Cheddar Crackers

I came across some great looking cheese crackers, made with Cheddar cheese.  They looked so good so I wanted to make some to see if the taste was as good as the look. 

Having checked all over the internet I came across several sites and videos with precisely the same recipe, so I was unable to determine the origin.  I usually like to say where I have found a particular recipe, but in this case since I can’t pin down the source I can’t do that.

The recipe itself is very simple, with only three, or four ingredients and a little water.  Flour, butter and cheese are the main ingredients, with some optional flavouring if desired.

The pastry dough needs to be quite short, and not worked very much, so that the cheese stays in very small lumps, giving a strong flavour and allowing the pastry to be crispy and flaky.

You can make them whatever size you wish.  I opted to cut mine into roughly 1 inch square, so very easy to pop into the mouth for the lovely crunch and heavenly flavour.

I must say mine taste so good.  I could hardly stop eating them so quickly took them over to family.  Needless to say they were devoured in a very short time.  

Ingredients:

• 128g plain flour
• 56g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 225g mature cheddar cheese(grated)
• 1 1/2 tsp Flavouring, such as seasoned salt, aromat or whatever spice you like(optional)
• 3-4 tbsp ice cold water

Method:

1. Place the butter and then the flour into a food processor, with a dough blade or normal cutting blade fitted.
2. Sprinkle over the seasoning if using. (if you aren’t using you may wish to sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt).
3. Add the grated cheese.
4. Pulse repeatedly until everything is combined and like a breadcrumb with a few larger lumps.
5. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time and pulse, until it looks as though the dough is going to clump into a large ball. – I used 3.5 tbsps of water.
6. Before it clumps like that tip out onto a work surface and use your hands to push the mixture together into a ball.  Do not knead.
7. Flatten the ball into a disk or a square and wrap in plastic film.
8. Refrigerate for one hour.
9. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/375 F
10. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
11. Take the dough from the fridge and roll out, on a lightly floured service, into an oblong, about 1/8th inch thick(I actually cut my dough in half and did the rolling out in two parts).
12. Once rolled out use a pastry/pizza cutter, or knife, to cut into squares of about one inch.
13. Use the flat end of a bamboo skewer, or any other implement, to pierce a hole in the centre of each square.
14. Place the squares onto the baking sheets, they can go quite close together since they wont spread much.
15. Bake in the oven for 15 mins, or until a lovely golden brown colour.
16. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for two minutes on the baking trays.
17. Then scoop up the crackers and put onto a wire rack to cook completely. They will be nice and crisp.
18. When cool place in an airtight container until required.