Cheese Cream Crackers - Recipe

This weekend I gave my daughter the last of our crackers from the cupboard, it's her default snack choice these days... crackers and apple. I found myself needing to make crackers, but all I had left in the fridge was some mozzarella and some feta cheese. Since mozzarella wouldn't add a whole lot of flavor to a cheese cracker I went with the feta.

I'll be honest, I didn't really have high hopes for they way these would turn out due to the moisture content of feta, but figured they'd be fine until I could get to the grocery store for some sharp cheddar. I was so wrong! They didn't quite crisp up quite as much as I'd have liked, but the flavor was delicious, especially with tomato soup for lunch. They also would have benefited from some whole wheat flour, but I was out. Did I mention I needed to get to the grocery store?

Generally I do a combination of cheddar for cheese and pepper for seasoning, or Parmesan and Italian seasoning, but the feta and pepper I made this weekend was quite good and I highly recommend giving it a try at least once. I don't add additional salt, if you would like your crackers saltier add up to 1/2 tsp salt. If you have it, I like to use the Pampered Chef Pastry Cutter with the crimper wheel to cut these, it gives it a little bit of a "Saltine" style edge to it. Also, I cut cheese crackers into diamonds and regular crackers into squares, easier for my family to tell at a glance what kind of crackers they are without asking me.

Cheese Cream Crackers

Ingredients

1 cup flour (substitute up to 1/2 cup with whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup cheese
4 tablespoons cold butter
seasoning to taste, about a 1/4 tsp
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1/3 cup cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
   
2. Add the flour, cheese, butter, seasoning and salt to a food processor, and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Turn on the food processor and drizzle in the cream until it just comes together into a dough (it takes exactly 1/3 cup for me, might need a tiny bit more in drier climates or high altitudes).
4. Turn the dough out and divide into 2 sections.
5. Roll the dough out to 1/16 - 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with a sharp knife, pizza wheel or dough wheel, or for fun use cookie cutters.
6. Bake on ungreased stoneware or cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.
7. Start watching them at 10 minutes, you may need to pull them out in small groups. Once they are golden brown on the edges and top, pull them off the stone and continue to cook the ones that need more time. Cook time is going to be dependent on cracker size and thickness, so the more uniform they are, the easier to gauge the cooking time.
8. When removed from the oven, place the crackers on a wire rack with no overlapping to cool, you want the steam to escape. Do not store until completely cooled or you'll end up with soft crackers. If you need to "fix" soft crackers, place in a 200F oven for about 10-15 minutes to dry out.
9. Roll out remaining dough and bake, or wrap tightly and stick in the refrigerator to make later (up to 1 week, if wrapped well)