Here is a great little something to make and keep in a tin for serving with a glass of wine in the evening or a pomegranate juice and tonic in the afternoon. A few pointers: do use the parchment paper so that your pans don’t get messed up…do get the dough as thin as possible – this will give you a nice cracker consistency. Feel free to change up the flavors…the cheddar could become freshly grated Parmesan cheese…the salt could be changed to cumin…and a dash of cayenne could be added if you like spice. This is a good one to experiment with, and the results are a crunchy, cheesy, happy bite.
Sunflower Cheddar Crisps
Makes: About 48 crisps, but this will depend on how you cut your dough
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Cool Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups raw, shelled sunflower seeds
1 ½ cups grated Cheddar cheese
½ teaspoon salt, and more for sprinkling
¼ cup water
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a food processor with the metal blade, process the sunflower seeds until they are finely ground. Add the Cheddar cheese and the salt and pulse until the mixture is blended. Add the water and pulse until the mixture comes together as dough.
Line a backing sheet with parchment paper. Turn the dough onto the paper and spread it out, patting it thinly over the whole pan, almost to the edges, as thin and as even as you can. (I took another piece of parchment and laid it over the dough and used a juice glass as a roller to help me flatten it…) Take a knife or a pizza cutter and score the dough into cracker shapes – squares, diamonds, triangles, whatever you like.
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and invert onto a large cutting board so that you can remove the parchment from the bottom. Break the crisps along the scored lines and let cool. Store them in an airtight container.
