November 15, 2020
The holiday I look forward to the most is around the corner. It’s my most favorite time of the year for showing gratitude to family and friends through food. The holiday I’m talking about is, of course, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is usually a time where families and friends gather to give thanks and celebrate over good food. I thought back to last year when my family traveled from New York to spend Thanksgiving with Kevin and I. Kevin drove straight to the airport to pick up my parents and aunt. I stayed home to get a head start on dessert, a classic apple medley pie. The moment mom arrived, she got to work in the kitchen with me. Aunt joined shortly after to help with prep and cleaning. Dad snapped photos of us working in the kitchen. Kevin ran some last-minute errands as needed. Thanksgiving this year won’t be the same as the previous years. Instead of celebrating with family and friends in person, we have been celebrating with family and friends throughout the month over video chat. I am still looking forward to creating the ultimate Thanksgiving feast – even if it is just Kevin and I celebrating. I always get into the groove of cooking and baking during the day of Thanksgiving and often forget about preparing something to eat for breakfast/brunch/lunch. Once I get situated in my spot in the kitchen, I keep cooking until the very last dish is served. My favorite method for planning a Thanksgiving menu is to use the alphabet method. I start by listing out all of the dishes I want to make beginning with A. I continue until I get to a sufficient number of dishes, usually H or I. The alphabet method helps me keep track of the dishes I’m making in my head. This method has kept me from forgetting a dish. The first dish I like to start with is apple pie. It doesn’t take long to prepare, but it does need time to set after baking. My favorite apple pie weaves in both a tart apple, Granny Smith, and a sweet apple, Fuji, and is mixed in a blend of sugar, spice, and lemon juice. Right after the apple pie is done, I move onto the turkey. The turkey takes the longest time to cook, anywhere from two to three hours, depending on the size of the turkey. While the turkey is tucked neatly into the oven, I move onto the sides – assembly style. For thanksgiving this year, I made a promise to myself to prepare a light snack to munch on throughout the day as I’m preparing the big Thanksgiving feast. A savory snack I have been working on for the last few weeks is my savory everything animal crackers. I made it earlier during the fall season to serve as a light game day snack when Kev’s friends swung by to play board games and watch football. I made these savory snacks again in the form of a tart for a course project. I plan on making them a third time just for Thanksgiving as a way to keep me fueled throughout the cooking marathon. During the cooking marathon, I sometimes forget to prepare a meal in the morning ahead of time. My savory everything animal crackers are not only irresistible, but they are also vegan friendly. The dough is essentially my tried and true pie crust dough topped with my own blend of everything seasoning. My blend of everything seasoning features a mixture of white and black sesame seeds, dried minced onion, dried minced garlic, poppy seeds, kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The everything seasoning mix is sprinkled directly onto the dough and rolled into the dough prior to cutting the dough out into animal shapes. The moment the seasoning hits the heat in the oven, it begins to toast and emits the most fragrant scents in the kitchen. These animal crackers are perfectly delightful on their own, but if I’m feeling adventurous, I may even make a dip on the side to serve with them.
For the everything animal crackers:
For the cracker dough:
· 1½ cups all-purpose flour
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· ½ cup refined coconut oil
· ¼ cup cold water
For the everything seasoning blend:
· ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
· ½ teaspoon black sesame seeds
· ½ teaspoon dried minced onion
· ½ teaspoon dried minced garlic
· ½ teaspoon poppy seeds
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Directions:
1) To make the dough, combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Pulse for 2 seconds. Add the refined coconut oil. Pulse for 5 seconds. Add in the water. Pulse until the dough comes together, about 10-20 seconds. Remove the dough from the food processor and place onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Form the dough into a thin rectangular disc. Wrap the dough up in the sheet of plastic wrap. Roll out the dough as flat as possible. Let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. When you are ready to use the dough, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit for at least 10 minutes before using.
2) To make the everything seasoning blend, combine the sesame seeds, minced onion, minced garlic, poppy seeds, salt, and pepper.
3) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
4) To make the animal crackers, roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. When rolling out the dough, try to keep the dough in a rectangular shape. Sprinkle the everything seasoning blend all over the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the seasoning into the dough. Use different animal shaped cookie cutters to cut out dough. Transfer the animal shaped dough onto the parchment lined baking sheet.
5) Place the baking sheet with the animal cracker dough shapes into the oven and bake until the crackers are just golden brown, about 20 minutes. Once time is up, remove the baking sheet from the oven. Let the crackers rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Takeaways: These savory animal crackers are the perfect way to use up bits and pieces of leftover pie crust dough. I’ve even used the dough as a base for a tomato tart. I had to be careful with some of the animal shaped cookie cutters. The ones with thinner shapes ended up baking faster (and becoming toastier) than the ones with wider shapes. I didn’t mind the toastier ones one bit since they were too adorable.