CARTA DI MUSICA CRACKER
These ultra crispy, paper-thin crackers are named for their resemblance to the brittle, yellowing pages of sheet music, and are originally from the island of Sardinia. They’re super easy to make, and they’re an impressive homemade addition to large charcuterie spreads or cheese platters. We’ve served them with everything from tapenade to Lebanese muhammara, smoked whitefish dip to marmalade.
(yield: about 6 12” crackers)
1 cup (120g) AP flour
½ cup (84g) semolina flour
2 tsp (8g) salt
½ tsp (2g) sugar
1 tsp (4g) nigella seed
Combine h2o and oil in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, sift AP and semolina flours, then add salt, sugar, and nigella seeds (or spice/seed blend of choice, like Everything bagel seasoning, for example), and mix to evenly blend. Add h2o and oil and, using your hands, thoroughly mix and knead for about 3 minutes until a dough ball is formed. Flatten into a disk and wrap snugly in saran wrap. Let rest at room temp 30 min to an hour.
Pre-heat oven to 400.
On a lightly floured work surface, divide dough disk into ping pong ball-sized portions, or whatever’s appropriate for the size crackers you want. With a rolling pin, roll out dough until translucent, just before it’s thin enough to tear. Alternatively, you can use a pasta roller, starting at 0 and working up to number 6, adding flour with each pass. On setting 6, your dough may begin to tear, which is fine, as you’ll likely end up breaking the crackers into smaller pieces. If using a rolling pin, you’ll need to add flour pretty liberally to keep from sticking.The dough will be tight, but just keep rolling. You may want to do this in stages: batch 1, batch 2, batch 1, batch 2, etc.
Place dough sheets onto a dry sheet pan. You’ll need multiple sheet trays or can bake in a few consecutive sessions. Lightly brush the top of the dough with olive oil.. Bake for 18 minutes, but depending on your oven, you may want to check a couple minutes before. The 16-19 minute range is like when you don’t put on sunscreen because it’s overcast and then you’re stuck inside the next day dreading the feel of clothes brushing against your scorched skin.
Crackers should be golden brown and just starting to lift and ripple around the edges. They will continue to darken once removed from the oven. Store at room temp, covered once cooled. They should stay crispy up to 3-4 days.