Fig and Olive Crisps after Trader Joe.
Trader Joe’s Fig and Olive Crisps are delectable but costly so let’s make our own! I was inspired by this recipe with a different ingredient mix but a similar process. Next time I might add even more figs and olives, while keeping mind the Trader’s description of the two key items as being “evenly distributed” so I’d be sure to use equal amounts of each. Serve on a charcuterie board with lots of stinky cheese or fruit. Makes a lot of crackers; consider freezing one of the loaves then turning it into crackers at a future date.
Ingredients:
1 ½ c figs (I used a mix of golden and black), stems removed and coarsely chopped
1 ½ c Kalamata olives, pitted
1 c whole rye flour (because I was out of whole wheat)
1 c all purpose flour plus 2 T for the figs
2 t baking soda
1 ¼ t Kosher salt
1/3 c dark brown sugar
2 c whole buttermilk (or a mix of buttermilk/regular milk/whole milk yogurt)
¼ c honey
1 ½ c hazelnuts, roasted and shucked
½ c sunflower seeds
¼ c sesame seeds
¼ c chia seeds
Method: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together buttermilk/whole milk/yogurt and honey. Toss chopped figs in 2 T flour to coat all surfaces. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly, then add liquids and mix. The finished batter should have the consistency of a wet pancake batter.
Loaves for Fig and Olive Crisps as they come out of the oven.
Butter/oil two small loaf pans and/or several clean 14.5 oz cans* and pour in the batter to about 2/3 up the sides. Bake in preheated oven 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the loaf comes out clean.
Cool loaves in their pans then remove to a rack. Cut into sections to fit the eventual cross-section dimensions of your finished crisps; I cut my loaves lengthwise into thirds. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the freezer until almost solid but still sliceable; this will facilitate slicing the loaves without falling apart.
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Remove prepared sections from freezer and slice into the thinnest possible crisps. (I tried doing this on a mandoline but also used a very sharp knife.) Arrange on a half sheet pan covered with silicone pad or parchment paper and bake 40 minutes, switching the position of pans mid-bake if necessary, or till the crisps are no longer soft in the middle. Cool on the sheet pans (the crackers will continue to crisp as they dry) then store in an airtight container for up to a couple of weeks. If crackers become soft they can be re-crisped with 10 minutes in a 250 degree oven.
*Got this idea from the Cafe Sucre Farine recipe quoted above. Feared the resulting crackers would be too big but in fact they’re a nice size, similar to Ritz crackers. And the larger loaves can be sliced with the mandoline, unlike the smaller ones that come apart.
