Sunday, March 1, 2009

Taralli

In our quest to eat better food and spend less money we have recently taken on the issue of snacks. We are snackers. We function best on 7 or 8 small meals a day rather than 3 big ones. Crackers, chips, pretzels, cookies, and muffins play a major role in our eating habits. Morning tea with scones, or muffins. Afternoon tea with crackers and cheese. Elevenses. Mid-afternoon snacks. Etc. The crackers, chips, pretzels, cookies, and muffins tend to be loaded with fat, processed grains and sugars, and all kinds of unidentifiable extras. They also tend to be rather expensive. They have been running a bit more than one sixth of our monthly grocery budget. So, we have been looking for alternatives we can make at home. We are pretty good at muffins and cookies, but the crackers and other crunchy, salty, savory bits have been a bit more problematic. We've tried various cracker recipes and they all fall a bit short, sometimes quite a bit. We did find one that we love. Not a cracker, more of a pretzel. But we love them. I got the recipe from Wild Yeast. We changed it slightly, substituting sesame seeds for the fennel seeds (I'm the only one in the house who likes fennel) and sprinkling them with course salt before baking.


They are great.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob,
Welcome.As a new writer I checked out your blog,particularly those posts about goats.I also have a small dairy herd.You had a problem with parasites,but I didn't catch your system for parasite prevention.Do you have one?I do not use chemical wormers unless absolutely necessary,instead I use an herbal wormer program.I have had a few losses,but for the most part it seems effective.Lisa

Daphne Gould said...

So you are part hobbit then?

tansy said...

can you share a link for those pretzels? i too am looking for crunchy munchy snacks! (did you see the sinful girl scout cookie recipes i found???)

we have lots of mini meals around here too.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more (on spending less for food)! Yay for you for even attempting your own taralli (and shame on me for not even thinking about it). As I'm on a baking kick of late, I'll have to try the recipe for myself -- I love fennel!

Alan said...

Lisa, Good questions. I have a program that is built on a couple of complimentary philosophies. I will detail it in a post soon.

Daphne, I have hairy feet and live in a hole (or rather a pit, the kind you throw endless amounts of money in). Guess I could be a hobbit.

Tansy, sorry about the link. Fixed it now. I drooled over your girl scout cookies but we are holding off until after Lent.

Rowena, Don't know if mine turned out anything like the real thing. They were good regardless. Let me know how yours go and if you have any good variations.

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