Sesame crackers

5oz/140g yellow maize flour
3/4lb/340g wholemeal flour
5 oz/140g sesame seeds
1 tsp sea salt
1/3 pint/200ml cold pressed oil
8oz/225ml water, approximately

Stir together the two flours, sesame seeds, and salt. Add oil and enough water to make a dough that is just soft enough to roll.
Turn dough onto a floured sheet of greaseproof paper, and knead just enough to work into a ball. Cover with another sheet of greaseproof paper, and roll out thinly.
Cut into desired shapes with knife or biscuit cutters. Repeat until all dough is used. Bake on ungreased sheets at 375f/190c for 25-35 minutes.

These were from The Vegetarian Times Cookbook. I’m a big fan of sesame seeds, and of things that my three year old son can cook, so this seemed just right.




I had some trouble with these, but all of my troubles boiled down to the same mistake, and that was rolling the dough too thin. It just said to roll it out thinly, so I made it thin like paper, thinking the thinner the better (an idea that is the root of so many peoples problems these days… but I digress). Having made them now, I see that they don’t puff or rise at all, so you just want to roll them out to good cracker thickness.

The problems that I had were, firstly, they were hard to cut and transport to the baking sheet. This might be partly because we were using playdough cutters, not cookie cutters, but I choose to blame this mostly on the thickness of the dough. There wasn’t enough to cut through, so it made a weak line which meant that they tore when they were being pulled off. The second problem was that the cooking time was too long. Even at the shortest time, they got a bit burned. Again, this was only because they were rolled too thin. A couple of the last ones, which were considerably thicker cooked just right. Still, I’d say check them after 20 min just in case.

All that said, the ones that were not overcooked were really good. Also, my son absolutely loved making them into elephants and teddy bears and such. He was so proud he kept asking if he could call his dad to tell him “I made beautifuls you can eat!”