Saltine (Soda) Crackers

A saltine or soda cracker is a thin, usually square cracker made from white flour, shortening, yeast, and baking soda, with most varieties lightly sprinkled with coarse salt. It has perforations throughout its surface, to allow steam to escape for uniform rising, and along the edges, as individual crackers are broken from larger sheets during manufacturing. It has a very dry and crisp texture, as it is made with less shortening than varieties such as Ritz crackers.

Various versions of unleavened dry crackers known as hardtack have been around for thousands of years. The generally thick hardtack cracker was extremely long-lasting, but not very tasty. In 1876, F. L. Sommer & Company of St. Joseph, Missouri started using baking soda to leaven its wafer thin cracker. Initially called the Premium Soda Cracker and later "Saltines" because of the baking salt component, the invention quickly became popular and Sommer's business quadrupled within four years. That company merged with other companies to form American Biscuit Company in 1890 and then after further mergers became part of Nabisco in 1898. In the United States, Nabisco lost trademark protection after the term began to be used generically to refer to similar crackers.

Soda crackers are a leavened bread that is allowed to rise for twenty to thirty hours. After the rise, alkaline soda is added to neutralize the excessive acidity produced by the action of the yeast. The dough is allowed to rest for three to four more hours, to relax the gluten, before being rolled in layers and then baked.

I read at https://bakerpedia.com/ that Soda Crackers should have 4-6 layers and a final thickness of 2–4 mm (about 1/16 inch). They were giving the formula and preparation for a commercial bakery. Their recipe also used a sponge of flour - 70% baker's percentage, water - 35% baker's percentage, and yeast - 0.2–0.3. This is left to ferment for 16–20 hours at 80°F (27°C). The final dough is mixed with more flour 30% and water 5%, salt 2%, and shortening / butter 10-12% and left to rest for 3 - 5 hours. The dough is then rolled out and laminated with 4 - 6 layers, docked and cut. Topped with salt and baked. Premium or high-quality soda crackers require more time because the sponge fermentation and dough resting operations are fairly long. Cracker doughs spring or expand in the first section of the oven to achieve an open, flaky texture. This requires high humidity in the oven atmosphere (exhaust dampers closed) and high heat transfer. All types of crackers are baked to very low moisture content (1.5–2.5%). This requires a powerful oven with a high energy output from burners to evaporate water from the product in the relatively short baking time.

Homemade Soda Crackers
Recipe courtesy Chuck Hughes, http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/

Try Chuck's homemade soda crackers and you'll never go back to the store-bought ones.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2/3 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for greasing bowl

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water; stir to dissolve and let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Add the yeast mixture and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to blend. If the dough is sticky, add sprinkles of flour until a soft dough forms.

Knead the dough until it is soft and has an elastic consistency, about 5 minutes. Add sprinkles of flour to control the stickiness. If using a mixer or a food processor, the dough will form a soft ball around the revolving dough hook and clean the sides of the bowl. Add flour, if necessary, to firm up the dough.

Drop the dough into a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to rest for at least 1 hour and up to 18 hours (the longer the better.)

Arrange the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a heavy rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle about 18 by 6 inches and no thicker than 1/8-inch. Fold the dough from the short ends, brushing off the excess flour, to make 3 layers for extra flaky crackers. Roll again using the rolling pin.

Prick the dough with the tines of a fork to help cook evenly. Evenly cut the dough along the edge of a ruler or yardstick with a pizza or cookie cutter into desired shapes.

Place the crackers close together on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with salt from 12-inches above the crackers to distribute evenly.

Bake until lightly browned and crisp, 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the crackers. Check the crackers several times during the baking period to make certain those on the outer edge of the baking sheet are not getting too brown. If so, switch the ones on the outside with the ones in the middle.

Remove from the oven and brush the crackers with melted butter. Let cool on a metal rack. [Note from King Arthur Flour recipe, which is very similar: Turn off the oven, and open the door completely. Leave the pans of crackers on the oven rack; they're going to cool down right in the cooling oven, in order to preserve their crispness. Keep your eye on them for the first couple of minutes; if for some reason your oven isn't cooling off quickly, and the crackers are continuing to brown, pull the rack out partway. The cool-off in the oven makes sure that last little bit of moisture inside the crackers doesn't migrate out to the surface and condense in the cooler kitchen air – by leaving them in the oven, any moisture is dried out as soon as it hits the warmer oven air.]

Variations:

Sesame-Onion Crackers: Add to the dough, with the dry ingredients, 4 teaspoons each sesame seeds and grated onion.

Herb Crackers: Add to the dough, with the dry ingredients, 4 teaspoons each chopped fresh parsley and chives and 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed.

Poppy Seed Crackers: Add to the dough, with the dry ingredients, 2 teaspoons poppy seeds.

Yield: about 15 large crackers