Savory Rye Crackers – Plain and Smørrebrød

With the holiday season fast approaching, I am determined to ease the stress of entertaining family and friends. As I was preparing for my annual holiday cookie baking, it occurred to me that I should experiment with savory rye crackers, which can be baked ahead like cookies and which can be a base for hors-d’oeuvres during the busy holiday season. Of course, I could buy various crackers that would fill the bill but making my own is intriguing.

After experimenting with various recipes, I settled on four savory crackers – Seeded Rye Crispbread, Thin Caraway Rye Crisps, Wheat Oatmeal and Rye Savory Cookies and Knekkebrod. (Recipes below). Quick to assemble and bake and easily stored or frozen, these salty treats are great to have on hand to serve as is or embellished as time permits. I baked these crackers in various shapes and sizes, with and without assorted seeds, for visual interest and flexibility.

Preparation of the simplest hors d’oeuvres is, of course, to set out these homemade savory rye crackers with a platter of cheese, and there is nothing easier than buying chunks of assorted soft and hard cheeses (such as Jarlsberg, Danablu, Brie or Camembert, Nokkelost, Edam, Gouda, Muenster, Humboldt Fog) to serve with crackers for an appetizer or snack. Usually, three to five cheeses will suffice, but this platter can be expanded as necessary. Adding a salami or other meats can make a light meal. Garnishing the platter with walnuts, raisins or grapes, dried apricots and honey creates an eye-catching presentation.

A more festive appetizer can be arranged by combining the crackers with assorted toppings. I found inspiration for tasty toppings in Denmark’s open-faced sandwiches – smørrebrød (pronounced smuhr-broht, which means “buttered bread”) which Weldon and I enjoyed at Restaurant Ida Davidsen located next to Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen. What we had for lunch that day was more than bread and butter.

We were stunned by the breadth and beauty of the assortment. As R.W.Apple Jr. wrote, “Leave it to the Danes, those past masters of form and color, to turn sandwiches into still lifes.” Standing before the restaurant’s glass case, it was difficult to decide which smørrebrød to try. The sandwich toppings, called pålæg in Danish meaning literally “on-lay,” smothered thin slices of buttered dense, dark rye bread (rugbrød), with layers of unusual combinations of cold meats or fish or shrimp, cheese, vegetables, herbs, pickles, fruits and nuts.

Smørrebrød at Restaurant Ida Davidsen

Smørrebrød was created several centuries ago as worker lunch fare to be accompanied by Danish beer or chilled aquavit. Ida Davidsen, a 4th generation Copenhagen smørrebrød restauranter, told the New York Times, “For us… smørrebrød can provide a vehicle for leftovers, the way pasta sometimes does for the Italians and crepes sometimes do for the French. You look in the refrigerator, and there’s a cooked pork chop. You slice it up, sauté some onions, boil an apple with sugar and lemon, slice that, and put everything together with bread, butter and a bit of leftover gravy. A delicious lunch.” Clearly, improvisation is expected in preparing smørrebrød.

Thus, for holiday appetizers this year, I wanted to replicate the various flavors of Danish smørrebrød toppings without the heaviness of rye bread. Don’t get me wrong I love rugbrød, and I bake a loaf occasionally, but assorted smørrebrød built on rye bread are a meal in itself, more suited to a midday meal and is too filling as a holiday starter. Rye crackers retain the malty taste of rye bread without its denseness.

Switching to rye crackers meant that I would violate the first cardinal rule of smørrebrød etiquette: these tiny sandwiches could no longer be eaten with knife and fork because of the crispiness of rye crackers and are eaten out of hand. The knife-and-fork requirement stems from the fact the lavish toppings would scatter over a diner’s clothes. But this is not a problem with the three-bite size of my savory rye cracker smørrebrød.

Since this Danish experience is based on the assortment of tastes, the second cardinal rule of smørrebrød etiquette comes into play. Smørrebrød is eaten in a certain order: when sampling a variety of different toppings, pickled or smoked herring is eaten first, followed by other seafood, then followed by meat, which in turn is followed by cheese. Thus, I selected six toppings representing a mere sample of Danish smørrebrød flavors that can be eaten in the prescribed order.

Following smørrebrød tradition, I spread unsalted butter on assorted crackers (Danes also use goose or bacon fat for some smørrebrød) and assembled the following Savory Rye Cracker sandwiches:

Pickled herring, slices of red onion and sprigs of dill;

Gravlax, cucumber slices, sliced red onion, lemon and dill;

Shrimp, slices of hard boil egg, a dollop of mayonnaise, dill and lemon slice;

Pâté, fried bacon, tiny cubes of pickled beets and microgreens;

Roast beef, pickles, red onions and grated horseradish;

and, Pear, crumbled blue cheese and hazelnuts.

I prepared two to three smørrebrød per serving. Countless other topping combinations are available on the internet.

A note about rye flour: Rye flour has a slightly sour taste and texture distinctly different from wheat flour. It contains more bran than wheat flour and, thus, is more nutritious. Rye flour absorbs twice the amount of water than wheat and pairs well with caraway and other seeds.

The carbohydrates in rye flour hinder the gluten’s ability to form the “gluten matrix” properly, resulting in denser, less elastic dough. Using only rye flour in bread results in a tangy, heavy loaf like Danish rugbrød and German schwarzbrot; wheat flour is often added to North American rye bread to make a lighter loaf. This rye gluten property means that rolling rye dough into thin sheets requires greater effort than rolling wheat dough. So I usually roll rye dough several times with a rest between rollings to achieve the desired thinness.

Seeded Rye Cripsbread adapted from The Hairy Bikers’ Northern Exposure.

10½ ounces (300g) wholemeal rye flour, plus extra for dusting
1½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped teaspoon anise seeds or fennel seeds
1 teaspoon honey
1 ounce (30g) butter, softened
6 ounces (175 ml) water

For the topping (optional)
1 free-range egg white
4-6 tablespoons mixture of seeds, such as caraway, anise, poppy, sesame

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Place flour in a large bowl. Add salt, baking powder, anise seeds, honey and butter. Mix thoroughly, then start slowly adding water, stirring until you have a soft dough. Set aside for dough to rest for 30 minutes. (Don’t worry if it’s a bit sticky, it will be fine once you start rolling.)

Generously flour a work surface and turn out the dough. Roll dough out thinly.

Cut out in rounds of your choice.

Cut a small hole in the middle of large rounds, if desired. (Traditional in large Nordic crispbreads.)

Place rounds on several baking trays and prick crispbreads all over with a fork.

For the topping, whisk egg white with 1 tablespoon water and brush over the crispbreads. Sprinkle with your choice of seeds and press down lightly.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack. Store in airtight container.

Makes 6 to 8– 8 inch or 24-3 inch.

Seeded Rye Crispbread

Thin Caraway Rye Crackers, adapted from YouTube video of Titli Nihaan of The Bread Kitchen

3½ ounces (100g) rye flour
3½ ounces (100g) all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon each dried onion powder and garlic powder
1½ teaspoons caraway seeds
3½ ounces (100g) water
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Mix first six ingredients. Combine water with oil and stir until dough forms. The dough will be sticky. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes.

Divide dough in half. Form one half into an oblong disc and place on a sheet of parchment paper. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper and roll to a rectangle about 1/16 inch (1mm) thick.

Remove top parchment. Trim the edges of the dough into a rectangle and divide into equal squares or rectangles.

(While the original recipe calls for baking on the same bottom parchment that was used for rolling the dough, I find that the parchment adheres to the dough and was impossible to remove from the baked crackers. Thus, I refrigerate the dough to stiffen it and then move it with a spatula to a clean parchment or silicon sheet for baking.) Refrigerate cut dough for 30 minutes.

Transfer cut dough to a baking sheet covered in clean parchment paper and bake for 10-13 minutes until slightly brown. Remove to cool on wire rack. Remove from parchment and store in airtight container or freeze.

Repeat with second half of dough.

Makes about 24-28 crackers.

Thin Caraway Rye Crackers

Norwegian Wheat Oat and Rye Biscuits adapted from Den Store Bakeboken (The Big Baking Book), Schibstedt, 1978.

3.5 ounces (100g) butter
3.2 ounces (95ml) milk
8.8 ounces (250g) flour, a combination of 3½ ounces (100g) all-purpose flour, 3½ ounces (100g) oat flour and 1.8 ounces (50g) rye flour
1 teaspoon baking powder or ½ teaspoon hartshorn salt*
1 teaspoon of sugar

½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400F (200C).

Melt butter and pour in milk. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add liquids. Work the dough quickly together. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.

Roll out dough very thinly directly on parchment paper in a large rectangular sheet. Prick it with a fork. Cut out rounds or square biscuits with cookie cutter or knife. Place in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with a clean sheet of parchment.

Bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes to a light golden.

Makes about 40-45 biscuits.

Norwegian Wheat Oat & Rye Biscuits

Knekkebrød (Norwegian Crispbread), adapted from North Wild Kitchen.com

1 cup (135g) coarse rye flour
1½ cups (135 g) quick cooking oats
½ cup (25g) wheat bran
½ cup (80g) sesame seeds
½ cup (60g) pumpkin seeds
½ cup (60g) sunflower seeds
¼ cup (45g) flax seeds
1 tablespoon honey
Salt, large pinch
2.5 cups (588ml) water

Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Cover two 13″ x 18″ (33 cm x 46 cm) sheet pans completely with silicon sheets. (The original recipe calls for parchment paper but it was too porous and in my test baking it was difficult to remove from the finished crackers.)

Chop pumpkin seeds roughly.

In a large measuring cup, mix honey with a little bit of warm water until diluted. Add more water to reach 2.5 cups (588ml) in total.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, oats, wheat bran, seeds and a pinch of salt. Slowly add in honey water, mixing until wet, pourable paste forms. (You may not need all honey water.) Set aside for 5 minutes until the flour and oats absorb the water; add more water, if needed, until the consistency of the dough is thick but pourable.

Pour half of the mixture over one sheet pan and spread evenly and thinly, to the very edges. Use an off-set spatula or place plastic wrap over the mixture, pressing down and spreading to get an even thickness across the sheet pan. Repeat with the other sheet pan.

Place both sheet pans in the oven and after 10 minutes, remove from oven and cut gently into rectangles with a pizza cutter or knife. (This will make it easier to separate them when they are fully baked.)

Place the sheets pans back in oven and bake for another 55-60 minutes, alternating the top pan with the bottom one once through the cooking time. Occasionally open the oven door to release steam. Check the knekkebrød toward the end of the cooking time and look for dry and light browning on the edges.

When baked, break the crispbreads apart gently and let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in a tight plastic or tin container and they should last for several weeks.

Makes approximately 40 crackers.