“Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I’m taking with me when I go.”
Erma Bombeck
Make Lavash Crackers and create a dip/spread/salsa/relish to accompany it. This challenge allows for large helpings of creativity and personality, with the crackers, your flavor choices for the crackers, and with your dip/spread choice…
The Definitions: Vegan – no animal products of any kind
Alternative Daring Bakers, Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go, and Shel @ Musings From The Fish Bowl are the hosts for the September challenge & I was THRILLED to see a savoury choice. I’ve looked at savoury crackers for as long as I can remember, but somehow never got down to baking them. This was a great chance. The recipe is from the book, The Art Of Extraordinary Bread, By Peter Reinhart. You can find the recipe, great links & instructions on Natalie & Shel’s blogs. 
Of course DH said…Oh savoury; you don’t have to do it. I said Spoilsport…I’m gonna have ’em all. I just lurve the idea!! This was 3 weeks ago. Didn’t attempt the challenge until this morning…procrastination never did me any good! Hit the ground running, lost in my own world, thinking now that Sunday’s almost here, the challenge better be done. Thankfully did the honours this morning & the kids LOVED them. About an hour ago, stopped by at Marie’s Proud Italian Cook to check out her balsamic marinade recipe for grilled chicken…almost passed out. Missed the date completely…so am hurriedly putting this post together. Sorry if it is ‘very hurried’, but think destiny dragged me to Marie. Thanks a million Marie!!
Onto the the challenge, huff puff, very simple, very crackling & different. Have been waiting for a savoury for ages, & this was a great one. I was skeptical in the beginning as it sounded SO simple. I think as a DB I’m not used to simple stuff anymore. This was a pleasant surprise with so much creativity allowed. Can sneak in a comment to say that the hub enjoyed them a lot too!YAY for you girls. Great choice.
I made 2 variations on the toppings…1 sweet & 1 savoury. The only deviation to the recipe was to substitute 1/2 a cup of plain flour for wholewheat flour. A crackling good cracker it turned out to be!!
I made 2 variations on the toppings…1 sweet & 1 savoury. The only deviation to the recipe was to substitute 1/2 a cup of plain flour for wholewheat flour. A crackling good cracker it turned out to be!!
The savoury one was rolled out as thin as possible, gave it a brushing of roasted garlic ( I store a jar of home-made roasted garlic in olive oil in the fridge), followed with a sprinkling of alternative rows of black sesame & white sesame. Had made black sesame shortbread a while ago, so had some of these delightful seeds in the cupboard. I cut the dough into wavy strips using a pizza cutter. In 20 minutes, they were beginning to get brown on the edges, but once they were cool I found they were not crisp enough. Broke them up into curves & baked them on a rack for another 10 minutes…perfect!! Served them with a Roasted Tomato Salsa. Simple, tasteful & straightforward. Roasted the tomatoes in the oven for 30 minutes at 180 degrees C. Skinned them, chopped them up, added chopped garlic, lime juice, 1 chopped green chili, 1 tsp of olive oil & sea salt to taste. Chilled before I served it so the flavours matured nicely. Unfortunately all my herbs have fallen prey to unseasonal rains last week which ruined all the leaves. all I salvaged was 1 sprig of fresh mint for garnishing. We all loved the crackers…& the son announced they were like garlic bread, only crunchy!!
I made the sweet version following some posts on DB that I read. Rolled out the dough really thin, misted it, sprinkled cinnamon powder & brown sugar, a little more mist, a sprinkling of sliced almonds & off it went. Served these with APRICOT RELISH…recipe HERE. The relish complimented these crackers beautifully as it had brown sugar & cinnamon too. Wonderful fall flavours came out of it. And despite the savoury soul that I am, I have to say my vote went for the sweet crackers with the apricot chutney…was WAY OUT!! 
Thank you, Natalie & Shel, for such a brilliant adventure into vegan food. I don’t think I would ever have ventured this far had it not been a challenge. I’m glad I did!! Do stop by & check our ever growing ranks of Daring Bakers Blogroll & their crackling posts here.
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This was a simple challenge BUT I made it three times. It was fun to play around with it!
Oh, so pretty! And such an interesting shape too! 😉 Good work, Deeba! 🙂 (I dunno why the previous post was there if this was only going to be a few hours later, heh…) 🙂
You call these beautiful products rushed. They look great. We never would have known. I like what you said, we get so used to the complicated and this was breeze and fun.
Lovely! I think the sweet version is just fantastic. I think this challenge was a lot of fun and I think you did just great my friend!
Thank you! Yours look lovely too. I Indian spices are the best!
You did a fabulous job on your crackers. I loved the shape of your savory ones and the sweet version…yum!
Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go
I love that you made sweet crackers. My mind didn’t even ‘go there’.
Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous and your crackers (both the sweet and salty one) look so delicious!!!!Can I have one of each to try, lol!
I’m finding it hard to believe these are a last minute effort. The wavy crackers look cute. I liked your apricot relish.
Great job Deeba. Like the shape of your wavy two coloured crackers. Both sweet and savory sound fantastic.
Deeba, your dips are mouthwatering, you couldn’t resist to make sweet crackers, could you? 😉
All of that look jolly good. I take both of the dips please. Sweet or savory will work well for me.
Deeba look absolutely wonderful, waht’s nice pictures dear and look so yummy. Nice job!!!
I told you one of my dream is travel to India??? Some day I hope..Gloria
Deeba great work! You made so many different shapes!
I love the photo with a cinnamon stick. It’s just gorgeous!
Thanks for the cute quip by Erma. she was terrific.
Like your use of sesame seeds, looks neat!
Deeba, thanks for stopping by my blog. Your photography is simply incredible! I’m bookmarking your site.
What a beautiful treat you made! Love all the contrasting colors! Wonderful job.
That apricot relish looks lovely 🙂
j
I had done the challenge quite a while back but forgot about the posting date until I saw recipemuncher….so mine was compile yesterday..
deeba you have done great with your crackers…great presentation
Deeba, You are too funny!!! You call this rushed? How would they have turned out if you had more time?? Your food and your presentations are always stunning and it’s always fun to see what you’re doing here! I’m glad I stayed up late last night and posted at 12:00AM, so you were reminded. Don’t feel bad I waited till the last minute too!
Hugs, Marie
Excellent work with black sesame seeds, reminds Zebra 🙂 U re very creative!
I always enjoy coming to your blog…your photos are wonderful …..
What creativity! Your crackers look great and those dips are wonderful!
Cheers,
Rosa
Love the savoury crackers
I absolutely LOVE the curvy crackers you made with the black & white sesame seeds. And the apricot chutney looks SOOOO yummy!
Your crackers look so delectable! I can’t believe you “rushed” these. They look as if they had lots of TLC. What also impressed me was your super photography. I’m trying to learn, by looking at other DBs, about the art of food photography. You’ve given me some great examples. The cord tied around the stack of sweet crackers, where were then placed atop some cinnamon sticks, made for such an appealing picture. Nice work!
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. Being a brand new DB, I’m eager for feedback.
I really enjoyed this challenge. A very creative dip Deeba:D
I loved your sweet and savory lavash also your dips look delightful
I just love the wavy two colored ones. Great job making both sweet and savory as well. Delicious presentation!
Oh, Deeba-
That sweet version sounds fantastic. I would have loved to be there with you taste-testing on that batch! Apricot Relish?? You are a genius!
Seems you had a really fun time with this challenge! Great lavash and beautiful pictures!
Your crackers look fantastic! I love the wavy lines.
Everything looks delish but it is that roasted tomato salsa that has me drooling 🙂
really great pictures and effort–loved the tomato salsa.
Oh my goodness, those look and sound fantastic! I wish I had tried a sweet version as well.
First of all: How beautiful!!!! and second, could I get an invitation sent over? please? Ahhhh not only the crackers but the dips look glorious too! Gosh, great stuff 😀
Very cool, I love that you tried so many different variations. They all look great, too!
You did a beautiful job on this challenge. Wow!
The sweet crackers look interesting. Looks like everyone’s doing the challenge last minute this time. hehe
Oh and where did you get the sumac from?
Deeba! gorgeous crackers both the savory and the sweet one! trust you to come up with such lovely ideas! well done!
Oh I *love* those sexy curved crackers! Too gorgeous with the black & white sesame seeds 🙂 And the apricot relish sounds fantastic too…
Deeba, you went all out. I find all the different versions you created so enticing. I’d like to bake another batch to try it your way. Great job on the DB challenge!
Deeba I love your use and artistic flare with the seed toppings! This was a great challenge, I am so glad this recipe is now in my file! Hugs to you!
You did a fabulous job Deeba on your crackers. Love them both sweet and savoury.
Rosie x
Your lavash crackers are such lovely shapes – really pretty. And being a sweet tooth, the apricot relish sounds wonderful.