Crackers

Crackers are thin, dry baked pieces of dough, most often wheat flour, water and fat, many of them raised with yeast or baking powder. They are baked down to about 2 percent moisture, so they snap cleanly and keep for months.

How to choose Crackers

  • Snack or soda. Snack crackers are usually raised with baking powder or soda and sprayed with oil after baking. Soda crackers, such as saltines, rise from a long yeast ferment and bake up dry and flaky.
  • Plain or seasoned. A plain water cracker leaves the flavor to the cheese or fish on top. Crackers baked with herbs, seeds or cheese bring their own.
  • Freshness. An unopened box keeps about 8 months in a cool cupboard. Fold the liner and close the box tightly after opening, because a cracker this dry takes on moisture fast.

About Crackers

Crackers are baked goods defined by low moisture, a hard bite and long keeping, which sets them apart from bread.

In a commercial bakery, cracker dough is typically laminated into 4 to 6 layers, rolled to 2 to 4 millimeters and cut, and small holes are punched through it. It then bakes for only 2 to 4 minutes in an oven whose first zones run near 572°F. Most crackers finish at 1.5 to 2.5 percent moisture.

Serve crackers with cheese, cured meat, tinned fish or a dip. Between uses, keep the box closed in a cool, dry cupboard below 85°F and away from the heat of the stove.

At a glance

Made from
Usually wheat flour, water, fat, salt; often a leavener
Main types
Soda crackers, snack crackers, water crackers, flatbreads
Serve with
Cheese, tinned fish, cured meats, dips
Unopened
About 8 months, box tightly closed

Crackers questions

Why do crackers have holes in them?

The holes, called docking, are pressed into the dough before baking so steam can escape. Without them, moisture turns to steam in the hot oven and pushes the layers apart into a hollow bubble that bakers call pillowing or blistering. Docking keeps the cracker flat and even, and shoppers now expect to see the holes.

How did crackers get their name?

The word was in use for a thin, hard biscuit by 1739, mostly in American English, so it is older than any one bakery. A Milton, Massachusetts, bakery founded by Josiah Bent in 1801 is often credited anyway. A plaque there says his biscuits made a cracking sound as they cooled, and he sold them as Bent Water Crackers to ship merchants in Boston Harbor.

What makes a saltine different from other crackers?

Saltines are soda crackers built on a sponge, a first batch of flour, water and yeast. The sponge ferments for 16 to 20 hours at about 80°F before the rest of the dough goes in. The dough is then folded into thin layers, which is what makes a saltine flaky. Most other crackers skip that long rest.

Sources: American Society of Baking; Kansas State University Research and Extension; Boston Globe.

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