For the past one week I’ve been scouting the supermarkets for rosemary. They’ve got everything else- thyme, parsley, basil, marjoram, chives; but no rosemary. Either it’s out of stock or its too dead to be used. I’ve got a list of things that I want to make that require rosemary and these crackers were on top of the list ever since I saw them on Kelly’s blog.
Yesterday, I finally got my hands on some fresh rosemary and made these the first thing in the morning today. I added chopped olives and garlic to the dough for some extra pizzazz. As I put together the ingredients; I was smiling to myself about the quantity of garlic I should add. I love to add a little garlic whenever I can; and with olive oil and rosemary, it would only make an unbeatable combination of flavours.
Since Kelly mentioned that her rolled dough didn’t keep together very well, I rolled it out on the Silpat itself. Sprinkled it with my new fancy Himalayan pink salt and let it bake for about ten minutes.
I popped a few in my mouth as soon as they were out of the oven and oh my goodness gracious! These were amazing – salty, cheesy, herby with tiny surprises of garlic. They were gobbled down in no time. Didn’t feel the need for a dip. My dad is already asking when I’m making them again, because these were too few! While Mr. Bittman suggests these will serve 4, I disagree. If you are a fan of all these flavours it’s better you double the recipe!
Olive and Rosemary Crackers
based on Mark Bittman’s recipe
1 cup all-purpose flour, more as needed
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp parmigiano reggiano cheese, finely grated
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 tbsp black olives, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup cream or half-and-half, more as needed
1 Tablespoon milk, if required
Pink Himalayan salt or your favourite topping – coarsely ground pepper, sesame seeds or poppy seeds.
- Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.
- Put flour, salt, cheese, rosemary, olives, garlic and olive oil in bowl of a food processor. Pulse until flour and olive oil create little crumbs. In case you don’t have a food processor, simply whisk all the dry ingredients together first. Then add the oil and using a fork or a pastry blender mix till they look like coarse crumbs.
- Add about 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half and let machine run for a bit. If the dough is still a little dry after pouring in the cream, add a little milk. Alternatively (without the food processor), pour the cream into the dough mixture and combine it into the dough with your hands..
- Roll out dough on the Silpat or the baking sheet until 1/4-inch thick or even thinner, adding flour as needed.
- Score lightly with a sharp knife or a pastry wheel to break crackers into squares or rectangles later on. Sprinkle with the salt or topping of your choice.
- Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack; serve warm or at room temperature.
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow these look great, so tempting i wish i could grab one right now
Those look so fabulous. Wondering if this is possible without a food processor? Maybe not huh?
Oh no, Arundathi, you can make these without a food processor as well. Just use your hands and combine the ingredients together. The food processor only makes it a little less messy, that’s all.
These looks wonderful!
This looks great! I think I’ll try it with Rye flour. Thanks Shaheen!
ooh! does the pink Himalayan salt add something different in taste?
Thanks, Kavey.
Oh Tom, I love the idea of trying this with rye flour!
Pearl, the pink Himalayan salt tastes wonderful. It doesn’t have that concentrated sharpness of regular salt. It’s a lot milder. And given that they’ve got a tonne of natural minerals, I’m happier having this!
Wow, that looks crunchy and the ingredients give me the smell of it. Will be trying it soon..
“an unbeatable combination of flavours” I loved that line!!
Also the end of your post really summarized the value of this recipe – “While Mr. Bittman suggests these will serve 4, I disagree. If you are a fan of all these flavours it’s better you double the recipe!”
Great writing as usual!
yummy yummy yummy. I have got to try these.
These look delicious. I’ve only ever made crackers once, but I think this would be the recipe to get me to do so again.
Oh, I’ve tried from Kelly’s blog. HOwever, I didn’t really added the pink salt
And I added pecorino cheese since I, well, 
wanted to try out pecorino!!
Am sure with the pink salt, it must have tasted great!!
Drop dead gorgeous crackers, just the way I like them. Mmmmmmmm garlic! Guess what, bought a TINY rosemary plant 2 days ago, & cannot wait for it to grow so I can begin using it. Can see the microplaner, siplat sheet & Himalayan salt being put to very good use!I love savoury stuff, & this is YUM!!
Yes I could use my hands but I guess I’ll have to chop etc very tiny if I’m not using the processor!
lol!
A_and_N: Isn’t is awesome? Pecorino cheese in the crackers sounds great.
Deeba: I’m so very jealous of your rosemary plant!
Arundathi: Oh no, the food processor just does the job of combining the dough. I’ve chopped the herbs and olives by hand.
nomnomnom!
No wonder your Dad is asking when you’re gonna make them again. What’s not to love about them?
hey- you can find rosemary at crawford market.
Thank you so much traderjanki, you just made my day!
but wait- not the little seeds in the mini pot that i wrote about on my blog. that i got in the states
but you can find packaged rosemary (and all the other herbs you mentioned) from this one stall…he also carries a million different types of lettuce and sometimes edamame, and the stall across from him has lovely cherry tomatoes, broccoli, red and yellow peppers and avocados.
Oh oh oh! I can buy the herbs in packets at local supermarkets. I want a potted plant! I didn’t find any rosemary seeds when I was there. I found chives at Ikea though.. Should have sneaked in a plant.
I love the flavor of himalayan pink sea salt. I get mine @ http://www.sustainablesourcing.com/
It makes all the difference in the world. I can’t wait to make these crackers! They look WONDERFUL!
Those look so good – I can’t wait to try them out!
so glad you made them! great idea with the silpat… i’ll definitely use that next time.
These look wonderful, and would not even need to be topped with anything, thank you!
Great post! These are so wonderfully rustic looking!
I had 1/4 rye flour and no olives, but some cheddar as well as parmesan in my mix. I also added some dried onions.
I then messed up on the amounts of oil and cream and so, ended up with rather soft but brown crackers after 12 mins in the oven. I took them off the baking tray (lined with greaseproof paper) and put the onto a rack, but then decided to improve upon them and pop them for another 8 mins into the oven.
Result was still too crumbly to eat as cracker
Alternative uses for the failed crackers:
* Fry one of the crumble crackers instead of flour alongside the onion fry to make gravy.
* fry in butter, and use the hot crumbs and oil as a decoration for cauliflower, asparagus or lentils.
* Make a fry with onion and the crumbs, add to potatoes (mash, Knoedels etc) as topping or crunchy tasty bits in the mass.
* Use in a salad or sandwiches as the magic tasty crunchy bits
So, I ended up with a very versatile spice instead of crackers, but as far as I'm concerned, this on is a fail again once my current failures have been used up.
Hey Anon thanks for sharing your detailed experience.I like your positive outlook about turning these into quite something else. Very inspiring. Your comment has really got me thinking.
Thanks! And don't give up okay, you will learn.
These crackers look delicious!
Thanks for such good recipe… I made couple of changes by replacing virgin olive oil with Patan ghee and crackers seemed more delicious…. I should try it.. Regards…
i usually don't leave comments in blogs… but for this recipe, i had to! i am always making these, they are SO delicious, my whole family loves them.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Hi
I made these yesterday, variation of these actually, substituting ingredients I did not have, but I mostly went by this recipe; and the crackers came out so good. The best I have had, if I may say so.
Thanks a lot.
Love your blog.
So good to know! Thank you
This looks amazing. Funny though that I haven’t ever seen a recipe like this around. So happy to have found it. Thank you so much.
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