Baking Style Diary

Crackers & Dips: More than 50 Handmade Snacks by Ivy Manning (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2013), $19.95

Summer perfect: Crackers & Dips: More than 50 Handmade Snacks by Ivy Manning is a gift to all bakers and cooks wanting (and willing) to upgrade their snack offerings. Suggesting to some cooks that they create, say, Paper-Thin Semolina Cracker Sheets (page 45, and following page) to accompany, perhaps, the Rosemary Cannellini Dip (page 114) might be a stretch but would be rewarded with two lovely, handmade somethings to serve with cocktails or simply as a savory snack.

If you think of a cracker as a cookie of sorts, then you’d likely be interested in baking a batch of flatbread, crisps, or shortbread (savory)–to name a few categories. Crackers & Dips will inspire you to do just this by looking over the chapter headings: “Light and Crunchy Classic Crackers,” “The Global Cracker: Crispy Snacks from Around the World,” “Healthful Snacks and Wheat-Free Crackers,” “Quick anmd Crunchy: Easy Crackerd to Make in Minutes,” “Sweet Treats: Dessert Crackers,” and “Dips, Spreads, and Schmears: Delicious Ways to Dress Your Crackers.” Introductory material reads upbeat and the chapter titled “Techniques for Perfect Cracker Baking” is thoughtfully put together and helpful in its content (like learning how to thin dough with a rolling pin or a pasta machine).

On baking, I found Caesar’s Sablés (page 48, and following page) to be a delight. The shortbreadlike slice-and-bake cookie dough contains olive oil as the dominant fat and is flavored with ingredients found in versions of Caesar salad–garlic, anchovies, Parmesan cheese. The dough can be made in advance and, in fact, cuts neatly if prepared at least a day ahead of baking. Other recipes worth exploring include Irish Blue Cheese and Walnut Shortbread (page 55), Brown Butter-Hazelnut Crackers (page 63, and following page), and Skinny Mint Chocolate Grahams (page 96, and following page).

The solution to boring, everyday crackers? Crackers & Dips: More than 50 Handmade Snacks.

Pretzel Making at Home, by Andrea Stonecker (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2013), $16.95

Bakers looking for A Project should look no further than Pretzel Making at Home by Andrea Stonecker, for a good pretzel is a treat, and a homemade pretzel a rare treat. Making a batch is an exercise in patience and, ultimately, refining your culinary experience over a pot housing a simmering (alkaline) solution. That is, once you’ve put together a yeast dough and moved anyone in the vicinity of the kitchen out of the way, in order to manage the twisting, dipping, and baking–quietly and without intrusion.

Book in hand, I mentally signed up for The Experience. In the end, and hours later, I arrived at a small batch of Traditional Soft Pretzels (page 26, and following pages), having digested, several times over, the section titled “Pretzel Basics” (page 12, and following pages). The author takes you through the process which is actually a lot of fun–once a certain rhythm is developed. While I may not yet swing a rope of dough into a twist like the pros do (one early–and enthusiastic–attempt actually turned it into a hair band of sorts, and another dropped it directly into the–ahem!–scoop neck of my shirt), the dough lengths were easy to reshape once rested. (Baking note: Pin back your hair and button that shirt right up to the neck.) After dipping, topping, then baking the pretzels, The Experience ended–deliciously.

In Pretzel Making at Home, Stonecker moves the baker in all of us into the territory of Hard Pretzels, and further to integrating your precious stash into the likes of bread pudding. If I ever have three soft pretzels left, I’ll make the pudding, but odds are they’re just too good to steep in custard (even if a beloved item in my kitchen).