However, they are far far away from the natural, healthy(ish) snacks that I prefer to feed both myself and my family.
We used to buy an organic version, but they became too expensive for our budget, and they just didn't taste as good. One day, my husband stumbled upon these:
Okay, so they're still not health food by any stretch of the imagination. We figured as long as we were going to eat them, we may as well get 5 grams of whole grain per serving!
Then came my idea to make my own. I found a few different versions. One, that I still want to try, requires the purchase of organic cheddar cheese powder, at about $10.00. The crackers sound yummy, but I'm not willing to pay that price just yet. I found another recipe that just called for shredded sharp cheddar. They seemed really easy, so I gave them a try.
They were... okay. Definitely not even close to a cheez-it. They were more like square cheese puffs. Delicious, but these would not break our addiction to the Cheez-its.
Then I stumbled upon this recipe for Parmesan Cream Crackers. I thought it might be a good compromise, as the reason my previous recipe was a failure was the big chunks of cheese. So, I wrangled up the ingredients:
You can use regular all-purpose flour, but I always buy unbleached.
These probably would have been much better with freshly
grated Parmesan, but this was what I had on hand.
Special note: do not do as I did, which was dump in all of the ingredients
only to realize that I only had salted butter. The salt, plus the salt from the
Parmesan cheese, plus the salt in the butter made these crackers REALLY salty.
These probably would have been much better with freshlygrated Parmesan, but this was what I had on hand.
Special note: do not do as I did, which was dump in all of the ingredients
only to realize that I only had salted butter. The salt, plus the salt from the
Parmesan cheese, plus the salt in the butter made these crackers REALLY salty.
Having tasted these crackers, I think that even withunsalted butter, they really don't need extra salt.
Parmesan cheese is rather salty on its own.
They were really easy. I just threw the flour and salt in the food processor, mixed, then added the butter. I drizzled in the cream (I used a little more than the 1/4 cup that the recipe called for). Then, I took half of the dough and rolled it out on parchment paper to about 1/4 inch thickness. I then took a pizza cutter and cut it into about one inch squares. They baked for about 10 minutes.
As you can see, I had to sneak one before I even took a picture! They are delicious!
Wow! I am so impressed! I might have to try this...I have never even thought about making stuff like this at home. Do you think in the long-run it will be cheaper to do it this way?
ReplyDelete