Saturday, April 10, 2010

Cheesy, Flaky, Homemade Crackers

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I’m back! Can you believe it, so soon after my last post? It’s like the twilight zone. Except without the music and the scariness. Okay, so it’s not at all like the twilight zone. Though I suppose some people may freak out at the shape of the end result of this recipe. Did that make sense? Anyway, I’m going to a meet tomorrow and we’re all rat lovers – so I’m making rat shaped crackers! You can pretend they’re mouse shape, if that makes you feel better. They do have cheese in them, and as far as I’m concerned that should transcend any mouse/rat/rodent phobia you might have, because cheese is wonderful and we should treat it as a god. Bow down to the mightiness that is cheese. You may also eat it.

Quick interlude: Are these not the cutest measuring cups you've ever seen?

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In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re doing that whole ‘live blogging’ thing again. I really enjoyed it last time, so I’m subjecting you whether you liked it or not. Onwards!

Cheesy Homemade Crackers

1 c flour
4 tbsp butter
8 oz cheese
½ tsp salt
½ tsp fresh ground pepper
1 – 4 tbsp water or milk.

Method

1. This recipe is pretty damn simple, so the steps are too. First step? Measure out the flour, butter, salt and ground pepper.

2. Mix those four together loosely with your hands – they’ll form big, buttery clumps.

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3. Grate your cheese (any harder cheese that you like, really. I was boring and went for tasty).

4. Throw that into your bowl and add the first one or two tablespoons of liquid and mix in. Using your hands again. I am one of those bakers that hates using my hands for mixing, but I will always, always, always get my hands in for something that is this delicate and butter laden. You should end up with lots of large clumps from all your squeezing . You can add more liquid in here if you like, but I found that I didn’t need to.

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5. Make it into one big clump, wrap in glad wrap, then put it in the fridge for at least twenty minutes. I have other things to bake, so it’s staying in there for however long that takes.

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6. After enough time, take it out of the fridge. Now comes the hard part. If you’re anything like me, you hate rolling anything pastry-like. I have a trick. You need two large pieces of greased kitchen paper and a heavy rolling pin.

7. Put half of the dough in between the sheets, and put the rest back in the fridge. Now, roll away! This will ensure that it’s easy to get the cut shapes back up and onto your baking tray.

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8. Now cut them out, remove, and put on the baking tray.

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9. Cook t 180 degrees until lightly golden brown. Aww.

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Okay, apparently this mix makes a bazillion crackers. Which is fine if you’re not using a fiddly cutter – so I used the rat-mouse cutter for half the dough, and a simple, scalloped, round one for the rest. Also, they taste like awesome. Please don’t skimp on the salt, because it really does bring out the cheese and they end up with an amazingly deep, rich flavour. Of course, because they’re basically butter and cheese, these crackers are very flaky, which is just how I like my home made crackers. I will definitely have to repeat this one – if only because my mother loves them. When she came home and tried one, she then demanded that I hurry up and make more so she could eat them. I was pretty much thinking the same thing.

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