Hmm.. kind of anyway, these are less cracker and more puff, but they’re still delicious and make a very welcome treat in our home as we slowly remove the unnecessary additives from our diets.

This is the recipe I used, slightly adapted from Country Living.

You will need

• 1 cup plain flour
• 4 tbsp cold butter
• 2 cups grated tasty cheese
• Italian herbs (or dried herbs of your choice)
• 3-4 tbsp water
• And a food processor!

1. Process the flour, herbs and butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Add the cheese a bit at a time
3. Add the water, a little at a time, stop once the mixture forms a dough.
4. Wrap the dough up in cling wrap and place in the fridge until chilled. I made up a batch and split it into two halves, the first half I baked after 2 hours in the fridge, the second I didn’t bake until 2 days later and there was no discernible difference in the texture or flavour.
5. Once chilled, preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Run your hands and rolling pin under cold water (cold hands = good pastry!), flour your surface and pin and roll the dough to just less than a cm thick.
6. Slice into triangles, squares, or whatever shape you fancy.
7. Grease a baking tray, place your shapes on it, making sure they don’t touch each other.
8. Spray a little oil over the top of them, for the grown ups I also sprinkle some salt and pepper over them at this stage, the kids don’t like pepper and they don’t need any more sodium than the cheese and butter already have!
9. Bake for 15 minutes or until they’ve gone crispy and golden brown.

They’re best eaten straight out of the oven, but can easily be “re-crispied” by five minutes on a low heat in the oven.

We’ve been putting them in brown paper bags for snacks for all of us while we watch movies, so far they’ve been a big hit, and it’s nice to know the kids aren’t getting a less than healthy dose of MSG that the store bought crackers contain *insert a grumble at Arnotts here*.

Variations (omit the Italian herbs)

• Add some sweet chili sauce in place of the water to make a spicier version, or some jalapenos in the initial processing.
• Add some bacon (cooked or raw, whatever is on hand), process it finely before adding the flour and butter.
• For a true Aussie snack, throw in a teaspoon of Vegemite into the dough.

Apologies for all the cooking themed posts recently, I’ve been on a bit of a mission to cut out store bought snacks and premade food to see if it helps my eldest son’s behaviour, I promise there should be some sewing soon!