Lavash crackers

The silly season is almost upon us - how did that happen?! With that in mind, we wanted to give you a recipe that will help grease the post-lockdown rusty wheels of socialising and hospitality.

Homemade Lavash - or flatbread crackers are a quietly genius way to spruce up your cheese platter. They also make the perfect offering to take to holiday get-togethers, and they're a lovely gift for friends, colleagues and school teachers. To the receiver they have the sparkly allure of being an impressively complicated thing to make, but they're really not! Whether you're a novice in the kitchen or an old-hand, Lavash crackers require a very small set of both skills and ingredients.
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Let's do this.

Makes about 36 crackers

Ingredients:
1 cup plain/all purpose flour (150g)
Pinch of salt
3 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup water 

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200c (180c fan-forced) and set aside 2 baking trays, lined with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl, combine plain flour and salt. Make a well in the centre.

Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and the water to the well, and mix gradually until you have what's known as a shaggy dough (lumpy but well mixed with no dry spots). If it looks a little dry add more water 1 tsp at a time. Form the dough into a rough ball then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead the dough a little with the heels of your hands to make it pliable and elastic - about 2 minutes. 

Divide dough roughly into three portions. Roll out each portion as thinly as you can - about 1-2 mm thick. I find it easier to do this by putting the dough between 2 pieces of baking paper. Keep the surfaces dusted with flour as you go (if not rolling between baking paper).

Using a sharp knife, or better yet a pizza cutter, cut dough into your desired shapes (long strips, squares etc) then place them on the baking trays. You don't want them to overlap, but they also won't spread as they cook, so no need to space them.

Using a pastry brush, brush the remaining olive oil (1 tablespoon) evenly over the surface of the crackers, then sprinkle them with a little salt.

Bake for 6-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Then turn the oven off and leave the crackers on their trays in the oven while it cools. This allows them to really dry out and maintain their crunchiness.

Kept in an airtight container, they'll stay fresh for 2-3 weeks.

PIMP MY RECIPE You can sprinkle so many things on lavash to really make them sing!

Just before you pop them in the oven, and after you've brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled a little salt, you can add all manner of seeds and seasonings:

• Za'atar 
• Poppy seeds
• Sesame seeds, black or white
• Black pepper
• Crushed Pepperberries
• Lemon myrtle
• Chilli flakes
• Smoked paprika
• Fennel seeds
• Rosemary 
• Dukkah