that's right, crackers!
I never really thought about making crackers. Certainly didn't consider them as a baked good. But alas! this months challenge brought me crackers!
Our July 2012 Daring Bakers� Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.
Yep! that's right. and the challenge wasn't just one cracker, but two, with two differnt types.
So I set out to make crackers. I took one reciepe from pintrest and the other from the DBC post. (that one's below with my variation)
I had a block of super shard cheddar cheese in my fridge so i only purchased the extra sharp cheddar needed for my pintrest reciepe, homemade cheez-its.
I set out thursday night to make my crackers. I took off my jewelry, washed my hands, tied on my apron and took out the ingredients.
I grabbed my lovely super sharp cheddar and lo and behold, IT WAS BLUE! I'm talking Grover blue. Fuzzy and blue!
So I take off my apron, grab some shoes and head out to the store.
Mind you this was my third trip to the store that day for various reasons.
It ended up being a heavenly annoyance though because the cheese I got was amazing.
Garlic & Herb Cheddar!
I got back into the swing of things and grabbed up my shiny new grater
Yes, i bought a new grater this month. Why? Becuase the only grater I own is actually a teeny tiny microplane. I didn't think that would be productive gratting an entire block of cheese for crackers so I grabbed up a lovely kitchen aid brand grater the last time I was at Target.
I took to the garlic cheddar crackers first. These ones needed to be chilled for a while so I got to grating the most fragrant tasty block of cheese.
Seriously, i kind of loved grating. It was oddly soothing and ultimately enjoyable.
I used the whole block even though it was a bit more than the reciepe called for. But I'm that kind of baker. Always have been.
i added butter and let my mix get to work
have i expressed my love for this mixer yet? it is so nice to be able to throw things into a mixer and just have it do the work.
the dough came to gether so frikkin easy. seriously. I can not believe how simple cracker are. There are barely any ingredients, the easiest measurements, and once it's all pretty, you just let it firm up and then have your way with it.
This reciepe called for nuts in it. Instead of nuts, I used sunflower seeds. I love sunflower seeds. Sooooo much.
*pause* i realized when going through this reciepe, i never showed off my awesome apron! last christmas my friend Jan and The Momma each gifted me an apron. The one Jan gave me is covered in Babuskas (little russian ladies) which I have an odd obsession with. The Momma went the shoe route.
I love it! So frikkin cute, handmade, purchased at a craft fair. So awesome.
I feel fierce in it
back to the baking..
I finished up the cheddar garlic sunflower dough and rolled it into logs.
I then got together my cheezit dough and my phone rang. I ended up having a nice lengthy chick chat with my bestest girl Brandi while making this dough. Needless to say, I didn't get any in progress shots of making the dough.
here's the finshed guys all wrapped up and ready to chill in my fridge
I went to bed and got to baking the next day.
The Cheddar Garlic Sunflower Crackers were up first. I sliced the logs and baked them in 10-20 minutes, some took a little longer to crisp up.
While those were baking, i got to work making my cheezit wannabe's. now. I get that cheezits are customarily square in shape with those fancy fluted edges but i really didn't want to do that. So, i grabbed the smallest cookie cutter I had and ended up with little heart shaped goodies instead.
check out the massive stack of cheddar garlic crackers
these babies were sticky and loved attaching themselves to my counter top.
but! they came out wonderfully
the darker ones tasted exactly like a cheezit, the lighter ones, a cheddar biscuit.
the challenge was definitly successful.
The Momma and I ate bunches right out of the oven. My sister, brother in law, and niece gobbled up 90% of hte heart-its Saturday afternoon and the worker peeps gobbled up the rest today.
Insanely easy and I honestly can't wait to try making them again.
Here's the reciepe for the Cheddar Garlic Sunflower Crackers:
Cheddar Garlic and Sunflower Crackers (form into a log and slice):
Servings: 75 crackers give or take a few. all depends on how goodyou are at slicing.
Ingredients
� cup (120 ml) (1 stick) (115 gm/4 oz) butter, well softened
1 12oz block of garlic & herb cheddar cheese (i used caot signature), grated & firmly packed
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (285 ml) (190 gm/6oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 gm) salt
1/2 cup (120 ml) (60 gm/2 oz) sunflower kernals
Directions:
1. Combine butter and cheese in a stand mixer and beat well.
2.Add the flour, salt, and sunflower kernals. Stir to combine.
3. Form the dough into two tight logs and wrap with plastic wrap.
4. Chill for at least an hour and up to several days. The log can be frozen at this point for several months.
5. Heat the oven to moderate 325�F/160�C/gas mark 3.
6. Slice a log into 5mm (1/5 inch) coins and place on a parchment lined baking sheet
--dont stress too much about this. i foudn if they werent crisping up enough, i squished it with my spatula and then popped them back in for another 5 to 10 minutes and they came out perfect---
7. Bake about 10 minutes until golden brown
8. Store in an airtight container and eat within three days
10:00 p.m. - Monday, Jul. 30, 2012