Crispy, light crackers that taste just like store-bought Cheez-Its but with the added flavor of pimento cheese
Course Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 45 minutesminutes
Cook Time 9 minutesminutes
Servings 2001-inch crackers
Ingredients
1CBest Ever Pimento Cheese*
1Call-purpose flour
2-3Tbcold water
kosher salt to taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Add the pimento cheese to a food processor. Pulse twice to break down the peppers and cheese to a fine mince. If you don't have one, you can use a pastry blender, food mill, ricer, or even a fork if you're persistent enough.
Add the flour and pulse until the mixture resembles pea-size crumbs. Slowly add the cold water and pulse until the mixture comes together. Start with two tablespoons and add 1 tsp at a time after that as needed. The dough should come together to form a ball but it should not be sticky.
Separate the dough into two discs and wrap each with plastic wrap. Chill the dough until very cold or at least four hours. The dough can also be made in advance and kept refrigerated for up to three days before preparing.
To prepare the crackers, dust your work surface generously with flour. Remove one disc from the fridge at a time. Sprinkle additional flour on top of the top and the rolling pin.
Roll the dough out until it is paper thin (less than ⅛ inch), rotating the dough occasionally to ensure it doesn't stick. You can also add additional flour as necessary. The thinner you roll out the dough, the more crisp your crackers will be.
Cut the dough into 1-inch square pieces. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer, poke a hole in the middle of each cracker. You can also quickly prick each cracker with a fork.
Using a bench scraper or offset spatula, carefully remove the crackers from the work surface and place on the prepared baking sheets. Leave at least half an inch around all sides between crackers to ensure they crisp and don't steam in the oven. Sprinkle each cracker with a couple of grains of salt.
Bake in batches for 8-12 minutes or until the crackers are browned around the edges. There is a fine line between perfectly baked and burnt. Good news though…if you take the crackers out of the oven too soon, you can always bake them a bit longer once you realize they haven't reach peak crispness. You cannot, however, un-bake them if you burn them.
Start at 8 minutes and then stay close to the oven, checking them every minute. I remove the pan from the oven at minute 8 or 9 and remove the crackers that are browned from the pan and place them on a cooling rack. I put the pan back in the oven with the crackers that need a little more time.
You're looking for the cracker to be totally dried out. The best way to check them is to drop the cracker onto a plate from 2-inches above. It should sound like a potato chip, light and crispy, and bounce on the plate a bit.
Allow the crackers to cool completely before serving. The crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.