Cheese Nips
Makes approximately 300 crackers.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour plus 1/2 cup divided & reserved for kneading and rolling
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Cheese Topping powder or 2 packages dry cheese powder from 2 boxes Kraft macaroni & cheese
- 3 tablespoons shortening
- ⅓ cup buttermilk
- ½ teaspoon salt for tops, optional
Instructions
- Sift together 1 cup flour, baking soda, baking powder and cheese powder in a large bowl.
- Cut in the shortening with a fork and knife with a crosswise motion until dough is broken down into rice-size pieces.
- Mixture will still be very dry.
- Stir in buttermilk with a fork until dough becomes very moist and sticky.
- Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of the reserved flour over the dough and work it in until it can be handled without sticking, then turn it out onto a floured board, being sure to keep 1/4 cup of the reserve flour for later.
- Knead the dough well for 60 to 90 seconds, and the flour is incorporated.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Spray a light coating of cooking spray on a baking sheet.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and use the remaining reserve flour to dust a rolling surface.
- Roll about one-third of the dough to just under 1/16th of inch thick.
- Trim the edges square (a pizza cutter or wheel works great for this), then transfer the dough to a lightly greased baking sheet.
- Use the rolling pin to transfer the dough.
- Simply pick up one end of the dough onto a rolling pin, and roll the dough around the rolling pin.
- Reverse the process onto the baking sheet to transfer the dough.
- Use a pizza cutter to cut across and down the dough, creating 1-inch square pieces.
- Use the blunt end of a skewer or broken toothpick to poke a hole in the center of each piece.
- Sprinkle a very light coating of salt over the top of the crackers (crackers will already be quite salty) and bake for 8-10 minutes, mix the crackers around (so those on the edge don’t burn) and bake for another 3-5 minutes, or until some are just barely turning a light brown.
- Repeat the rolling and baking process with the remaining dough.