Homemade Cheese Crackers with Caraway Seeds – Romanian Saratele

Step 1

Grate the cheese and cut the very cold butter into small cubes. Place the cheese, butter, flour, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times until everything is crumbly. The butter should not be entirely blended into the dough, you should be able to see tiny butter dots in the dough, which ensures that the crackers are really flaky and nice.

Step 2

Form a ball, flatten it, wrap in plastic foil and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Step 3

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking trays with baking paper. I actually have to bake the crackers in 3 batches, but most people only have 1 or 2 baking trays.

Step 4

If using a fan oven preheat it to 160 degrees Celsius/ 320 degrees Fahrenheit. A fan oven will allow you to bake two trays at a time. In a regular oven, only bake one tray at a time.

Step 5

Divide the dough into two equal parts. Flour the working surface and the rolling pin. Press one dough piece into a rough thick rectangle. Roll the dough into a rectangle of about 32x22 cm/ 13x7 inches and about 3-4 mm/ 0.11-0.15 inches thick.

Step 6

Lift and turn the dough a few times during rolling it and sprinkle the working surface underneath with a little more flour, if absolutely necessary. This will ensure that the dough rectangle will not stick to the working surface.

Step 7

Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl. Brush the pastry rectangle with the egg and sprinkle it generously with caraway seeds.

Step 8

Cut the pastry into batons using a very sharp knife. Carefully lift the batons and place them on the prepared baking trays.

Step 9

Set the timer to about 17-18 minutes. Check if the crackers are nice and golden and give them two more minutes if they are not quite there. Don't overbake, they should only be shiny and golden and not brown.

Step 10

Remove from the oven, let rest on the tray for about 5 minutes, so that they have some time to firm up. If you lift them immediately they might break.

Step 11

Carefully remove the homemade cheese crackers from the tray using a plastic spatula and transfer them to wire racks. Let cool completely.

Step 12

While the first batch is baking roll and cut the second dough piece.