Want a cracker?

 I had to hide these away so I don’t eat them all up before tomorrow. I am taking them to a farewell lunch at church for a long-time member who is leaving to move to Oregon. They are Parmesan Crackers. The original recipe came from Bittman’s Minimalist column in the New York Times as interpreted by Smitten Kitchen.


The ingredients are simple:
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter (cool)
¼ cup milk
Sea salt or something to sprinkle on top – I used Alder Smoked Salt from the Vineyard Gardens. (Other suggestions are pepper, sesame seeds, or minced garlic.)

Pre heat your oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put flour, salt, grated cheese, and butter in your mixer and use the whisk attachment. (The original recipe called for pulsing in a food processor but I don’t have one and the whisk thing worked just fine.) After the flour and butter and cheese are combined, add ¼ cup of milk (The original recipe called for cream but I didn’t have any of that either.)

 When the mixture holds together and is not sticky, roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Roll it until it is ¼-inch thin. Sprinkle a little bit of sea salt (or whatever you have) here and there on top of the dough.


I used the only cookie cutter I could find around the house – a diamond shape – and cut out individual ones and placed them on the baking sheet. I re-rolled the leftover dough and cut some more diamonds.

 Prick the shapes with a fork. Three pokes in each cracker will subdue their rising too much. This is called “docking” in the professional baking world.

 Bake about 11 to 13 minutes until they are lightly browned. You really can’t see if they are brown unless you turn one over. Cool on a wire rack.

These are much better than the expensive crackers you buy in a box. I don’t cover them, but put them high on a shelf. I suppose it depends upon the weather. They get a bit soggy if covered.