Cheese Crackers

This weekend Jesse and I spent a lot of time cleaning up the apartment (it seems like we do that a lot lately). Things had gotten pretty disorderly over the past week with me trying to finish up my final papers and projects. Also, we never really got around to finishing the back bedroom. Since our friend Ed is coming into town on Wednesday, there was a bit of motivation to keep up the momentum.

Between organizing and cleaning, I did take a break to do a bit of sewing and to make tasty snacks and dinner on Sunday afternoon. One of the food blogs that I read occasionally posted a recipe for homemade cheese crackers a few days ago and I'd been thinking about them ever since. It's a pretty simple recipe: flour, cheese, butter, salt, pepper, and a little water. The recipe they referenced called for regular grated cheddar, which is practically a crime in our house. Why would you make cheese crackers that don't even taste like cheese? It was simple enough to substitute what cheddar I did have on hand, Tillamook's extra-sharp white.

I realized after this cooking project that a full-size food processor is probably going to be at the top of my kitchen "to purchase" list. The mini food chopper just doesn't cut it. This isn't the first time that I've attempted to make a recipe that was just a little too big for the food bowl or too stiff for the motor. Anyway, the dough turned out just fine and the crackers are delicious. I used the smallest fluted piece of my cookie/biscuit cutter set, which worked perfectly. The crackers puffed up in the oven to just slightly larger than standard oyster crackers.

While I wouldn't call the end product a cracker exactly -- they're more like homemade cheese straws in texture than say, a Cheez-it -- the taste is phenomenal and would be way better than your average oyster cracker in tomato soup. I'd say bring these little guys to a party if you really want to blow away your friends.