Skip to main content

Cheesy Pecorino and Rosemary Crackers


If you're looking for a little TV snack, why not try one of these lovely, melt in the mouth crackers? I found this recipe in one of my US bakery cook books (can you tell I'm on an American kick at the moment?), the utterly delightful Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook. Cheryl and Griffith Day run a neighbourhood bakery, the Back in the Day Bakery, in Savannah, Georgia. Their book, comprising over 100 of their recipes, is definitely one of my favourite baking books. The recipes are mouth watering, and the book is beautifully laid out and photographed. The pastel colours used reflect the faded, vintage Southern charm of the bakery. I love it. If you're like me, and love American baking, towering layer cakes, milk glass cake stands, stripy straws, etc you would too. 


There are so many recipes I want to try from this book: Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins, Pecan Chocolate Espresso Coffee Cake, Blueberry Buckle, Chocolate Bread, Brown Sugar Bundt Cake, Lemon Pie Bars, Bacon Jam - the list goes on and on. Today, I wanted something quick and easy to try. So I settled on these Pecorino and Rosemary Crackers. They were perfect. I've translated the recipe from the US measurements given in the book.

Cheesy Pecorino and Rosemary Crackers

Ingredients

113g softened unsalted butter
85g grated Pecorino Romano Cheese
1/2 tspn dried rosemary
1/2 tspn fine sea salt
1/2 tspn coarsely ground black pepper
160g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 160 fan / 180 conventional / 350F / Gas 4. Line a baking tray with parchment.

Place the butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attached. Cream until smooth - about 1 minute. Add the cheese, rosemary, salt and pepper, and mix in. On low, add the flour, and mix until the dough comes together in clumps. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and bring together. Form into a log shape, and wrapped in clingfilm, refrigerate for at least 1 hour (at this point the dough will keep for up to 3 days).


When ready to bake, remove the cling film and slice into rounds about 3mm thick. Place on the baking tray and allow a little space for spreading.


Bake for 18 - 20 minutes until lightly brown on the edges. Cool completely.


Apparently, these will keep in an airtight container for up to a week. Or, you can freeze the dough for up to 3 months. Just defrost in the fridge overnight, and then slice and bake as normal.

I wouldn't know though. I made up a batch of eight and having sampled one fresh from the oven (which was lovely: buttery,cheesy and aromatic from the rosemary and pepper), left them to cool while I took Josh and Ben to see the Avengers and leaving Mike in charge of Sam and the house. When we got back, there was no sign of them. Not a one. Just a mildly guilty looking husband who innocently asked 'What crackers ...?'.

Guess they were pretty good. 

Susie

Comments

  1. It is lovely - so many good things in it! I've seen Gem's challenge, but I've got a few other things in mind for that :) Will definitely be entering something! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments are very much appreciated.

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Indulgent Chocolate and Walnut Brownies for the Weekly Bake Off

It's been a great couple of weeks in the Bake Off , as Amy has chosen some fantastic chocolate recipes from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes . Although I made last week's American Chocolate Ripple Cheesecake, I didn't enter it. Not because it was a disaster (it was incredibly delicious though very rich - Josh has been able to eek it out all week as he only needs a little piece to get his daily chocolate fix!), but I simply ran out of time. So this week, I decided to get my skates on and make the bake early. Particularly as it's brownies. Yes. Brownies. Those dark, fudgey, chocolatey little bites of heaven. But for me, this week was an experiment. You see, I already have a fantastic brownie recipe . It's been made countless times and been played around with to give an endless variety of treats. (Have I ever mentioned Maya Gold in brownies? Yes? Well I'll have to post about them someday soon because they are amazing - like some sort of out of body exp

Not Viennese, but Swiss Cakes for the Weekly Bake Off

One of my strongest childhood memories is the ritual of our family's Sunday Tea, which always took a certain form. My nan would put the kettle on at just before 4pm, and a pot of steaming hot tea would soon be brewed. There were sandwiches, and always, always some form of cake. Quite often, if nan and mum had had a busy weekend, it would be provided by Mr Kipling. My brother and I looked forward to this with some enthusiasm, as there were quite often French Fancies and Vienniese Whirls, which were our hands-down favourites. We could leave the Battenburg Slices, and the jam tarts were often a bit too dry  for us (definitely not as good as homemade). But the soft sweet inside of an iced French Fancy (my favourite being the lemon yellow ones), and the moistness of the Viennese Whirls were something to savour. Of course, you can still buy these. But they just don't seem to taste the same somehow. So when Amy announced this week's Bake Off challenge as the Apricot Swiss

Limoncello Cake

I really love this cake. I mean really love it. So much so, it's my new best friend. It's like sunshine on a plate. The citrussy aroma tempts you while the sultry lemony pucker hits you full in the mouth. And who can resist anything with 'Limoncello' in the title? The mere mention of the word transports you to to the Sicilian sun. It's one more reason I have to thank Random Recipes for getting me to delve into my cookbooks. This month's challenge had a bit of a twist. Dom, of Belleau Kitchen (who runs the challenge) created a Randometer thingummy-bob to test us. You had to enter how many cookbooks you owned, and then it would generate a random number. You counted along your shelf to that book, and then entered the number of pages, to generate another number and so find your Random Recipe. The gods must have been looking favourably on me this month, as I ended up with this gorgeous lemon cake, from Peggy Porschen's 'Boutique Baking