spray the crackers thinly with oil immediately after they come out of the oven. Then sprinkle the toppings thinly on top.
6. Allow the crackers to cool on the baking sheets between serving. The crackers become crispy when cooled.

Results:
1:20pm, initial mix of the ingredients:

1:34pm, shape and texture of the dough after kneading:

1:34pm, look of the dough when it's ready to be rolled out:

1:34pm, dough being gradually rolled out on a counter thinly coated with some oil:

1:44pm, dough being rolled thinner:

1:46pm, dough being cut into parts to help further thinning:

1:47pm, part 1 of the dough being rolled out:

1:49pm, part 1 of the dough rolling thinner:

1:50pm, part 1 of the dough rolled to less than 1/8" thick:

1:50pm, part 1 of the dough being cut out to small pieces:

1:52pm, part 2 of the dough ready to be rolled out:

1:54pm, part 2 of the dough seems more sticky to the bottle than part 1:

1:55pm, part 2 of the dough rolled out and cut:

1:58pm, part 3 of the dough ready to be rolled out:

2:00pm, part 3 of the dough rolled out and cut:

2:04pm, dough spread onto a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, going to be baked on middle rack:

2:04pm, extra dough on a small pan, going to be baked on top rack:

2:22pm, crackers baked for 17 minutes on middle rack:

2:22pm, crackers baked for 17 minutes on top rack have been overcooked, and need to be discarded:

Observations:

1. This dough is surprisingly easy to knead. It feels really great and clean in the hands. The seeds and almond meal provides plenty of oil to tenderize the dough.
2. I did not know I needed to apply a spray of oil before sprinkling the toppings. Without the spray, the toppings did not seem to stay well on the crackers.
3. In this experiment, it is obvious that the pan on the upper rack become cooked much faster than the large pan on the middle rack. It is not obvious whether this is due to the different sizes of the pans, the materials of the pans, the colors of the pans, or the position of the rack.
4. The taste of the crackers is ok. It could be improved.
5. The overcooked crackers are crispy even when they are just out of the oven. The properly cooked ones are mostly crispy, but very mildly moist in the center. They become fully crispy and dry after cooling.

I think it's a great start.