OK, I’m on a Miso-Rye tear. It’s my new thing. It will pass, but I’ll certainly make these delicious crackers again! They’re really terrific. Thanks to Abby Dodge again for another good recipe we can mess with. I used a pumpernickel flour, because my local bulk food co-op place was out of rye flour. The help told me pumpernickel is just coarse rye flour. It worked well.
Miso-Rye Caraway Sables (adapted from Abby Dodge’s Spicy Parmesan Sables)
1/2 all purpose flour
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon Rye or Pumpernickel flour
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1-2 tablespoons white miso (red miso would be fine too)
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 8 slices, well chilled
3 tablespoons very cold water, maybe a little more
Kosher salt for sprinkling (optional)
To make the dough: 1. Put the flour, cheese, and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and miso and pulse until the butter pieces are slightly larger than pea size, about 10 to 12 pulses depending on your machine. Add the caraway seeds. Drizzle the water evenly over the flour mixture. Pulse until the dough begins to form moist crumbs that are just beginning to clump together, about 8 or 9 more pulses depending on your machine.
2. Dump the moist crumbs onto the un-floured counter and gather into a pile. With the heel of you hand, push and gently smear the crumbs away from you until they start to come together in a cohesive dough. (This is called fraisage. See Abby’s original recipe for pictures) Two or three ‘smears’ should do the trick. Using a bench scraper, gather the dough together and turn it about 45 degrees and give it one or two more smears. Gather the dough together and shape the dough into a log, fatter for bigger crackers. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, about 3 hours, or up to 2 days. (I threw mine in the freezer for 30 minutes)
3. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 375°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment or silpat. Using a thin, sharp knife, cut the logs into 1/4-inch slices and arrange about 1 inch apart (they don’t spread much at all) on the prepared sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, until nutty brown around the edges, 16 to 18 minutes. If you like, sprinkle the crackers with a little kosher salt just as the baking sheets come out of the oven. Serve slightly warm or room temperature.
4. The dough can be shaped and frozen for up to a month and then thawed for about an hour on the counter or in the refrigerator overnight. Likewise, tuck the baked and cooled sables in a heavy duty zip top bag and stash them in the freezer. Thaw at room temperature and warm them for a few minutes at 325°F to refresh the flavors.
Scott’s Notes: The miso makes these brown very nicely, but be careful they go quickly to burnt. I lost track of how much water I used at 3 tablespoons. It wasn’t a whole tablespoon more though. The rye flour is pretty dry. My parmesan was fairly dry and I grated it on the large size of a box grater, so chunks of it survived the mixing process. That turned out to be a good thing. I have no idea what made the white dots that show in the photo. Let me know if you have ideas/theories about that.