Cheese Crackers

Somewhere along the line I lost my rolling-pin. Well, I don’t imagine I really lost it, I suspect it was a deliberate choice on my part to part company around the same time I decided to pass the baton for baking and decorating Christmas sugar cookies to my daughter. I know I gave her my entire assortment of cookie cutters; the rolling-pin may have been part of the endowment too.

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Having been sans rolling-pin for a few years my plan to learn how to make crackers fell by the wayside. Instead, I collected recipes on my Pinterest board and kept the idea in the back of my mind for a post-retirement project. This week I decided it was time to break into the cracker-making mode and so I popped over to my favourite online shopping site–Amazon.ca–and ordered a rolling-pin that arrived on my doorstep like magic two days later.

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There were two factors in my choice of cracker to make this week. First, my obsession with cheesy rice cakes that I partake in almost nightly; and second, a fridge that is chock-full of cheese due to recent stellar sales on cheese at the grocery story. Cheese crackers it was!

I’ve had a recipe stored on my Pinterest board from In The Kitchen With Kath for a while. There are many similar recipes floating around cyberspace; this is the one I chose to follow. It couldn’t be easier.

Yield: I got two large cookie sheets of 1 inch crackers.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) of grated sharp cheddar cheese
  • 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter cut into small pieces
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 Tbsp. milk. (I actually ended up using closer to 3 Tbsp.)

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put the cheese, butter, salt, and red pepper flakes in the food processor and pulse a few times until the dough is crumbly.

Add the milk and process until the dough forms a ball. I added the 1 Tbsp. of milk the recipe called for and processed the dough. It was nowhere near close to forming a ball and so I just added a bit more a few times until it was the right consistence. Guessing the difference in what I needed to use has something to do with altitude. Who knows.

Roll the dough on a floured counter (with your brand new rolling-pin!) to about 1/8 inch thickness.

Cut the dough into 1 inch squares with a sharp knife.

Use the flat end of a skewer (I used a chopstick) to poke a hole in the middle of each cracker.

Put the crackers on a parchment-lined baking sheet allowing about 1/4 inch between each one. (Parchment paper is my new best friend. I can’t believe it’s taken me so many years to discover it!)

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown.

And that’s it! Couldn’t be easier, right? The recipe says to store in a covered container to be eaten within a couple of days. There’s no way we’ll eat all of these crackers within a couple of days–well, we could, but we won’t–and so I’m going to freeze some of them.

These are absolutely delicious! Cheesy and with just a little bit of a bite. If the quality is still good after freezing I am going to make a lot of these to have on hand around the holidays. Much better than those store-bought preservative-laden crackers that we love to hate.

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I’m a writer, reader, and creative. I thought by now I’d have things figured out, but I keep coming up with more questions. I think that’s okay. I’m here most mornings pondering ordinary things and the thin places where faith intersects.
4 comments
  1. One of my favorite things to find in my lunchbox at school was cheese and crackers, a separate item. Two saltine crackers with cheese in between. Your recipe is a yummy-looking blend of the two.

    Nice transition from canning to snacking, Linda!

    1. It’s a great recipe, Marian. Simple and oh-so-tasty!

  2. Thanks for the link to my site, Linda! I have to say that I love your idea about freezing them. I had never thought of that. I may have to get going and freeze some for the holidays. 🙂

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