Parmesan Crackers

Addicting. Be Prepared.

I came across a ridiculously easy recipe for homemade crackers and was intrigued. Crackers are one of those things that are overpriced at the store, often filled with ingredients I can’t pronounce, and are sadly disappointing in flavor. You’re telling me I can do it better, cheaper, and tastier at home? Psh. Bring it on.

For these little guys, you just put in a cup of flour, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 4 tablespoons of butter into a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, I’m sure it can be done by hand too, it’ll just take a bit more time.

I Love My Little Food Processor

Once your dry ingredients are all combined with the butter, add in 1/4 cup of milk to your dough. The original recipe calls for half&half, but I’ve found that using nonfat milk doesn’t take away from it at all. It’s the cheese that makes it taste amazing. :)

Adding the Milk...

Run the processor awhile until it’s all combined and the ingredients start to stick together.

Voila!

Then I divide the dough into half and start to pat and roll and press it out thin. I’m eventually going to put it on a cookie sheet, so I try and aim for a rectangular shape that will fit on that, getting the dough as thin as possible. Don’t be afraid to use LOTS of flour!

Patting...

Rolling...

If the dough sticks a bit, I use one of those snazzy pot scrapers to scrape and lift it back off the surface.

Lifting...

Then, lightly flour your cookie sheet (I use a silicone mat with the cookie sheet and flour that), and lift your dough onto it. One batch should cover two sheets. Use a knife or pastry cutter or pizza cutter, whatever you have on hand, to score the dough into whatever cracker shapes your little heart desires.

Scoring by Rolling a Chef's Knife

Delicate Little Dough Squares

Next, sprinkle any toppings you would like on them. Our favorites are some coarse salt and oregano. Mmmmm….

Herbed Salted Goodness

Bake for about 10-15 minutes, at 400F till they’re just barely golden. If they get brown, they’ll taste a bit burnt.

Perfection

Perfect on their own, or topped with a bit of cheese, smoked salmon, or proccuitto!

Decadence

I also made a batch with the herbs mixed into the dough – some oregano, rosemary, and some chopped garlic. Those turned out incredible and the smell as they were baking – yum!! Be forewarned – since we started making these, they’ve become a household staple. Store them in a ziploc bag, and they’ll last at least a week. I don’t know about any longer than that, because they’re long gone by then!

Before

After. Yum.

Tags: Snacks

This entry was posted on March 11th, 2009 and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.