Ciccioli Crackers

Ciccioli Crackers: "

I recently made these ciccioli/cracklin from some pork fat trimmings and had to do something with them. So I thought I would try my hand at some crackers. After a bit of research I settled on a basic cracker recipe and altered it to incorporate the ciccioli and here are the results.

Ciccioli Crackers

1 1/2 cup bread flour

1/4 cup rolled oats

3 tbsp ground ciccioli

2 tbsp pork lard

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

3/4 cup tepid water

First start with preheating oven with pizza stone to 400 degrees.

Process ciccioli, salt and pepper together in a mortar pestle for a fairly fine grind.

Add flour, rolled oats, lard and the ciccioli/salt/pepper mix into the food processor; run processor a couple of minutes to finely chop the oats and incorporate everything. Add the water to the mix while the processor is running; adding just enough water to just begin to bring the mix together. (You don't really want to form a ball in the processor as the mix will be too wet.)

Remove from food processor and press the dough together to form a ball. Knead for a few minutes; if the dough is sticky add a light dusting of flour and knead until smooth and silky. Form a dough ball, wrap with plastic wrap and let rest for an hour.

I used my KitchenAid pasta attachment to roll out the dough; folding and rolling on the widest setting until the dough was manageable. If you do happen to get some larger bits of ciccioli/cracklin in the mix the rollers will let you know by 'spitting it out'; it may tear the dough for that run but just remove the bits, and roll again and all is well. I was able to roll to a setting of 4 for best results.  

Place the rolled dough on parchment paper and cut as desired. Add a light sprinkling of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper on top of the dough.

Slide the dough with the parchment onto the pizza stone and bake in the 400 preheated oven for 7 minutes.

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