Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Bacon Cheddar Crackers



Having a party this season? Christmas, New Year's, blah-de-blah-de-blah?
Well, I think we all know that every great party needs a meat and cheese and cracker tray.
Why not fancy it up a little this year and make your own crackers?
It is super simple and they taste sooooooooooo good. Little bites of crispy, cheesey, bacony, spicy, crackerness.
Crackerness?
Yes.
It's a word now.


Bacon Cheddar Crackers

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Maple Bacon Sea Salt (optional - available from Epicure Selections)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup butter, cold
2 cups shredded, aged cheddar cheese
10 strips bacon, cooked, crumbled
1/4 cup milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, Maple Bacon sea salt (optional), cayenne pepper.
Using 2 knives or a pastry cutter, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cheese and bacon.


Mix in milk to form dough.


Using a small cookie scoop, place balls of dough about an inch apart. Using the bottom of a glass, dipped in flour, OR the tines of a fork - squish the ball so it is flat.


Above is using a fork (dipped in flour). Below is using the glass.


It should be fairly thin but not too thin.
Bake at 375 for about 16 minutes. I baked for 8 minutes, rotated cookie sheet, and then another 8 minutes. The edges and top will be a little bit brown. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.


The bigger one was squished with the glass, the smaller with the fork. Either way will work.


This recipe made 60 crackers with me using the small cookie scoop (about 1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp of dough). You can half the recipe if you want but, trust me, you will want to make lots of these. They will disappear quickly.
You can also add more or less cayenne pepper to suit your tastes. As written above I found them spicy (I'm a wimp) but Sue and the rest of the family thought they were "just right".
Now you can go and impress your guests and have them think you slaved over a hot stove all day making them tasty snacks when really, these only take about 30 to 45 minutes to whip up.
Oh, yeah, you can save even more time by using this tip - instead of using a cookie scoop you can roll the dough into 2 logs, chill for a bit to firm up, and then simply slice the crackers about 1/4 inch thick.
Tah-daaaaaaah! Homemade cheese and bacon crackers!

55 comments:

  1. Happy Christmas! following:)Those look extremely delicious.

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  2. These sound delish. I wonder about subbing almond or coconut flour?

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    1. Hmmm.... coconut flour might be really good in these....I've never tried subbing out the flour. Please let us know if you try it!

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  3. Do you need to add some type of salt if you don't have the maple salt?

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    1. I added garlic salt and they were amazing!

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  4. You can add coarse sea salt instead if you wish but you don't have to add any.

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  5. Getting ready to put them in the oven in about 15 mins..I am waiting for them to firm up a bit in the fridge so I can just slice them in quarter inch discs...I can't wait..I am going to make some homemade ranch for dipping..yum yum

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  6. Your directions don't say when to add the milk listed as an ingredient.

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    1. Yep, it does....it's in there! :) Just re-read the instructions

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  7. I use the Hormel bacon bits instead of bacon strips... Any "guesstimate" how much 10 strips of bacon is? Maybe 3/4 cp?

    Thanks!

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  8. Just did a half batch. I pulsed the butter and dry through the food processor and may do the same with all the ingredients next time. The Hormel bits worked just fine.

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    Replies
    1. THank you for letting us know! :)

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    2. I crumbled a few in a bowl of baked potato soup.... Yum! Move over sausage balls! lol

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  9. Made this! Was really nice but only made half a mixture

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  10. Why don't you have a print option? I would like to print this recipe out. Recipe looks devine.

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    1. No, I'm sorry we don't have a print option. The easiest way is to simply copy & paste the recipe into a word document and print it that way! As soon as a print option becomes available we will install it for sure!

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    2. Would be good if you wrote out the entire recipe without the pictures first, so we could highlight just that part...then print "selection". I do like seeing the pictures showing me how you did it, but I am too cheap to print out all the pictures! So I hand wrote it this time....cannot wait to try it. I LOVE cheddar cheese. Kudos to Jo and Sue for sharing!!

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  11. Can I make them one night and serve the next afternoon?
    If so, will they need to be kept in refridgerator?

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    1. Absolutely you can make them a day or two ahead. Yes, they should be stored in the fridge. :)

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  12. we've made a similar recipe for years except it came from mom back in the 50's the addition of bacon is genius! i'll add it next time. we call them cheese snackles. thanks so much for the upgrade. ours are margarine and rice krispies etc can't wait to try with BACON! I know the fam will love them !!!

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  13. Wow, these sound really good. I think I'm going to make these for the next time we have a work lunch.

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  14. While this was a good recipe and I will make it again..I am not sure how the recipe can make 60 crackers!!?? I used a tablespoon size scoop and just got about 2 dozen crackers. I needed more for party but did not have more bacon on hand. Make this recipe..but double it for more that 2 dozen crackers!

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    1. That is so strange that you only got 24 crackers out of this recipe!
      I am glad you enjoyed it though and do hope you make it again :)

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  15. I am having guests and like to have most things done in advance. Can these be frozen? Or any idea how long they can be kept in the refrigerator?

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    1. You can certainly freeze them. They do lose a teeny bit of their crispiness but not enough to ruin them or anything like that!

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  16. Should the butter be cold ? Im making these in the next few days. Going to adjust so there gluen free ( my son is aniphalactic) So excited to try. A good school snack i hope. Will let you know the outcome.

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    1. Yes. it should be cold. Thank you! I added that to the recipe :)

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    2. Thanks....im making tonight since i got reply so fast. Going to scale down to paprika as well instead of cayanne. Again my son thinks pepper is spicy lol. Besides that following to a t....will let you know how gf flour goes

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    3. Good luck! Let us know how it goes :)

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    4. They turned out great. Very yummy. Maybe a little more crumby just because gluten free can do that. Without having made them the original way yet there is no comparison but i still say not needed. THEY WERE DELICIOUS! Thanks again for the recipie. Cant wait to try more from the blog now.

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    5. Awesome! Thank you for letting us know. Hope you find more recipes you enjoy! If you don't mind us asking, what flour did you use?

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    6. I used the Bobs Red Mill all purpose baking flour and about 1tsp of Guar gum.

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  17. Just had a go at making these and they are great! Going to make a batch for Christmas day :-)

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  18. Just made these and they are delicious! Only thing I found with this is that I had to use a teaspoon, not a tablespoon for the dough in order to get the recommended amount of crackers. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I will make them again for sure.

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  19. I am making them right now. The mixture is so dry I can't get it stick together to form the loaf. I guess I'll wait for the butter to soften a bit and try again. I don't want to have to add more liquid if I'm not supposed to do that.

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    1. If it is too dry then add more liquid, a spoonful at a time, until it sticks together for you.

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  20. Everyone enjoyed them they also said that I was a little heavy handed on the pepper but request I make more really soon.

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  21. we never used bacon before. i'm going to do that now! great idea. but our recipe calls for half rice krispies.

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  22. Hi there! I wanted to ket you know that I added this post to a round-up on my blog. Stop by and check it out! http://sweetsugarblossoms.blogspot.com/2015/01/33-bacon-recipes.html

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  23. They are really delicious, it is very easy with vinyl gloves form small balls and press them, no need flour.

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  24. These are good something different. Years ago I made something similar but with corn flakes and no bacon.

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  25. These have been a big hit. Delicious and easy. a little time consuming but worth it. Thanks for the recipe! Making a batch right now, and in half I put in chopped jalapenos. Also I might end up cooking from work like 24 minutes. That might be because mine are bigger/thicker; mine tend to make about 50.

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    1. Dang autocorrect. Mine end up cooking for approximately 24 minutes.

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  26. These have been a big hit. Delicious and easy. a little time consuming but worth it. Thanks for the recipe! Making a batch right now, and in half I put in chopped jalapenos. Also I might end up cooking from work like 24 minutes. That might be because mine are bigger/thicker; mine tend to make about 50.

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  27. Hi there!! Do you use salted or unsalted butter?

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    1. I use salted butter but you could use unsalted if you prefer. I would recommend adding a pinch of salt if you do! :)

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  28. So these would be good to make ahead of time and freeze???? Also I was thinking would you want something to dip them in or spread on them? Jalapeno pepper jelly maybe or some type of jam??? just wondering...

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    1. Hmmm... I don't know about freezing. I think they might soften quite a bit so you would lose that crispiness. A dip or spread would be brilliant with these. Jalapeno jelly - YES. Definitely.

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  29. If you do them as logs, you could freeze the log, then slice and bake as needed.

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  30. Well just tried making these. Very easy to make. Baking to a golden brown. Did a cup of extra old and old cheddar cheese. I used Applewood Smoked Salt, because I couldn’t find Maple Bacon Salt. I would make again very easy to make.
    When I make again might add some Franks Hot Sauce, maybe a 1/2 teaspoon.
    Thank you for sharing and I pleased you showed the pictures where you had.

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  31. Is there a mention of the crackers in the recipe?

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