Cheese Crackers

The elastic on the socks is long gone. The socks no longer hug the little calves. They are loose and dangly. The canvas shoes are frayed in places. The brown covers on the books are tattered. I try to convince Hasini “It doesn’t matter. It is just a few weeks more” to get out of wrapping those books again in brown paper.  I throw in images of the imminent holidays, long days of playing, colouring and cartoons. She acquiesces distractedly.

I cannot believe that an entire school year has passed. I cannot believe I managed to drop Yuvan exactly 5 minutes…. 

after the bell, every day of the school year. Hmm.

It takes a lot of precision, a lifetime of alarm-abuse (snooze forever) and a supportive family. I could not have made it without the support of my family. My mother who’d shove breakfast into my mouth while I combed my hair getting ready for college, my maamiyaar who cooks when I sleep in, Jagan who sleep-competes with me and Yuvi who if I wake up early, wails, tracks me down to the kitchen/bathroom and drags me back into bed.

My dad was the lone crusader. In school/college, he’d pour mugs of cold water over my sleeping head. I remember being enraged at the rude, cold awakening, grabbing a towel to wipe my face, turning over the pillow and going back to sleep, in revenge. Ha.

I started out the school year vowing not to buy cookies and cream biscuits and bread loaves. I was going to home-make all of them with quality ingredients, with love and care.

By end of the year, I am the single largest Oreo buyer in my neighbourhood store. I stock a miniature version of the store’s cookie shelf at home. I unthinkingly pull out a cookie packet and fill up snack boxes in the morning. Yes, me the food blogger. I am very human.

There were little periods in between when I’d take time in between making dosai and rasam to bake some cashew cookies or cheese crackers that I could have with my morning lemon and honey, that I could pack for the kids snack boxes. These periods were few and far between.

These cheese crackers are for the cheese lovers. It is easy, quick and totally fool-proof. Just dump everything in a mixer to make a dough, roll out, cut, bake and you’re done. This recipe works great with cheddar and with processed cheese if you can’t find anything else near you. These are wonderful to munch on anytime of the day. Top with your favourite ingredients and you have some chic party appetizers.

Prep Time: 20 mins

Baking time: 15-20 mins

Makes: 50 – 60 small crackers

Ingredients

Cheese – 200 gm (cheddar or even processed cheese (8 cubes make 200 gm) would do

All purpose flour – ¾ cup (96 gm)

Butter – ¼ cup (57 gm)

Salt – ¼ tsp

Cayenne pepper – ¼ tsp (optional)

Cold water – 1-2 tbsp (if necessary to bring the dough together

Method

1.       Preheat an oven to 200 degrees centigrade. Line 2 baking sheets with aluminium foil. Set aside.

2.       Break up the cheese into small bits or grate it up.

3.       Dump everything except the water into a mixer grinder/food processor and pulse till all the ingredients come together as a dough. Add cold water 1 teaspoon at a time if the mixture is dry and hasn’t formed a dough. You may not need to add the water at all.

4.       Scrape the dough out into a bowl and shape into a ball.

5.       Flour your working surface and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick sheet. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares. Use a fork to poke holes into each of the squares.

6.       Transfer the squares to the foil lined baking sheets. Place the baking sheets in the middle racks of the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until browned on the underside. Remove from the oven. Cool and store in an airtight box for up to a week.