New twist on the sandwich

8/8/2004

As summer wanes, thoughts turn back to school, back to work, back to brown-bag lunches.

From elementary school to adult schedules, those lunches from home can and should offer nutrition, flavor, and maybe something different.

Here's a new twist on a sandwich. Make cracker bread by turning frozen Texas rolls into flatbreads.

Flatbreads, which are unleavened bread or cracker bread, have more than one life: they can be eaten fresh; they can also be dried out or left over, seasoned and crisped into crackers, write Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid in HomeBaking (Artisan, $40).

That s what the principle is in Cracker Bread Roll-Up. However the flat bread is fresh and made from three Texas rolls, frozen and thawed. To crisp the bread, sesame seeds are sprinkled on the bread which is rolled into a 12-inch circle and then baked. After cooling, technique takes over: the baked cracker bread is rinsed under water and held between damp towels for 45 minutes so that you can roll it without cracking.

Then prepare beef filling or turkey filling, which teenagers will love for school lunch. One cracker bread makes two sandwiches if carefully stored, enough for two days lunches.

Because of the size of these sandwiches, little hands may have a hard time handling them. They won t however have any problem with Easy More Squares, which is a bar cookie version of the ever-popular Smores. These are portable in a lunch box and great for any age.

Contact Kathie Smith at: food@theblade.comor 419-724-6155.