Better Crackers

Happy November and Election Day!

November is the beginning of my favorite three-month season. We have so many family birthdays in November, it has my favorite holiday–Thanksgiving–and it hopefully has the best weather we’ve seen in at least 8 months. It also leads to December–everyone’s favorite month–and January for my birthday and a new year.

This November, I plan to try out more fall flavors and show them to you, and hopefully make some contenders for a Thanksgiving side dish that I can take to San Antonio.

Blog Updates:

A big thank you for coming back each day to read my blog. My traffic on the blog continues to grow every month since I’ve been writing, and I tremendously appreciate that you keep coming back to visit! I hope to keep entertaining you with pretty pictures, stories of fitness, and food trials.

This weekend, I am going to my first food blogger conference in San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Blogger Fest. They are the company that my blog is associated as a food blogging site. I hope to bring home new ideas and product samples to share with you. I even made cute business cards to share with others!

Remember that if you want to see similar blogs to mine, look at my Blogroll on the right side for ones that I frequent. This community is huge and there are tons of great blogs out there.

Homemade Crackers, Take 2:

Last week I made crackers from one recipe, but I wanted to make them again but crunchier and with more cheese flavor. These are a different recipe, but very similar ingredients, and much more cheesy.

Here are the step by step instructions so you can make crackers too! It is easier than you think. I mean, who makes crackers?

(Adapted from Kath Eats Real Food. )

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C whole wheat flour
• 3/4 C all purpose flour
• 3.5 oz warm water
• 1 C parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp EVOO
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl with batter mixer, combine flour, salt, baking soda and mix. Then add EVOO and cheese and mix. Then slowly add water and mix. Use hands to form a ball and evenly distribute the cheese.

Cover in paper towel and rest for up to one day. I put mine in the refrigerator for two hours.

Preheat oven to 400*. Roll out very thin on a baking sheet. I started on the baking sheet but found it easier to roll on the countertop. It takes a lot of muscle to stretch it thin without tearing.

Roll it onto your rolling pin and place on cookie sheet.

Stretch as thin as you can and try for rectangle shape with the pan. Pierce all over with a fork and spread more cheese on top, along with salt and pepper. Use rolling pin to press it all in.

Score with a pizza cutter in checkerboard shape.

Bake in oven for about 17 minutes. The other site says up to 28 minutes, but mine cooked much faster than that.

Let cool, then break apart the squares. They should come apart easily.

The trick to a crispy cracker was to roll it as thin as you can. I made the recipe two times and tried extra hard the second time to roll it thin from the center. It spread more than the pictures on the baking sheet, but both batches were most crispy on the edges.

I brought mine to a Halloween party with vegetables, and making crackers from scratch is a fun way to dress up a dip or veggie tray. Enjoy!