Oh Cheez-It!
An addictive snack recipe, updated...
Tasty AF, but tweaked…
Folks, yesterday’s newsletter included a recipe for vegan Cheez-It crackers, which I worked out from three or four different recipes online, and made them tastier, IMHO.
But when I baked them last night, I realised they could benefit from a tweak - less salt, a splash more water and not neccessarily a spray of oil.
As a subscriber, I wanted to share the benefit of my cooking with you, so here’s an updated version! Let me know how you get on, share your picture, and try not to eatt them all at once!
Cheez-Its
This is the second version of my tweaked Cheez-Its recipe, alllowing for less salt, more water, and a damn fine cracker…
Ingredients
• 1-3 Tbsp nutritional yeast (add more for a cheesier flavour - I added three)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• A pinch of mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder (optional, for fluffiness)
• ½ cup (60g) all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) cold water, plus more as required
• 1 tablespoon (15ml) oil
• ½ teaspoon good sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon paprika
• Pinch of ground turmeric
• Spray oil
• More Sea salt, for topping, optional
Preparation
Preheat oven to 180°C/ 350°F
In a food processor add all the ingredients except the cold water. Pulse for 30 seconds to combine everything. Pour in the water and pulse for another 30 to 45 seconds or until a dough forms, add more as required. (I needed to add roughly another tablespoon, to make it come together…)
Knead with your hands into a ball and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Lightly dust the surface with flour where you’re going to roll out the dough. Cut the dough in half and work with one half a time. Keep one half in the fridge.
Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to be about 1/2 cm thick. Roll it out into a large rectangle. Use a knife to cut off uneven ends to make a straight line.
Optional - Lightly spray with spray oil and then you can sprinkle sea salt over top, to add texture, crunch, and saltiness to the crackers. I did this with half the batch and found that they were browner, too salty for me, and almost burnt – so watch the cooking time!
Using a pizza cutter or knife, make even rows and columns to make squares. You can make these as big or small as you like. I made them at least 2.5 / 3cm squares.
Use a toothpick to make a hole in the centre of each square, or a fork to make a bunch of holes.
Place them on a lined baking sheet or a good non-stick baking sheet. Repeat the process with the scraps of dough and remaining dough half.
Once they are cut, bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until golden and crispy.
Allow them to cool for 10 minutes before eating as they will harden.
These crackers are super tasty - and feel free to mix it up, by adding a tablespoon of dried herbs, some fresh chopped rosemary, onion powder, a dash of flavoured oil…go wild!
Happy cooking!
Hi Will, I made this as a lovely healthy snack, I used smoked Paprika, and reduced the amount of salt as suggested in your updated post, however for reasons unknown, I have experienced an unusual bout of uncontrollable flatulence. I believe that Galangual helps with gaseous bowel, how and when should I introduce this much needed ingredient into the mix. Movie night with my family whilst eating these morish snacks was somewhat interrupted by my uncontrollable flatulence, which unfortunately led to a less than favourable shart. Fortunately the movie which I do recommend, that has been available to view for sometime, Iceage 'Collision Course', was a hit with the fam, and my bass like bottom eruptions added to the movie experience. Will, sorry to waffle so.. I have to go and attend to an issue with my left pinky. First time poster, long-time reader. Dave.Mount Martha