I had some time off this week and decided to try one of my bookmarked projects: Making hardtack. Hardtack is a hard biscuit made from flour, water, and salt. Without any fats, it doesn’t go rancid. And it’s cooked until it’s thoroughly dried to preserve it’s life further.
I started from scratch, milling wheat berries into fresh flour with my little hand mill. The fresh whole wheat gave my hardtack a strong whole wheat cracker taste. In fact, my made my next batch much thinner to take advantage of them as crackers too. The recipe I used was:
6 cup flour
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
Mix until combined and roll out to desired thickness. I had to add extra water to get it to mix. One of my batches was just under 1/2 inch thick, the second I tried 1/4 inch thick. Cut out and pierce with fork tines. Bake at 325 for 60 minutes, turning them over halfway though.
Posted by stacy on December 29, 2011 at 11:32 pm
How long can you store these?
Posted by Jack Spellerberg on January 5, 2012 at 7:43 pm
I really enjoy your site! Do you grow your own wheat? Hardtack seems very practical for storage.
Posted by viggie on January 5, 2012 at 8:20 pm
I wish I had space to
I just buy it in bulk from my co-op. One day maybe
Posted by Jack Spellerberg on January 5, 2012 at 8:57 pm
I watched your video of the garden walk through, and you sure have utilized every available space to plant! I bet you could squeeze in a raised bed for a little wheat
Posted by DM on January 22, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Just the other day I said to my wife, I think I will try to find a recipe on one for making wheat crackers…so this blog post scratches an itch I’d been having. Earlier this week I tried an experiment w/ the bread machine…modified the ingredients on a batch of whole wheat bread…it was a complete and total flop. it wasn’t pretty, thought it did sort of taste like a giant cracker
what do they get for wheat @ your food co-op? Think I’m going to make a batch of hard tack right now . thanks for the idea. DM
Posted by DMd on January 22, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Thought I would update you on the hardtack from this afternoon. I decided to split the recipe in 1/2 and make 1/2 the way you suggested and 1/2 I added 1/8th cup of honey. They definitely are hard
The batch w/ honey sort of reminded me of those teething crackers we used to give our kids when they were cutting teeth. Do you have any idea how long these might keep? This batch will probably be gone by Tuesday. I don’t have any, but I”m thinking some of that rock salt you can put on pretzels might taste good.
Posted by Whole wheat and honey hard tack | I also live on a farm on January 23, 2012 at 4:23 pm
[...] I share w/ you my recipe, I want to thank Viggie for her basic hard tack [...]