Cooking: Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake and Crackers

Friday night I decided it was time I put together the Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake I had been craving. I had made the strawberry/rhubarb sauce on Wednesday so I had to make the cake before the sauce went missing into a bowl of yogurt or icecream.

Since I am very much my mother's daughter, I figured since the oven was on, I should also make a cracker recipe that I've been meaning to try. Never waste a hot oven! I eat a lot of crackers for lunch and snacks so it would be nice if I could make them instead of giving more of my money to Kraft.

I tried a cracker recipe a few years ago but they didn't quite crisp up the way I wanted. This recipe worked much better. I added a bit of spinach and cheese because I can't help myself in trying to make a recipe more exciting. Why have regular crackers, when you can have Spinach Cheese crackers? According to Isaiah, it's because you want to see if the recipe is going to work before starting to experiment with it. Meh.

I halved the following recipe (from Grazing cookbook by Julie Van Rosendaal):

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola oil (I used veg oil and ended up using a bit extra as the dough wouldn't form)
1 cup water
Coarse salt, for sprinkling
(I added about a 1/4 cup cooked chopped spinach and some grated Parmesan cheese)

After mixing dough, let it sit for about 15 min before rolling out as thin as possible and sprinkling with salt. Cut into squares before baking but don't bother to separate them. Prick each cracker with a fork a few times. Bake at 350 for 15-20 min (I did 20-25 min)

I baked them on a regular cookie sheet and a stoneware one, the stoneware did a better job getting them cooked evenly and crispy. 

Half of the dough waiting to be rolled out.

We use a wine bottle as our rolling pin. It works pretty well. I think all my clay rolling has helped me get the dough even. Although I think a pasta roller would really work the best.

Pre-sliced ready to be baked.

One plate full of crackers. Yum!

The coffee cake turned out delicious as well.