Tea Rusk

Everyone in our family loves rusk/tea rusk. The kids love to dunk it in their milk and we love it with our tea. As a result we can easily go through a newly opened packet in less than a week. The difficulty is that the closest store that sells these crackers is about 10 miles away and now along my daily routes. So, most of the times we are out of this at home and it becomes a rare treat. I had been thinking about making this at home and thought that it would be similar to making croutons at home. So, one evening I tried it and it worked beautifully. I would recommend using a French bread to get the store like effect. You can also use a baguette for smaller size crackers. Now I make this at least once a week and there is always a stock of low calorie crackers in the snack closet for anytime snacking. 

Ingredients
French bread loaf or baguette 

3-4 tbsp unsalted butter

2-3 tbsp sugar (optional), caster/fine if possible

Method

Remove the bread from its packaging and let it stay on your kitchen countertop or table for a few hours or a day. The purpose is to make it drier so that it is easy to slice. If possible keep it on a cooling rack for better air circulation. Then use a serrated knife and slice the bread into slices that are of about ½ to 3/4^th of an inch. Use a sawing motion to slice the bread, so that it doesn’t get squished.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan or the microwave. Use a brush and brush on the melted butter on both sides of the bread slice. If using sugar, sprinkle it lightly onto both sides. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place a cooling rack on a cookie sheet. Then line up the bread slices on the rack. Place in the oven for about 15-20 mins till the toast starts to get a nice golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool completely. Store in an airtight box.  

Tips
If using the microwave, heat the butter in a deep enough bowl, so it doesn’t boil over. Also, heat the butter in intervals of 10-20 seconds till the butter melts. You can line the cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper for easy cleanup. If using a baguette, the bread will brown in 12-15 mins. 

Multi-seed Crackerbread

This is a wonderful cracker bread to be server prior to dinner as an appetizer or as a snack with some drinks or tea. I visit an Italian restaurant nearby and one of the things that I enjoy most is the bread basket that the bring out once  you are seated. The bread basket comes with sourdough bread and multiseed crackebread which is sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, which is lightly browned. The crackerbread is absolutely delicious. I have searched in the bakery section of may stores, but unfortunately have never come across it. So, it made me very excited when I came across a multiseed cracker bread recipe in a King Arthur Flour cook book. This recipe came very close to the one I enjoy in the restaurant. The main difference is that the one in the restaurant is made of all purpose flour while this is made with whole grain flour. This is definitely the healthier version and was enjoyed by everyone at the last dinner party we had. Serve it with butter and it makes a perfect accompaniment to warm soup.

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup ragi flour
1/2 cup whole yellow cornmeal
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup assorted seeds - like white sesame, black sesame, poppy, fennel, caraway, anise and cumin
(adjust the ratio based on your preference.)
2 tbsps assorted dried herbs like rosemary, basil, dill, taragon and thyme
(adjust the ratio based on your preference.)
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Method
Mix the assorted seeds, herbs and cracked pepper in a bowl and keep aside.

Take a large mixing bowl, and add the flours, salt and olive oil to it. Adding a little water at a time, mix the ingredients till the dough is formed. The dough should be stiff and not crumbly. So make sure to add a liittle water at a time till you get the desired consistency. If the atmospheric conditions are humid, you may need less water versus making this recipe in dry weather. Knead the dough till it is well mixed and supple.

Divide the dough into small pieces (about 8-10) and cover this with a slightly damp cloth or plastic wrap.
Take one piece and flatten it into a disc. Sprinkle some of the seeds, herb and pepper mixture on to the rolling surface. Press the dough disc into the seeds and roll it out. If the dough starts to stick to the surface, pick it up, sprinkle a few more seeds and continue rolling. Roll the dough as thin as possible, about 2 mm in thickness. Try to roll it into a rectangle, which will make it easy to cut the dough into triangles. Cut this into small triangles about 4 inches in length and 2 inches in width at the largest side.

Preheat the oven to 450F.  Arrange the crackers on a baking sheet and place on the center rack of the oven. Bake for 7-10 minutes till the top is medium brown.

Store in airtight container after all the crackers are completely cool.

Tips
The original recipe called for pumpernickel or whole rye flour instead of ragi flour. However, I didn't have this, so I used ragi flour instead. The recipe also called for 1 tbsp of coarse salt to be added to the mixture of seeds, herbs and pepper. However, this made the crackers quite salty and so I skipped it in subsequent batches. If you do want to have a salty feel on the outside of the cracker, then reduce the salt that is added to the dough. You can grate and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the crackers after they have been baking for about a couple of minutes. If you add the cheese at the beginning, it may burn. You can also add shredded cheddar cheese.
Alternately, you can add the cheese and toast the crackers in the oven just before serving, heating the crackers till the cheese has melted and turned a golden brown.
When baking, the initial few batches will take longer, but as the process continues, the subsequent batches will get baked faster. So keep an eye on the crackers and remove them as soon as they are medium brown.