Cheese crackers, red chili con carne






Raw  ↑
Baked  ↓







The cheese crackers are something. They started out as Saltine soda crackers but with buttery goodness added, and then the butter was changed to cheese. 

1 Cup white all purpose flour
1/2 cup cheese, any mixed cheese.
1Tablespoon buttermilk powder (my new favorite ingredient)
1/8 teaspoon baking soda to react with buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking powder to lift the heavy cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt

Process to desired pulverization.

1/4 -- 1/2 cup water through feeding tube until mixture turns into a ball that rolls around the processor. 

375℉ for 10 minutes

Makes two full sheets (in reality 1/2 size professional baking pans, but they are large), 2 dozen squares if scored the way shown. The scraps can be reprocessed with additional water for an additional dozen, nearly 72 cheese crackers.

The chile con carne is nothing. I had considerable minced beef and lamb hamburger meat prepared and chilled that needed to be used before it went off. An onion is diced, a few garlic cloves smashed and diced. Cumin and cilantro added, with s/p and specific chile powders. Additional dry chile flakes crumbled by hand because the powder is insufficiently hot, oregano. 

Two tins of beans with their packing liquid are added to that.

One tin of San Marzano tomatoes added to that, whole, not diced or anything. Heated. That's it. No cheese because the crackers are cheesed up. 

3 comments:

vza said...

What kind of cheeses did you use, Chip?

Chip Ahoy said...

These were expensive crackers, but only because I used the scraps that I had around wrapped in plastic dying an ignominious suffocating desiccation.

Uniekaas Robusto, an incredibly strong orange substance. Exclusive to Whole Foods. They get you hooked by putting it on sale, making you fall in love with it, then raising the price when you cannot live without it.

I bought two. And it seems like one disappeared

Asiago from the deli section of the regular grocery store where things are actually more expensive than at the speciality stores. Each package is tiny to keep it at around $6.00, it seems, So I bought the largest package.

Parmigiano Reggiano. Same thing.

Lastly, a few slices of regular single slice Tillamook sandwich Pepper Jack cheese.

All of the scraps amounted to about 1/2 cup, about the same weight as 1 cup flour.

The buttermilk powder is not necessary. That was impulse to see what would happen.

The third tray is dough scraps reprocessed with additional water and flour to adjust but nothing else, so diluted. They were wetter and rolled out much more thinly. You could not even tell they are from the same batch, but no less excellent.

vza said...

Thanks, Chip. I'm going to try your recipe. I have some Double Gloucester, Pepper Jack, and Fontinella cheese left, so I'll use those for the first attempt.

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