Olive Oil & Rosemary Crackers

A few years ago, I babysat for some friends of mine so they could go out for an anniversary dinner. They told me to help myself to dinner, and introduced me to some wonderful rosemary crackers. I had one or two and had to heartily restrain myself from eating the whole box. They were amazing. I looked for the brand and crackers and found a box or two but soon the brand seemed to stop making the rosemary variety. I've settled into buying the multi seed version instead, always craving the wonderful rosemary crackers.

Lately, I've contemplated making crackers of my own since the multi seeded variety are rather expensive per box. I was further spurred on to do so by this week's Minimalist column. The version in the column was a cream and Parmesan variety, but Mark Bittman always encourages innovation. I knew my variety would include olive oil and rosemary. Here is my version.

Olive Oil and Rosemary Crackers

3/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
less than 1/4 cup water
coarse salt
dried rosemary

Preheat oven to 400 *F.
Combine flour, salt in food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the olive oil, and begin mixing again. Slowly add the water until the dough is smooth but not sticky. If the dough gets sticky, add a bit more flour to even out the dough.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface, or a silicon baking mat. Roll out until 1/4 inch thin. If not using a baking mat, transfer to a floured or parchment-lined baking sheet. Otherwise, move silicon baking mat onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and rosemary. Score with pizza cutter.

Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool on a rack.

Next time I may try adding an egg white wash to help the rosemary stick better. Or I may add some rosemary to the flour mixture so that it is incorporated into the dough. I'm also curious how long they will stay fresh, though we consumed many of them already today. As you can see, we even ate a few before the picture was taken.
Update: We made two more batches of these on Sunday. I added rosemary to the dough and brushed it with an egg white wash before baking one batch. The rosemary stuck better. For the second batch I brushed it with the egg white wash and sprinkled it with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and caraway seeds. The egg white wash kept the seeds well attached.