Rosemary Honey Spiced Almonds and Parmesan Crackers - A Busted Picnic

Possibly the longest blog post in our history: Rosemary Honey Spiced Almonds and Parmesan Crackers - A Busted Picnic. The weather in the Pacific Northwest is a fickle and manipulative beast sometimes. Just when you think you're IN THERE and it's going to be a great weekend, it pours. Just when you think you're going to start growing moss in your hair, the rain stops and it's gorgeous. Lesson #1 for living in or visiting the Pacific Northwest - HAVE A PLAN B. 

SO, as you may have gathered from the title, we were going to have a picnic, and from paragraph one, you may have also gathered, the weather mixed things up. Luckily in our almost 9 years up here, we've learned. Living room picnic it was.
 

For our picnic, I'd made Rosemary Honey Spiced Almonds and Parmesan Crackers (I also made No Knead Bread and Mango Chili Chicken Salad, and those are already posted.)

Rosemary Honey Spiced Almonds - from Recipes Interrupted
Preheat oven to 325
Makes 1 cup

1 cup unsalted almonds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh minced rosemary
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

 

Mix honey, oil, rosemary and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk until the honey and oil are well mixed. Stir in the almonds and toss until the nuts are all very well coated.

  

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour nuts and all of the honey mixture onto the paper. Spread out nuts so they have lots of space. Bake at 325 until nuts are well toasted and the honey mixture has set, about 15-20 minutes (I pulled these out at 17 minutes.) Turn the pan once in the middle of baking for even cooking. 

Let the nuts cool completely on the pan and then break up any clusters. DELICIOUS. Maybe my new faves, even over these Spiced Nuts. Oh man, I don't know... very different flavors... I will make both again and again!

Parmesan Crackers - from Ina Garten

Preheat oven to 350

Makes about 2 dozen crackers

 

1 stick of butter, softened

1 cup shredded Parmesan 

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 heaping teaspoon dried thyme or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

 

In a stand mixer, or with awesome arm muscles, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add in the cheese, flour and spices and blend until all ingredients are combined. Dough will be very crumbly.

 

Dump dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until the dough starts to stick together. In a sheet of plastic wrap start to form a log about 12-14 inches long, like making a sushi roll. 

Once the log is formed, place in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Remove when the log is firm and slice into 1/4 inch slices and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. These crackers keep their shape well, so you can place them pretty close together. 

 

Bake for about 20-22 minutes or until crackers are very lightly browned. Let them cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

While our outdoor picnic was a bust, the indoor picnic was almost as good... but par for the course, as soon as we had cancelled our plans and set out the food on the coffee table, out came the sun. We shook our heads and grabbed some wine. Sometimes its all you can do.

A few things about these recipes... 

I love making crackers. For some reason it makes me really feel like I'm cooking. These are great too!

I think these crackers would be GREAT with sage in place of the thyme. 

These nuts were insanely easy. Great for an impromptu visit.

Made this time last year...

Lasagna Rolls

Ham and Cheese Pinwheels

Zucchini Fritters

Homemade Rainforest Crackers

I am crazy happy when Whole Foods has set out cheese tasters. Half because I am in love with cheese, and half because they usually have Rainforest Crackers out. These are amazing crackers in every way: they are crispy, fruity, tangy, herby, and more expensive than I can fit into the old food budget. So, I made my own! I'd been wanting to make these for at least 2 years, but only just gave it a whirl. I am so pleased with the results, and totally stoked to have found a way to have these crackers in my house more often. We ate these with a little goat cheese and a drizzle of honey. Scrumptious!

 

Rainforest-like Crackers

Preheat oven to 350

Makes about 4 dozen crackers

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar mixed with milk)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon molasses

2 tablespoons chopped pecans

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons chopped dried dates

2 tablespoons chopped apricots

2 tablespoons chopped rosemary

Chop up pecans, apricots, dates and rosemary. Leave sunflower seeds whole. Set aside the fruit and nuts. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl mix together the sugar, molasses, and honey. Then add the buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the nuts and fruits.

The batter will be very thin. Pour into 2 2x5 inch bread pans sprayed with cooking spray (I used coconut oil.) The batter will only fill these about half way. Bake for about 30 minutes.  

Let the loafs cool completely on wire racks and then freeze for about an hour (or a lot longer) and then slice very thinly. 

Arrange crackers on a parchment lined baking pan and cook for 10 minutes and then flip. Cook for 7 more minutes and let the crackers cool completely on wire racks. Eat!!

A few things about this recipe...

The add-ins could be SO many things!! Raisins, dried cranberries, almonds, walnuts. You could leave out the rosemary, or use thyme. Like biscotti, these could be a zillion flavors.

The batter was REALLY thin, but these cooked up very well. 

We sliced into the warm bread and it was DELICIOUS. The bread with a little butter would be a good treat in itself.

I only cooked up one of the loafs and it made 2 dozen crackers. The second loaf is wrapped in plastic and kicking it in my freezer until I need more crackers.

These stored well in a glass tuperware for 3 days. 

Made this time last year...

Roasted Strawberry Shortcakes

Banana Nut Muffins

Chocolate Cheesecake Marbled Brownies