Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers to the rescue!! All the prep is done in the food processor. Easy, delicious and fun!
Okay, I admit it. With three kids in the house, sometimes it is hard to keep enough snacks to make everyone happy when you make most of them yourself. Thankfully, the whole prep process is done completely in the food processor. I don’t even have to find a bowl.
Also thankfully, my four year old thinks cutting out the shapes is really fun, as is poking the holes in them so that they don’t rise and instead stay flat like crackers. She’s so good at it that I don’t even really have to help her anymore. The last time I tried to help her, she very seriously looked at me (taller than usual because she was standing on her stool that stays in the kitchen so she can help) and said – “Mom, I got this.” Well alrighty… I’ll just go wash the dishes.
Note: my crackers are not orange because any cheddar that is orange is colored to look that way. You can certainly find cheddar that is colored with natural ingredients, but why bother. When buying cheese that is made in the United States, we buy either organic or local cheese that we are knowledgeable about their source of milk and process. However that is not always readily available or you get one choice and that’s it. When given the choice we always prefer local – but since Savannah is not exactly a cheese making hub in the world, we do occasionally purchase cheese made in other countries that have a better reputation with regard to how their diary is processed.
I have learned little by little that labeling foods “organic” is largely an American thing. Many other countries don’t use the organic label because much of what we do to our mainstream food supply  is either illegal or just plain gross in other countries. Our family’s process is not a perfect process – but it creates a lot of opportunities to try and experiment with different textures and flavors if we do some research before we stock up. For the record, the milk we drink is not labeled organic, nor is the local cheese. But I trust his methods and the quality of his product far more than many mainstream organic brands. The organic label is a very expensive one for farmers to carry, making it difficult for the little guys. So don’t rule out small dairies and farms before talking to the people that own them.
Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers
Ingredients
- 3 cups cheddar I used two 7-oz blocks and that was about right
- 8 tbsp cold butter (or one stick)
- 1 1/2 cups whole white wheat flour whole wheat pastry flour also works
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cube cheese and drop it in the food processor and run on high until the cheese is completely crumbled and and mealy. Cube the cold butter, add it to the cheese and run it again until it is all incorporated and the butter is the same texture as the cheese.
- Add the remaining ingredients in the food processor with the cheese and butter and run it on high until the dough forms a ball, about two minutes.
- Turn the dough out onto a piece of wax paper. Pressing it into a ball with your hands. Cover the dough with another piece of wax paper. I mash it down flat with my hands first, then roll it out to about 1/8 inch. You can sprinkle the tops with salt if you want them to be salty. I usually skip the extra salt and nobody notices.
- Use small cookie cutters to cut out the shapes you desire. Prick a small hole in the middle to prevent them from puffing up. (I use the end of a chop stick but a toothpick works just fine.)
- Line a sheet pan with wax paper and drop cut out crackers on the wax paper. Baking time will depend on your shapes and how thinly you rolled your dough. My crackers were done at around 12 minutes. But if your crackers are small or rolled very thin, start checking them around 8 minutes. When they begin to brown around the edges, they are done. They will get a little crisper as they cool.
- Store in an airtight container on the counter. Or freeze the extras!
Leave a Reply