Cracker

I love cheese! I would eat a piece of Cheddar cheese over a piece of chocolate cake any day. That probably makes me a little weird, but if you love cheese like I do, you’ll love these cheese straws. My mom used to make them for baby showers and wedding receptions. In 1991, the year my career started to really take off, she made them for me to give as Christmas gifts to everyone who had been so supportive. We laughed about how these cheesy treats were baked in a small kitchen in Monticello, Georgia, and ended up on the desks of some of the biggest movers and shakers in Nashville.

In Piedmont, the home of grissini, these best-of-all breadsticks are scattered on restaurant tables, unpackaged, waiting for someone to sit down and start the inevitable and irresistible munching. They’re usually quite thin, irregular in shape, and very crisp, with a faint sweetness. You can make these stirato, or straight, by following the directions here. Or make them rubata—hand-rolled and irregular—by just rolling the strips of dough after you’ve cut them to make them even thinner. Sprinkle these with toasted sesame seeds, poppy seeds, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or sea salt before baking if you like, though it’s rarely done in their homeland.

These are the Platonic ideal of our packaged cheese puffs, with the texture of macaroons and the flavors of fresh cheese and fragrant spices. Serve as a snack or stand-up food. You can prepare the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it until you are ready to bake or make the biscuits themselves ahead of time and store them in an airtight container for up to a day.

A popular snack in the Caribbean, these wafer-thin crisps are best eaten right away, and though this amount technically makes 4 servings, you may be tempted to eat all of them alone. The plantains’ inherent sweetness is countered nicely with a little heat from the cayenne. These are best as an accompaniment to mojitos or other Caribbean cocktails, or use as a garnish for any Caribbean dish. They will stay crisp for a few hours if you store them in an airtight container as soon as they cool.

Most every Southerner has a favorite recipe for cheese biscuits, cheese crackers, or cheese straws, those staples of holiday gifting and year-round entertaining. With the addition of rosemary and chile peppers, I give this version of these buttery crackers unexpected heat and flavor that makes them extra habit-forming. Serve topped with fresh goat cheese and pepper jelly along with a round or two of Sazeracs (page 28) or Wendy’s Bloody Marys (page 28). Shake it up with a SALTY DOG (see page 27)

Fried wonton or gyoza wrappers, available in the frozen section of most Asian markets, make fantastic chips to scoop up savory ingredients. They are delicious served with any Asian-inspired tartare or seviche, with Asian Guacamole (p. 66), or as a garnish for just about any salad that would benefit from crunch and nutty sesame seeds.

In France, a croûte is simply a slice of bread that has been either toasted or fried. For the crispy rounds, a baguette-style bread is ideal. We like sourdough, olive bread, ciabatta, or pumpernickel, although any type of thinly sliced bread works. We cut the bread into thin rounds or triangles and brush one side with butter or olive oil, then toast them on the grill or under the broiler until lightly golden. Depending on what you’re serving them with, you can cook them like toast, so that they’re still a little tender, or until crisp all the way through. The toasted, chewy variations are best served right away, while still warm, whereas thoroughly crisp croûtes will keep for several days in an airtight container or Ziploc bag. Be sure to let them cool completely before storing or they will steam and soften when stored. If you want to get a little fancy, try mixing some chopped herbs, grated cheese, or smashed raw or roasted garlic in with the butter or oil.

These crunchy, nutty rice crackers flecked with white or black sesame seeds turn up in a variety of roles on the Vietnamese table. They may be munched as a snack, used like a tortilla chip to scoop up food, or crumbled and mixed into dry noodle dishes. Although I prefer bánh đa crunchy, some folks add them to noodle soups, where they soften into chewy accents. They may even be soaked in water until pliable and then wrapped in rice paper with other ingredients to create hand rolls. These unique crackers are mostly available at Viet markets and delis and at some Chinese markets with a large Vietnamese clientele. They are usually stocked near the rice paper. Dried and untoasted, the crackers look like translucent rounds of hard plastic. Eight-inch ones are easiest to work with. Look for them bundled in short stacks of six to eight, wrapped in plastic or packed in bags and sealed with staples (which means they are probably locally made and very good). Pretoasted crackers are often broken, so skip the convenience and buy them untoasted. Once toasted and cooled, the crackers are broken into lovely shards and served. Here are two options for toasting them.

This recipe makes a home-baked cracker similar to the famous, wonderfully buttery tasting Ritz brand crackers. Recipe tester Pamela Schmidt, who worked long and hard on this one, determined that a little garlic powder in the dough made these taste even more like Ritz crackers. I don’t know if Ritz actually puts garlic powder in their version, but it does add a nice flavor, so I’m going with Pamela on this one.

Okay, I’ll admit it: Although I’m known primarily as a bread guy, I’ve been eating far more crackers than bread lately—probably always have, actually, and it’s a safe bet that I always will. Sure, artisan bread is the sexy sister, but a good cracker is the hardworking Cinderella of baked goods, and I think it’s time to bestow the glass slipper. In fact, I have a feeling that there are many other undeclared cracker freaks out there just waiting for crackers to be validated as a significant player in the exploding American culinary renaissance. A quick look at supermarket shelves shows that the real growth for both crackers and bread is occurring in the whole grain category. Even iconic brands such as Ritz are coming forth with whole grain products. I’ve spent nearly twenty years trying to convince folks to bake bread at home, even tilting at windmills by trying to encourage them to make 100 percent whole grain breads at home, but I’ve encountered far less resistance in urging that same audience to try making their own whole grain crackers. Why the receptivity? It’s probably because crackers are far easier and faster to make than bread (and the dough doesn’t even need to be held overnight in the refrigerator). But I also think there are deeper reasons. Crackers are so versatile, and so easily substituted for chips and other guilt-laden snacks. Whole grain crackers are the perfect, guilt-free snack. Not only do they have a satisfying, toasty flavor, they’re also loaded with dietary fiber, which helps lessen cravings for sweets and reduce mindless eating between meals. When properly made, crackers have a long finish. Eat some now and you’ll still be enjoying the lingering, earthy flavors in 30 minutes. Crackers can be naturally leavened with yeast, like Armenian lavash; be chemically leavened with baking powder or baking soda, like many commercial crackers; or be completely unleavened, like matzo or Triscuits. They’re usually crisp and flaky but don’t have to be. They can be buttery (with real or fake butter), or lean and mean, like saltines and other variations of water crackers. Whole grain crackers, regardless of the leavening method, have one major factor going for them: fiber, lots and lots of fiber. This cracker recipe is easy to make at home, even if you’ve never baked a loaf of bread in your life. It’s a variation of one of the most popular recipes from my previous book, Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, and is especially fun to make with kids. I’ve adjusted the recipe so that these crackers, which are unlike any crackers you can buy, are even more crisp than the original. I’m ready to start a home-baked cracker revolution to match the bread revolution of the last fifteen years and hope I can enlist you in the cause.

When I was growing up, our nibbles were most often the cheese straws made by my grandfather, whom I called Dede. Dede was a tall, strapping man who knew the secret of a long, happy marriage to his iron-willed wife. As he put it, his blue eyes twinkling, he always got in the last word: “Yes, beloved.” Dede would layer his cheese straws in a tin lined with sheets of butter-stained waxed paper smelling of sharp cheese and peppery cayenne. Everyone loves these cheese straws—I once caught a party guest stuffing his pockets with them. A cookie press is needed to make these savory crackers. I prefer the version that resembles a caulking gun, although a turn-crank one will do. Some hard-core cheese straw makers invest in the electric version!

Who doesn’t love a breadstick? And a breadstick wrapped up with yummy stuff is even better. My recipe for homemade grissini (skinny little breadsticks) is really good, but as I always say, pick your battles. If you don’t feel like making them, go ahead and buy some packaged ones—I promise this will still be a crowd pleaser!

This one earned a higher place on the BabyCakes Piece of Cake scale simply because it requires pastry assemblage, which always complicates matters. It might take a little while for you sophomores to get your rhythm down, and your first few straws will probably look more like craggy witch fingers, but it’s all going to pay off if you stick with it. Once it does, you should host a dinner party and set these out early by the pintful.

I don’t think people think of making their own crackers much, but homemade crackers can make store-bought dips and spreads set out for parties a little more personalized. A batch will last for a month stored in a tin and, when paired up with a hunk of good cheese, makes a very nice hostess gift.

So much of recipe development is taking an ingredient and manipulating its texture without diluting the flavor. This is a good example. I have always liked the texture of puffed-rice cakes but not the flavor, which seems bland to me. So I’ve developed a cracker that highlights the nutty flavor of rice.

There’s a lot of flavor in these little crackers, which are the perfect blend of flakey and cheesy. I add these to a bread basket, crumble them over salads, and float them in soup. They keep well in a sealable plastic bag, so make a double batch; you’ll find lots of ways to use them.

Gina: These crispy crackers—cheese, nuts, and a serious visit from the spice fairy—are my kind of snack. I like this recipe because it makes several logs of dough, giving me a few to bake off now and a few more to have in the freezer, for the next time guests stop by. These crisps are the perfect holiday appetizer, when folks are overloaded on sweets and craving a savory snack to have with their drinks.