THE BLUE
GINGER CRACKER
This super-cracker is the
first thing a Blue Ginger customer eats, and therefore something
I’ve put a lot of thought into. Flavored with garlic and tantalizing
spices including fennel and coriander
seed, it’s everything a savory cracker should be and more.
It’s great with a meal, but you can also top the crackers with curried
shrimp salad, tapenade, smoked
salmon, or flavored cream cheese, for example, and serve them
as an hors d’oeuvre. I confess I like them best as is, but you can do
as Julia Child did when she visited
us at the restaurant: slather them with butter. They’re not
bad that way—not bad at all.
Makes about
forty 3 by 4-inch crackers
-
1 cup
extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the pans
-
1 egg
white, for brushing
-
1 recipe
Blue Ginger Cracker Dough
-
Kosher
salt to taste
-
1/4 cup
toasted sesame seeds (see Ming’s Tip, left)
1. Preheat
the oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, whisk the 1 cup of olive oil and
the egg white and set
aside.
2. If using
defrosted frozen dough, allow it to double at room temperature, about1
hour. Flour a work surface generously. Place the dough on it and with
your hands, flatten
the dough into a 1-inch-thick rectangle. Fold the dough in half and
flatten it
again into a similar rectangle. Wrap the dough in a damp cloth and allow
it to rest for
15 minutes.
3.
Grease 2 large baking sheets,
preferably rimmed, with olive oil and set aside. Quarter
the dough rectangle, and roll each piece 1/4
inch thick, keeping the rectangle
shape. Transfer 1
rectangle carefully to each of the pans and, using your hands,
stretch the rectangles to the sides of the pan, making them as thin as
possible without
tearing. Using a pizza cutter, trim the dough edges. (Keep the trimmings,
which can be combined and used to make more crackers.)
4.
Brush the dough with the oil–egg
white wash. Sprinkle the dough with salt and sesame
seeds. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 5 by 5-inch rectangles
(or any size
you like). Bake the crackers until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.
Remove the
crackers with a spatula and cool on racks.
