Daring Bakers: Crackers

Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

Dana gave us several recipes for Crackers and they all looked so good I decided to try all four of them.  I served them at my son's fifth birthday party / picnic and they were a big hit.  It seems like if you tell most people you are making crackers they assume is is something hard - well that could not be further from the truth.  I just made a half batch of each of these and they were all very easy to put together.  In the picture they are from front and clockwise: 1-Cheddar, Rosemary, and Walnut Icebox Crackers, 2-Pepper Jack and Oregano Crackers, 3-Health Crackers, and 4-Seedy Crisps.  I'll just leave you with a few comments on each:

Health Crackers - I used some wheat bran instead of the wheat germ that was called for.  These were hand rolled and I just cut them with a pizza cutter to make nice little squares.  Except for the fact that I salted them a little too much these were very good crackers and they looked like "real crackers" as well.  

Seedy Crisps - Another good one and probably could be called a health cracker too.  I used the pasta maker to roll these because I wanted to try that but it is not really necessary.  Pasta dough is very stiff and hard to get thin; this is not the case with these cracker doughs.  The pasta roller did make them nice and thin and uniform though and I thought these also came out very nice looking.

Pepper Jack and Oregano Crackers - enough of the healthy stuff.  I decided to make this recipe with the pasta roller as well and it was probably a mistake.  The dough was very wet and it would stretch and break a lot in the pasta roller.  I think maybe because of this the dough became a little over-worked and the crackers were not quite as delicate as I would have liked.  Even with that these were my favorite for flavor and they almost looked like a real ritz type cracker.

Cheddar, Rosemary, and Walnut Icebox Crackers - The last type of cracker was a refrigerator cracker.  You just create a log with the dough and slice them off - very simple, very easy.  These weren't really the best looking and they crumbled a lot when eating them but they tasted good.  Nice and buttery and the flavor of rosemary and walnuts was very good.

If you want to try making your own crackers check out the recipes at the Daring Kitchen Recipe Archive.

Barefoot Bloggers: Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

I am kind of cheating here. The pick for this week was Shrimp Bisque which was selected by Jennifer at The Blessed Home. I am sure I would enjoy it but I would be the only one and the recipe looked like it would be way to much work for just me. I feel especially guilty since it was recently my turn to pick and Jennifer did make my selection. Sorry Jennifer. I wanted to make something so I decided to make the Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms which was the pick right before Christmas - I was unable to make it then because I was so busy with Christmas stuff.

I can say I am very happy I decided to go back and make this one. It was easy to make. You can make the stuffing ahead of time and just throw them together when you are ready to bake them. This would be a very nice item to make for a party. My wife doesn't like sausage but with the sausage mixed with everything else she had no problem with it. I made these with the large stuffing mushrooms but other people made them with smaller mushrooms and they look great either way.

Thanks to Michelle of Welcome to the Club for this selection. If you want to check out the Shrimp Bisque you can check her blog. Sorry I didn't get this done in December but better late than never.

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

(Source: Barefoot Contessa - Thanksgiving 2.0 Episode)

Yields 6-8 Servings

Ingredients

• 16 extra-large white mushrooms
• 5 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
• 2 1/2 tablespoons Marsala wine or medium sherry
• 3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from the casings
• 6 scallions, white and green parts, minced
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2/3 cup panko crumbs
• 5 ounces mascarpone cheese, preferably from Italy
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 2 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop them finely. Set aside. Place the mushroom caps in a shallow bowl and toss with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and Marsala. Set aside.
3. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, crumbling it with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook the sausage for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until it's completely browned. Add the chopped mushroom stems and cook for 3 more minutes. Stir in the scallions and garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the panko crumbs, stirring to combine evenly with all the other ingredients. Finally, swirl in the mascarpone and continue cooking until the mascarpone has melted and made the sausage mixture creamy. Off the heat, stir in the Parmesan, parsley, and season with salt and pepper, to taste, Cool slightly.
4. Fill each mushroom generously with the sausage mixture. Arrange the mushrooms in a baking dish large enough to hold all the mushrooms in a snug single layer. Bake until the stuffing for 50 minutes, until the stuffing is browned and crusty.