Lately, I've become obsessed with dips. I suppose staying at home is making me all nibbly. And while I've been mostly making yogurt dips, it's roasted beetroot that seems to be the flavour of the season with me.
I've been roasting beets and throwing them in salads, making my Egyptian Dip with it, and even throwing it into my morning savoury smoothie. But this post isn't about them beets, it's about these crackers.
Crackers that stay crunchy at all points. Crackers that are the perfect bed for cold dips. Crackers that can last for a long long time.
I used this recipe from my friend Sangeeta's blog as the base and tweaked the recipe as I went ahead. I wanted it to be more seedy than floury and I wanted them to hold shape even if the dips sat on them for a while. I used four different kinds of seeds - flax, watermelon, nigella and sesame and three kinds of flours - whole wheat, finger millet and oat flour. I also added a lot more olive oil to it because the first version I made of these crackers had an acrid taste and I knew adding a little more fat would fix that.
You'll see I've used flax seeds twice, this is because by coarsely grinding them the first time, the crackers got a lot of depth and by keeping some whole they became nice and crunchy.
Also, I didn't bother chilling them and instead rolled them straight on my silicon mat and then baked them straight out. Since it was important to dry the crackers, to get them to be crispier, I baked them on low heat for about 40 minutes. And they turned out perfect.
Do remember, because you want the dough to be pliable but not wet and since the finger millet drinks up a lot more water than you think, you'll really have to eyeball the amount that goes in.
Multigrain multi-seed crackers
Makes about 60 small crackers
Ingredients
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup finger millet / ragi flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup flax seeds - coarsely ground
1/4 cup flax seeds - whole
1/4 cup watermelon seeds
1/4 cup nigella seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Water as much as your require (I used about 1/2 a cup)
Method
1. Toast the finger millet flour in a pan, so that the acrid taste mellows a bit. This takes about two minutes
2. Meanwhile toast all the seeds as well and keep aside.
3. In a bowl add all the flours, garlic powder, salt and all the seeds along with the olive oil. Mix well.
4. Add water slowly and knead into a pliable dough, till it all comes together well.
5. Using a heavy rolling pin, roll out the dough to as thin as you can and spread it across your baking sheet. Alternately you can roll int on your counter with some butter paper underneath which can be slided easily on to a tray.
6. Once you get the desired thickness, cut the dough into the shapes you wish.
7. Bake at 120 degree centigrade for 40 minutes. You will need to cool them completely to know how crisp they are, and if they are not, give them another 10 minutes at the same temperature.
8. Store in an air tight container and serve with assorted dips.
