Today I'm going to try to encourage you to make your own crackers. It's not that difficult or fussy, and the results are infectiously satisfying. What kind of cracker? The cracker recipe I'm featuring today makes thin, snappy, rustic crackers. Though they are sturdy enough to stand up to a hearty dip. The technique is simple and straightforward (utilizing just a few ingredients) and the dough is a welcoming canvas to all manner of seeds, salts, cheeses, spices, or flavored oils that you might want to use as accents. The crackers are fantastically adaptable in this regard. For those of you intimidated by baking with yeast, no worries, I don't use any here.

You can make these crackers just about any shape you like. You can cut them into wide strips, thin ribbons, precise squares - or simply bake them off in big sheets. They go nicely with the artichoke dip I featured last week. I suspect they'd also be great crumbled over this Caesar salad, or diving deep into Rachel's midnight hummus over on Mighty Foods.

I'm going to list of a bunch of suggested toppings in the head notes of the recipe, but I'd love to hear your suggestions as well. Someone always comes up with a brilliant idea or approach that never would've dawned on me. I think I want to do the next batch topped with lemon zest, poppy seeds, black pepper, and Parmesan...but I suspect I could be persuaded to go a different route ;)...

Update 10/08: Lauren posted a gluten-free version of these crackers on her site.