When I was a kid, my parents sometimes brought home tins of deliriously delicious cheese crackers. I can’t remember the brand — I think it was a British import — but I do remember that my sister and brother and I would inhale them as soon the tin was opened. All these years later the flavor of those crackers, richly cheesy and spicy, remains burned into my memory. This recipe is my attempt to resurrect them.
The ingredients and technique for making these crackers are similar to those used to make pie dough. Butter and flour (with added flavorings) are its bones. And as with pie dough, as soon as you combine gluten (the protein in flour) with a liquid, you have to mix quickly and briefly, or the end product will be tough. So be careful not to over-mix the dough.
The stars of this recipe are its two cheeses: extra-sharp cheddar and Parmesan. The spice, which is added to the dough at the start, then dusted onto the outside of each cracker, is provided by Colman’s Mustard powder (a venerable English brand) and cayenne pepper.
Happily, this recipe is simple to make. The dough is mixed quickly in a food processor, then shaped into a cylinder and chilled for an hour, time enough for the gluten to relax and the dough to solidify, making it easy to slice and bake. The typical cracker recipe requires you to roll out the dough and cut it with a cutter, a method that takes a lot more time — and generates a bigger mess — than my cylinder method.
Another advantage of this method is that you can freeze the cylinder (just take care to wrap the dough well, first in plastic, then in foil) and then, when guests show up unexpectedly, let the dough soften on the counter for a bit, then slice off and bake as many crackers as you need.
Or you can package the baked crackers in batches of 10 or 12, tie them up with a bow, and give them as gifts. No matter how you use them — as presents or served at home — I believe your family and friends will make them disappear as quickly as my sister, brother and I made that tin go poof.
SPICY CHEESE CRACKERS
Start to finish: 2 hours 10 minutes (40 minutes active)
Makes about 50 crackers
1/2 pound extra-sharp cheddar, coarsely grated
5 ounces finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 1/2 cups (6 1/3 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons Colman’s Mustard powder, divided
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 teaspoons cayenne, divided
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ice water
Nutrition information per cracker: 60 calories; 40 calories from fat (67 percent of total calories); 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 10 mg cholesterol; 100 mg sodium; 3 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 0 g sugar; 2 g protein.
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