Homemade Cheese-Its

I have found my new favorite recipe. Quick, easy, very few ingredients, and the delicious taste makes my mouth sing with happiness!

Can you tell how pumped I am about this?

When I first found this recipe, I was excited but kind of "meh" about it. I figured there was no way that this recipe could compare to the real cheese-its and they probably wouldn't taste as good, or turn out well at all. I have never been happier to be proven wrong!

We used to have Cheese-Its (or rather, I think the brand we bought was called Cheese Nips...) around the house ALL the time growing up. A bowl of Cheese Nips was a classic after school snack for us. I love cheese, I love crackers, so a flavorful cheesy cracker was my perfect snack!

Overtime, Cheese nips fell by the wayside in place of other snacks, but they never lost their spot in my heart. Which is part of the reason why I decided today would be a great day to try out this recipe.

I can count the ingredients in this recipe on one hand. Folks, these are about as simple as it gets.

Besides the hour-long dough chilling time, these are so quick to make, and are a perfect snack idea for the kids, or the grown-up kids (aka me).

These are best served warm and straight from the oven! I hope you all find these as delicious and enticing as I do!

Last Month: Garlic Parmesan Fettucini

Homemade Cheese-Its
Chill Time: 1hr     Bake Time: 12mins     Yields ~110 Cheese-Its     (WW: 1pt per 2 crackers)
Ingredients:
8oz cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 cup flour
2 Tbsps ice water

Directions:
1) In an electric mixer, combine shredded cheddar cheese, unsalted butter, and salt. Add the flour and mix until it looks crumbly and dry.
2) While mixing, slowly add the ice water and continue to mix until the dough has formed one big cheese ball. This will take about 20 seconds with the electric mixer so try to be patient and do not add any more water.
3) Once the dough ball has formed, pat it into a disk and place it in the fridge for about an hour to chill.
4) Preheat oven to 375 F.
5) After an hour, roll out dough onto a floured surface. The dough should be about 1/8'' thick. Using either a pizza cutter, or a pastry wheel (which will give the crackers the traditional jagged edge), cut the dough into 1-inch squares.
6) Bake squares on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Before putting in the oven, poke the top of each cracker with a chop stick, or something of equal size.
7) Bake crackers for 12 mins.
8) Serve warm and enjoy!


(Recipe adapted from A Golden Afternoon)