Recipe - Crisp Ship Crackers - Galletas Marinas

Jim vorheis
4 teaspoon Rounded (about One half oz)
1 tablespoon Heaped unsalted butter
crumbled cake yeast or 2
softened
rounded teaspoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon Heaped lard; plus extra
1 pound Unbleached flour; plus extra
for greasing trays; etc
for kneading
1 One fourth cup Lukewarm water
1 One half teaspoon Sea salt
approximately 110 f

Have ready 3 large, wellgreased baking sheets. Stir the salt and fat into
1 cup of the water and keep stirring until the salt has dissolved and the
butter melted. Put the crumbled yeast into a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons
of the remaining water and work to a smooth cream with the back of a wooden
spoon. Form the flour in a rough circle on your work surface, making a well
in the center; pour the creamed yeast into it and begin to work in the
surrounding flour, sprinkling the mixture with the salted, fatty water. Mix
well and gather into a rough ball. Lightly flour the board and begin
kneading until the dough comes to life and is smooth and elastic about 3
minutes.

Roll the dough into a sausage shape about 2 inches in diameter and then
cut with a plastic dough scraper into 25 pieces if weighing, they should
be just over 1 ounce each. Roll each piece of dough under your palms into a
small ball about 1 One half inches in diameter. Place the balls of dough about 2
inches apart on the greased trays. Smear the inside of your hands with more
lard or butter and spread the outside of the balls with a light coating so
that the outside skin of the dough will not dry out. Cover the trays with
greased plastic wrap and set in a war place, about 75 80 F, to ferment
and rise to about half their size again about 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 325 F. Again, lightly grease your hands and press each
ball down firmly to make a circle of the dough about 2 One half inches in
diameter and about One fourth inch thick. Cover with greased plastic wrap and set
to rise at the same temperature for about 40 minutes. At the end of this
time they will have risen slightly and be soft and puffy on top.

Bake, changing the trays from top to bottom of the oven halfway through
the cooking time, until they are dry and crisp right through and a light
biscuit color ~ about 1 One fourth hours.

The Art of Mexican Cooking From the collection of Jim Vorheis

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini