When life gives you lemons you’re supposed to make lemonade. But what the hell are you supposed to do when life gives you 5 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese? I say make your own cheddar cheese crackers and tell Mr.Nips to take a hike.
My Mom (Hi Mom!, She actually reads this site, unlike my loving wife.) was making some dishes that required a good deal of shredded cheddar cheese and it was much more economical for her to purchase the cheese in bulk. That left her with 5 pounds of cheese that she couldn’t use. She gave to me because, “You’re the only person I know that could actually find a way to use it all before it goes bad.”
Cheddar Cheese Cracker Recipe
1 Stick of Butter – at room temperature
2 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1. Preheat your oven to 325° and get out your food processor.
2. Throw all of those ingredients into the food processor and pulse until well mixed, about 10 times.
3. Dump the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to bring it together forming a ball of dough.
4. If the consistency allows, roll the dough out into a very thin layer. Maybe 1/8 inch. If the dough is too loose to roll, toss it into the fridge for 15 minutes.
5. Once rolled out, cut the crackers. You can use cookie cutters here if you would like fancy shapes, but I just used a pizza cutter for basic crackers. It’s your call.
6. Place the crackers onto a cookie sheet covered with foil or even better, a Silpat baking mat.
7. Bake for 11 minutes or until the crackers start to get just golden on the edges.
8. Place on a cooling rack until the crackers are no longer warm.
9. Agree to never buy cheese crackers at the store again.
These crackers are so light and airy, you’ll wonder why you never made them before. Check out the way these look on the inside:
Tagged with: Baking • Easy Recipes
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June 25th, 2008 at 9:28 am
OMG! I want them NOW! What a great and simple idea – thanks for posting it!
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June 26th, 2008 at 4:06 am
hmmmm, I think I am gonna run with this one!
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June 27th, 2008 at 5:59 am
You won’t be dissappointed. They are amazing and you’ll go through them so quickly.
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June 27th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Indeed… the are AMAZING! I have tasted them! Like Mark said, you will not be dissapointed!
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June 30th, 2008 at 6:34 am
I have a date with these tonight!
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July 16th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
jsut wanted to say thanks for the inspiration. I used your recipe in combination w/ one for olive oil crackers to make little cheese stars for my kids. They loved them and I love the idea of making their favorite snack foods.
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November 24th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
[...] Homemade Cheese Crackers [...]
January 6th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
[...] ones that look almost neon orange? He could eat a box at a time if we let him, so when I saw this recipe for cheese crackers I had to give it a try. Cheese crackers with real cheese? What an [...]
January 10th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
[...] black pepper with them in any dish. I even added some crushed grains of paradise to my now famous cheese crackers and they turned out great, much better than without [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Eating my cheese crackers: http://tinyurl.com/7hjv33 filled with grains of paradise. Amazing.
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March 1st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Since I have a teeny flat, rolling out dough is a distant dream but you can make little sticks with your hands or flat button shapes and bake and they are just as good with an artsy flair!
Thx for the recipe.
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Sandy Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
You may have a teeny flat, but you have to get creative. I don’t even have a kitchen table, haven’t had one for 5 years, (long story), but I improvise. I have been using an old typerwriter table. And I cook full Thanksgiving dinners, I bake bread using it etc. There is nothing you can not do if you put your mind to it. Even a finished peice of wood over a box would do. That is currently my table now since I just moved. And I made my redo – Thanksgiving dinner on it. ( I missed the actual Thanksgiving, so I redone it in February. Anyway good luck, and happy baking.
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DifferentSandy Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Try putting a big cutting board across your sink for rolling space. An ironing board can work, too.
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March 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I added rosemary to mine and used mozzarella instead and they turned out sooo lovely. Thanks for the recipe
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October 31st, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I made these today using a pumpkin cookie cutter for Halloween, and they came out so awesome! I added additional spices (onion & garlic powder, adobo seasoning in place of the salt, and some paprika to help the color) and about 1/2 teaspoon of dijon mustard. Plus, I used half sharp cheddar & half colby jack cheese. This is a very forgiving recipe, btw. I don’t have a food processor, so I used my hand mixer. Unfortunately, the butter wasn’t soft enough, so I ended up with almost a pie crust dough, the butter left in coarse pebbles. Since the dough was too crumbly, I added a couple of tablespoons of cold water (mixed with yellow & red food coloring, to intensify the orange color) just ’til a proper dough was formed. Even with all those changes, they still came out perfect as cute little pumpkin crackers.
I can’t wait to try this recipe using white cheddar and a Christmas tree cookie cutter. Then I’ll paint the crackers with egg yolk mixed w/green food coloring and maybe sprinkle a little bit of paprika on the top before baking. Thanks so much for posting this recipe.
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February 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
A silly question: I was curious how long you think it would be before these crackers went bad.
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April 10th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
these look sooo goooood cant wait to make and eat.
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April 26th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I just made these. As you said in an update post to this one, it is SO true that rolling them super-thin makes all the difference! Half of my batch (I actually halved the recipe) was too thick and half was perfect… the better half was also left in the oven a little longer and they were fantastic. The only variation was that I skipped the cayenne and added a little garlic powder. Thanks for the recipe!
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April 29th, 2010 at 12:02 am
Because I’m vegan, I replaced the cheese and butter with Follow Your Heart vegan cheddar cheese and Earth Balance buttery spread, and they turned out amazing!
Mine had to bake for five extra minutes, but it’s probably just because I made them a bit thick (I don’t own a rolling pin for some reason).
Thanks for the recipe! I’ll definitely be making them again.
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May 22nd, 2010 at 4:46 am
Quick question – do you use shredded cheddar or the cold pack cheddar tubs?
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May 22nd, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Delicious! I love cheese crackers, but they’re so expensive, so I had to try this out. I added a little onion powder to mine, since I noticed it was listed in the ingredients of several cracker brands I like, and it turned out beautifully.
Thanks for the recipe!
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June 28th, 2010 at 8:49 am
I was searching the internet for cheese crackers. When I was a kid my mom used to make them from a Church CookBook recipe. They weee yummy but called for a pound of butter!!!
Anyway I am going to try this and make it ATKINS~Low Carb friendly…. Hope for the BEST!!
I will replace the four with Milled Flax Seed (zero carbs) and Butter (zero carbs) so just the cheese will count!!! Yay! Sure hope is works … it could just be a hot mess!!! hahaha I’ll let you know!
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