Herb and Olive Oil Trail Crackers
Flour, water, oil, and dried herbs baked flat at home. Bread that survives a week in a pack.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 150
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Lunch
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Day hike
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All purpose flour | 180 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 70 g | add the last of it a splash at a time |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried thyme | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried rosemary | 1 tbsp | crush it so the needles do not stab |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
Method
- At home: combine flour, salt, herbs, oil, and most of the water in a bowl. Knead about ten minutes, resting the dough a couple of times if it fights you. Keep it on the dry side and add water only if it will not come together.
- Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until it is as thin as you can get it. Thin is what makes it snap instead of bend.
- Cut into squares with a butter knife and slide them onto a tray with a little space between each one.
- Bake at 200 C / 400 F for about 15 minutes, until the edges brown.
- Cool completely on a rack. Warm crackers trap steam and go soft in the bag.
- On the trail: eat dry, or drop them into soup or stew to soften.
Crackers solve the bread problem. Real bread crushes, molds, and stales in two days; a flat, low-moisture cracker has almost nothing left in it for mold to work with, so it rides in a pack for a week without complaint. The whole recipe is home prep — nothing happens at camp except opening the bag.
Thinness and dryness are the two things to get right. A wet dough steams rather than bakes and comes out leathery, so hold back water and roll harder than feels reasonable. The olive oil is what makes them crisp instead of hard, and it is also the ingredient with a clock on it: fat goes rancid long before flour does, which is why old batches get a smell test.
Packing
Airtight bag or a rigid container if you care about whole crackers. They keep about a week in a pack, longer sealed. The olive oil eventually goes rancid, so smell them before a long trip and freeze the batch if it will sit for months.
Variations
- Swap the herbs for cracked pepper and sesame, or cinnamon and sugar for a sweet version.
- Eat them with peanut butter or hard cheese for a lunch that needs no stove.
- Half whole wheat flour makes a denser cracker that holds up better in broth.
https://www.hikeforpurpose.com/trail-meal-herb-and-olive-oil-crackers