My Crack at Homemade Wheat Crackers!

Hey! How has your Sunday been? Our week long heat wave has finally come to an end (again) and it is a nice fall like day complete with clouds and wind. I have tried making my own crackers several times with not much success. However, today I had pretty good success. My Sister in law is working on the perfect dip recipe to accompany these. My quest is to create a cracker that is tasty and healthy! I don't like buying boxed crackers that are full of artificial ingredients. I am gonna give this a second try to fine tune the recipe a little, but these are tasty! This recipe is inspired by King Arthur. I found they tasted even better after sitting for a bit.

Here is what you need:
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon unrefined raw sugar - or regular organic sugar
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp paprika
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup of water to start - you may need to add a little bit more to form the dough
1/4 tsp vanilla
Sea Salt for topping
Some all purpose flour for rolling out the dough.

Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine in a bowl your flour, salt, paprika and sugar. Next you will add the butter to the flour mixture and combine well with your fingers.Mashing the butter into the flour mixture. Next add the water and vanilla. Start with the 1/4 cup of water and slowly add more if you need more to make wet enough to form dough into balls. You will want to divide this dough into 3 smaller balls - this makes it much easier to work with. Flour your surface well - add to this if you need to before laying out each ball of dough. I like to use all purpose flour here for flouring the surface and the rolling pin. Also sprinkle a tiny bit on top of the dough before rolling to ensure the dough doesn't stick and makes it much easier to work with. Roll the dough out as thin as you can. You will want it thin to allow the crackers to bake up and get crispy. So roll the dough out as thin as you can and use a knife or pizza cutter to cut into squares. Lay on the baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. You will bake these for about 8 minutes on each side. So turn these at 8 minutes and bake for an additional 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them so that they don't burn. Oven temps can vary. I plan on tweaking this recipe just a bit and will post the adjustments. These are so good for dipping. Hummus, salsa, guacamole....or plain...you get my drift :-) The kids liked these too!