These spent grain soda crackers are made with spent grain flour and whole spent grain for flavor and texture.Spent grain crackers are very easy to make. You'll want to have some on hand at all times to munch alone or with cheese or spreads and dips.
2cupsall purpose flourwhisked, spooned into a cup, and leveled off
¼cupspent grain flourlight or dark
¼cupwhole spent grainsdried
½teaspoonbaking soda
½+ 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ozcold unsalted buttercut into small bits
1cupcold milkI used whole milk
kosher salt or your favorite finishing salt/s to sprinkling on top
Instructions
Whisk the flour, spent grain flour, and whole spent grains together in a medium bowl.
Add the baking soda and salt and whisk again to make sure everything is evenly combined.
Rub the butter in with the tips of your fingers until it looks like coarse meal. You don't want any larger bits of butter.
Use a knife to evenly stir half the milk into the flour mixture.
Add the remainder of the milk, and stir in with a knife. The mixture will look very dry.
Mix and knead the dough a few times, right in the bowl, until it comes together. The dough will be slightly sticky but shouldn't stick to your hands.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. This will allow the flour and the dried spent grains to fully and evenly hydrate.
Preheat your oven to 375F.
Work with 1/2 of the dough at a time, so cut the dough in half, wrapping one half up and returning to the fridge while you work with the other half.
Sprinkle a clean, dry work surface with some all purpose flour.
Roll the dough out into a square about 13-14" on a side. Dough should be fairly thin. 1/8" is a bit too thick, so take your time and roll the dough pretty thin.
Use a pastry wheel or pizza cutter to clean up the rough edges of your dough, leaving you with about a 12" square of dough. You can bake the scraps as well, but they will be irregular in shape.
Cut the dough into 2" squares for a total of 36 crackers.
Place the crackers on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Leave roughly 1/2" between the crackers. It's okay if they're close together. You just don't want them touching.
Sprinkle the tops of the crackers evenly with your favorite finishing salt and press down slightly so the salt adheres to the crackers.
Bake in the center of the oven for 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time to ensure the crackers bake evenly. There should be some light browning on the tops of the crackers with a slightly darker browning on the bottoms.
Use a spatula to transfer the crackers to a cooling rack.
Allow the crackers to cool completely before storing in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
See Notes for what to do if the crackers soften up a bit over time.
Notes
If you don't have spent grains or spent grain flour, you can make these crackers with all all-purpose flour for a total of 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour.
Flavor Variations
Italian Cheese Crackers: Add 1/2 cup of finely grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (or a combination of the two) to your dough along with 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
Cracked Black Pepper Crackers: Add 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon white pepper to the dough. Top the finished crackers with more cracked pepper and coarse salt.
Dill crackers: Add 3/4 teaspoon dried dill and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder to the dough. Brush baked crackers with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven.
Sesame crackers: Add 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds to the dough and sprinkle the tops of the crackers with salt and sesame seeds before baking.