Full disclosure, guys – I did not expect this week’s experiment to work.  I figured in the worst case, it would satisfy a curiosity, and I’d get to eat hand cut homemade crackers with dip.  Ryan, on the other hand, didn’t know why I was questioning it, and thought cutting cracker dough with a laser would be a low power, simple task.  The answer was somewhere in between.

Simple ingredients, simple recipe!

Food blogging, here I come!

I’ve never made crackers before, but I had everything on hand in my bare cupboard for this recipe from The Kitchn.  As suggested, I mixed up the dough, then split it in half before rolling it out.  I took advantage of the two batches to come up with two different designs (which Ryan graciously vectorized for me.  I admittedly started this project a bit late in the evening and need help.)

Rolling it as thin as possible – the dough is springy, so you can’t work it too fast. It needs to “rest”

I layered the dough on parchment paper, and on wood.

My goal for rolling out the rough was to keep it under 3mm, 1.5 ideally.  The thinner the dough, the crispier the cracker.  I rolled it out on parchment paper – food safe, and bad things wouldn’t happen to it in the laser, just a little singeing.  I then put it on some plywood for stability, and to prevent the laser from reflecting back after it hits the honeycomb bed, which might not be the cleanest.

Pro tip: I learned when rolling out the second batch of dough that it was actually easier to roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper when it got thin.  It was easier to flip, it seemed to spring back less, and it stayed moister while I worked with it.  I did remove the top later of parchment when I put the dough in the laser.

Test cuts – third time is the charm!  Interesting thing about cutting the dough – it was a little “sparky.”  Naturally dough isn’t homogeneous, but instead a mixture of ingredients.  The laser reacts differently to this ingredients, which created tiny little light flares.

Less than 3mm thick, I’m thrilled!

So, I didn’t think the laser would cut the dough at all, Ryan was thinking it would be a breeze – maybe akin to paper.  It took a few tries to get though the dough, and the right answer was some there in between – we cut at 100% power, and a slow 8% speed.  I didn’t roll it perfectly evenly, so the dough was thicker in some parts, but it still all cut.  And my test measurements were all under 3mm thick!

Heart shaped vent holes – totally a pain in the butt.

The first design was this funky hexagon shape, with little 1mm hearts cut in for venting, so the crackers wouldn’t puff.  Officially, the design is too complicated.  The outer shape is fine, but the hearts took too long to cut, and didn’t come out easily.  I actually baked the hearts in place, and then Ryan popped them out after.  And the length of time tried out the dough quite a bit since we had to have the exhaust on.  with set up, test and cutting, it was in our windy laser for about 45 minutes.  The edges of the crackers were trying to curl up!

Triangles!  Classy appearance by my phone.

Second batch we went a little more simple – a nice rounded triangle with asterisks cut for venting.  They ended up delightfully mod looking, and in were in and out of the laser in under 15.

Light toasted!

Baking is pretty straight forward, but the crackers are easy to burn as you can see.  The first batch were a little extra crisp, but edible.  The second back felt under done while they were still hot, but after they cooled they were perfectly crispy.  So, watch them closely, and make sure you let them cool, unless you are going to a crispy-chewy combo.

Midnight snack.  Homemade crackers, but I totally bought the artichoke jalapeno parmesan dip, the leftovers of which had disappeared by morning.

Verdict – The recipe was tasty but be forewarned, the crackers themselves were not airy or flaky.  They were dense, and reminded me of pita chips actually.  I may have over kneaded them.  This is a fun example of too much tool for the job – a knife easily cuts the dough.  But this would be a fun recipe to perfect for fancy dinner parties, potlucks you want to impress at, or those times you want a crunchy snack and don’t want to leave the house.