If you told me a year ago that one day I would be making crackers, I would think YOU were crackers! Seriously, walk into any grocery store and you can find a whole aisle of different types of crackers. They are the kind of thing that people always buy to go with their homemade dips and appetizers. I didn’t even know it was possible to make homemade crackers!
For my mom’s 55th birthday celebration, the Ina Garten-themed dinner party that I threw, I found a recipe for Parmesan & Thyme Crackers while flipping through the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook. The recipe seemed simple enough, so I decided to give it a whirl. The best thing about this recipe is that I was able to make it a couple days in advance and refrigerate the dough (But you could make it weeks in advance and freeze the dough too). Then when you are ready to make your crackers, all you need to do is slice and bake!
Let me tell you how impressed everyone was with these crackers! First, they could not believe that I actually MADE my own crackers. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, they were then in awe with the perfect roundness of them and their golden-brown color. Finally, once my family tasted them, they were literally melt in your mouth, almost like the texture of a cookie, with a lot of parmesan and herb flavor! I had sliced cheese out to go with the crackers, but everyone also started using the Sun-Dried Tomato Dip as a spread for on top of the crackers too! What a great idea!
Ingredients
- 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 4 oz freshly grated parmesan cheese (about 1 cup)
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Let the butter sit out to reach room temperature.
- In a mixer, cream the butter for about a minute.
- Turn the mixer down to low, and add in the parmesan cheese, thyme, salt and pepper.
- Next, add in the four a little at a time.
- Once all ingredients are added, keep the mixer going on low for another minute until it becomes crumbly in texture.
- Sprinkle some flour on a cutting board and pour your dough from the mixer onto the board.
- Press the dough into a ball and then roll it into a log shape, about 9" long.
- Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (You can refrigerate the dough for up to 4 days. If you plan on waiting longer to bake the dough, put it in the freezer instead)
- When you are ready to bake your crackers, preheat the oven to 350°.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Slice the log of dough into thin pieces about 3/8 inch thick. Place each round of dough onto the parchment paper.
- Bake for about 22 minutes until the crackers become lightly browned.
- Remove the sheet from the oven, and then remove the crackers from the sheet and place crackers on a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe adapted from Ina Garten’s “Parmesan & Thyme Crackers from the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics Cookbook.
Leave a Reply