When I think of Cheez-its, I don’t immediately think of France, but in the spirit of French Fridays with Dorie, I’m willing to go with it. Perhaps French people just looooove Cheez-its? Kind of like Jerry Lewis?
There’s also probably an intro to the recipe or something that explains this connection but the book is downstairs and I am up here and it’s 7:00 AM and I don’t plan on going downstairs again until leaving for work. So there’s that.
Okay, notes and stuff:
1. I have been making a lot of crackers lately. That is a lot of butter. I have been trying this new thing where I replace about 1/3 – 1/2 of the butter called for in cracker recipes with olive oil. That worked here!
2. For cheese, I used mostly cheddar with just a little manchego added in.
3. Speaking of all of my cracker-making of late, I have started using a shortcut where I roll the dough out on parchment, then use a pastry cutter (like a small pizza cutter with a decorative edge), to slice the dough into crackers, and then just bake them like that (not separating them out). That technique was moderately successful here. The cheese made the slicing more like scoring, but they were easy enough to re-slice after baking.
4. If you’re curious, the cracker recipe I spent a lot of time developing is for Pea, Parmesan and Rosemary Crackers and you can find it at the link. In that recipe, I just used olive oil (no butter at all).
Like always, here’s a link to everyone’s posts and my photos below. Happy (French) Friday!
Making the dough — not the full amount of butter.
Ball of cracker dough, ready for some fridge time.
Rolled out, cut, and about to go in the oven just like this!
I re-sliced the crackers after baking, as some of the cheese melted all together, but this method still worked pretty well!
Yours look lovely and crispy and cracker-y! I love the idea of replacing some butter with olive oil – genius! Merry Christmas and have a delicious 2013.
Brilliant! I have a friend who uses the same technique for cutting her crackers; if I had a pastry cutter, I’d have given it a try too. Maybe if I’m nice (and drop lots of hints), I’ll get one in my stocking! I think your crackers look absolutely fantastic – nice job! Happy holidays to you!
That’s a great idea and they really look delicious. Have a Merry Christmas.
I used the slice-and-bake technique, but I like your way of rolling them out and simply cutting into squares. I will try that next time. I’ll also try to sub some olive oil for the butter. So many different things to try with this recipe. I really enjoyed it. I hope you have a great holiday.
Great idea to roll, cut and cook on parchment! I want to try more cracker cooking!
I like your innovations and olive oil would add a nice flavour to this. Yours are much more cracker-y than mine. Have a great holiday!
So many good ideas in your Post. Your crackers look like the real deal and I like the crisp appearance. Perhaps adding the olive oil would allow the dough to come together better. I had to work a little to get mine to “stay”. Although the refrigeration helped and I was able to roll it out easily, it made me nervous as I was putting it together. Have a wonderful holiday and may 2013 be healthy, happy and filled with good cheer for you and your family.
I like the thought of using olive oil in these. I am going to have to check out the pea/ parm. crackers. I am making crackers for Christmas tapas and these sound like a great idea.
Merry Christmas
Wow- I never thought of replacing the butter with olive oil. Great idea I will have to try. Funny since I do this for sauteing but had not of this for baking.Also thanks for the pea, et al cracker recipe – would love to try that. Especially since my family went so crazy over these crackers. Happy holidays !!