July Roundup

Crackers!

July turned out to be one HOT month! Here in New York, we were over 100 degrees as was the rest of the country. I didn't turn my oven on the whole month.

Thanks to Dorrie, Colleen & Michele for your crackers! I'm glad they came out well. They look delicious.

Nancy is jumping in for the next challenge. I'm so excited about this one!

Cheese Crackers

Posted by - colleen

I finally made my crackers! I found this recipe on MyRecipes. They were delicious! I made a few tweaks-I used a Mexican 4-cheese blend instead of cheddar jack. I used whole wheat flour and Splenda sugar. The dough was not easy to roll out but I decided to just roll it the best I could and then used the pizza cutter to separate them. The shapes were not perfect but the taste made up for it. These would be perfect to bake up with some homemade soup for dinner over the winter. They were a little spicy with the red pepper and just the right amount of cheese. I would totally make these again!

Easy Cheesy Crackers

Posted by - Dorrie

This week, while contemplating what to bring to a play group get together for snack, I remembered that this month's Have the Cake challenge is crackers. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

I searched the internet for a recipe for cheddar cheese crackers and happened upon one that was on several different websites/blogs. It sounded magnificently easy and tasty.

Fortunately for me, I already had my camera in the kitchen because that morning I had mistakenly let Henry try eating yogurt out of a bowl with a spoon. As you can see, very little made it actually into his mouth, but I think he's learning about the whole "spoon" thing...

Henry and the strawberry yogurt

Cheddar Cheese Crackers

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white ground pepper (optional)

4 Tblsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

8 ounces grated cheddar cheese

3-4 tsp water

Pulse the flour, salt and pepper, then add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add grated cheese a little at a time until the mixture again resembles coarse meal.

Cracker dough in the food processor

Pulse in 3 to 4 tablespoons of water, one tablespoon at a time, and only enough so that the dough forms a ball and rides the blade.

Remove, wrap in plastic, and chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours. Roll the dough out to 1/8th-inch thickness directly onto a baking sheet. I used biscuit cutters to cut out mine, but the recipe recommends using a knife or pizza cutter to cut all of the dough into 1 inch squares.

Cutting out the crackers

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the crackers are golden brown.

Finished crackers

I doubled the recipe thinking that it wouldn't make very many from one batch, but as it turns out maybe 60 crackers was a bit much...

These were great crackers, right out of the oven. But they became pretty moist and "biscuity" the next day. The lack of our usual dry Colorado weather has something to do with that I think, as we are current in our "monsoon weeks" with a thunderstorm occurring every afternoon. They might store better next time, but I think if I make these again I might take the time to bake them the day that I serve them.

Blue Cheese Almond Wafers

Posted by - Michele

This month’s Have the Cake challenge was cheese crackers. Alot of people like Cheez Its. I am not one of those people. Well, I don’t really dislike them, but I don’t go crazy over them. I decided to go with this recipe made with blue cheese because I knew I had to like them! I found it in Southern Living All-Time Favorite Recipes.

This recipe would go great with a nice soup or stew, or really just a snack. The original title of the recipe was Blue Cheese-Walnut Wafers, but I don’t like walnuts. I decided to use slivered almonds instead. It was so easy to make. And I’m sure you could incorporate any cheese you wanted to. Thank you, Rena, for choosing this yummy challenge! Here is my recipe if you would like to try it!

Blue Cheese Almond Wafers

1 (4oz) package blue cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup finely chopped almonds

1. Process first 3 ingredients in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. (Mixture will be sticky) Spoon mixture into a bowl; stir in almonds. Cover and chill 5 minutes.

2. Divide dough in half. Shape each portion into an 8-inch log. Wrap in heavy-duty plastic wrap; chill 1 hour.

3. Slice dough into 1/4-inch thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

July Challenge: Cheese Crackers

Cheese crackers are my weakness. I can sit and eat an entire box of cheez-its or better cheddars without an ounce of guilt. Ok, that part about the guilt is not true. As we all know, a box of crackers from the supermarket can't be all that healthy. I searched around and found a great post on The Kitchn with an easy recipe. If you can't have cheese or don't like cheese, feel free to make another kind of cracker.

Now get crackerin'!
Oh god, that was so cheesy. :)