Sourdough crackers with toro-spread

In a previous post I used sourdough crackers and here comes the recipe. Simply take a couple of spoons of an active sourdough starter and mix it with around 3 dl of water and  200 grams of whole meal spelt flour (T80 preferably). Let it ferment for a few hours in room temperature and for another 16-20 hours in the fridge at around 5 degrees centigrade. After fermentation, the batter should have a texture somewhere between a waffle batter and a pancake batter. Add water if necessary to obtain the right texture. Also add salt after fermentation. For bread making a good rule of thumb is 2-2,5 % salt calculated on the amount of flour used.

For those readers who for one or the other obscure reason do not have a sour dough starter in their possession, a starter is basically made by mixing flour and water and letting it sit in room temperature for up to a week, feeding it regularly with flour and water. Only use stone milled organic flour and filtered water, nothing else. No sugar, no honey, no yoghurt, no fruits and certainly no yeast. The wild yeasts on the flour will be enough to get it going. Good advice for maintaining a starter is to only use filtered water when feeding it. One can really wonder what bottled still waters contain since a lot of them seem to effectively halt the bacteria in sourdough starters. Tap water is no good either unless filtered. A Brita filter can be used to filter water.

Simply spread the batter on silpat or similar in the desired shapes. Bake them an oven at 180 degrees centigrade. After the batter has set, turn them and cook them a little on the other side. Turn them yet again until ready.

The crackers can obviously be made in any shape. They may be made in large sheets that are broken table side. They can also be cut after the batter is set then returned to the oven until they are ready is a specific shape is required. If completely flat crackers are preferred, after the batter has set, another silpat with a bit of weights can be put on the crackers until they are ready.

The crackers will correctly made taste like the crust of sourdough bread.

There are many flavorings that can be used, such as dill, fennel, olives, bacon, e t c, e t c. The flavors are best incorporated by being sprinkled on the batter just before it is put in the oven.

On the first image of this post, they are served with toro-spread, that is spread made by passing tuna belly through a tamis, the idea to which I indebted to ulterior epicure.