Baking Cranberry and Pumpkin Seed Gourmet Crackers for the Holiday Season

PLEASE let the holiday season continue! Endless feasting of cheese, wine and crackers has marked my holidays and it's how we rung in the new year as well. They say how you start the new year sets the tone for the rest of the year so it looks like I'm in for a great year haha.

Gourmet crackers with depth and flavour

For the past few years I've always served cheese with store-bought crackers and I have absolutely loved these thin, wholewheat flat crackers I found in a specialty store. Lately however I've seen all these "gourmet" crackers in the supermarkets and then I stumbled across a great recipe to make them yourself at home. O M G is all I can say. It has changed my cheese and cracker game entirely and the best part is you can actually taste and smell every single ingredient that you add during the cooking process in the final product.

Let's begin!

Method

Step One

Ingredients required - yes there's a lot but trust me when I say that once you make these, it won't be the last time so you'll easily go through all of these at some point!

Step Two

Mix the wet ingredients of yoghurt, milk, brown sugar together.

Step Three

Mix the dry ingredients of plain flour, sugar, cranberries, turmeric, rosemary, thyme, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and pumpkin seeds.

Step Four

Combine wet and dry ingredients and then scoop into mini loaf tins (or one large one).

Step Five

Into the oven for about 25 minutes until brown and cooked all the way through, cool on a wire rack and then put into the freezer as this makes it easier to thinly slice.

Step Six

Defrost slightly until it's no longer rock hard and then slice as thinly as you can as these are crackers so the thicker they are the harder it might be for people to eat them without breaking a tooth. Pop back into the oven on a low temp (120C) for 45-50 mins.

Final Thoughts

Although this recipe contains a lot of ingredients, it is so easy because all you're doing is measuring and then chucking it all into a bowl to mix. No need to chop, boil or prepare anything really. The end result is amazing and 100% worth it. I had so many compliments at our family Christmas dinner and what I loved the most is you could smell the nutmeg, cinnamon and taste the cranberries. Every ingredient added contributed another layer of flavour and they all made a difference.

These are perfect for the new year as I think a few of us are still entertaining so I hope this has given you some inspiration :)

@phamished xx