Fruit and Nut Crisps! The PERFECT cracker for cheese!

Nothing is more perfectly paired than cheese and crackers, but sometimes you want to feel fancy so you get those delicious fruit crisp crackers from the store, but they are super expensive in terms of crackers pricing, so if you’re me, you only buy them when you are feeling fancy and having guests over. Instead of buying them, we can make them! These crisp crackers aren’t too tricky to make, but they do take a few hours because you need to let things cool and do a second bake. Feel free to switch up the flavours, you can use any nuts, dried fruit and spices you have on hand. You can even switch up the flour if you have some fun flours like whole wheat or rye flour, feel free to substitute 50% of the flour with that. Lots of fun flavours you can make!

Snazzy Crackers!

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Fruit and Nut Crisps

Yield: about 50 crackers depending on how you slice them

Preheat oven to 350*F for the first bake, 250*F for the second bake

• 1 cup of Flour

• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar

• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda

• 1/2 cup Oats

• 1/2 teaspoon Salt

• 1/2 teaspoon Pepper

• 2-3 teaspoons herbs and spices, I did 1/2 teaspoon each: cinnamon, dried rosemary, dried thyme, and paprika but do whatever your heart desires!

• 1/2 cup seeds/nuts (I used 1/2 cup sliced almonds)

• 1/2 dried fruit (I used 1/2 cup dried cranberries)

• 1 cup Milk

• 1/4 cup Sour Cream (you can also use yogurt, buttermilk, or even unsweetened apple sauce or pumpkin puree)

1. In a large bowl stir together your dry ingredients, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, oats, salt, pepper, and herbs/spices. Toss to combine.

2. Stir in your dried fruit and nuts.

3. Pour in your milk and sour cream, stir to combine.

4. Pour into a greased and lined loaf pan, I used an 8”x4” pan.

5. Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick stabbed into it comes out clean.

6. Let cool at room temperature, then freeze for 1-2 hours.

7. Once lightly frozen, slice your loaf as thinly as possible using a serrated knife.

8. Lay each slice in a single layer on lined baking trays.

9. Bake in a preheated 250*F oven for 35-50 minutes or until thoroughly dried out. We are not baking at this point so much as we are drying out the crackers.

10. Let cool and eat! These babies can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature.

Cheese Crackers!

Who doesn’t love cheese crackers, a favourite since the days of eating handfuls of goldfish crackers on the playground! These delicious cheesy crackers can be modified to incorporate whatever grate-able cheese you have in the fridge, which results in SO many fun flavours! I went with cheddar and parmesan because that’s what I had on hand, and as we know, it’s quarantine so I am avoiding the store.

Little cheese bites!

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Cheese Crackers

Yield: depends on how you cut them, lets say about 100 small crackers!

Preheat your oven to 350*F

• 1/2 cup Flour

• 1 teaspoon Sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon Salt

• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

• 1/4 teaspoon Smoked Paprika (you can leave this out or replace it with other spices, things like onion or garlic powder, italian seasoning, cajun seasoning, even rosemary or thyme would be good!)

• 2 Tablespoons Cold Butter, cubed

• about 115g Cheddar Cheese, grated on the smallest sized grater you have (you can replace this with another cheese such as swiss, mozzarella, havarti, whatever you got!)

• 2 Tablespoons grated parmesan (optional)

• 1-2 Tablespoons of cold milk or water

• Coarse salt for the tops

1. In a bowl combine all your dry ingredients - flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and smoked paprika (or other spices)

2. Toss in your cold butter and cheese and combine together by pinching and rubbing the dough with your hands until it looks like coarse sand. We ideally want there to be no large butter chunks left but it still looks crumbly.

3. Now add your milk (or water) a little bit at a time, I used about 1.5 Tablespoons, but it will vary depending on how dry your cheese is, something like an old cheddar or a parmesan is going to need a little more moisture, while something like a havarti is not as dry and will need a little less. So just add a little bit at a time, stirring them together until you can grab a ball in your hand and when squeezed it will stay in a ball.

4. Press the dough together into a disk and wrap with saran wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

5. Roll out your dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut into small squares using a pizza cutter, or whatever shape you like!

6. Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden on the bottom and cheese-y smelling!

7. Let cool and eat! Store any extras in an airtight container or baggie.

These cheese-y crackers taste like the crispy bits from a grilled cheese sandwich! So delicious! Plus you can switch up the types of cheese and spice for end...

Jalapeno Popper Scones...They're popping with FLAVOUR!

I never ate a jalapeño popper until about a year ago…I know what a missed opportunity! A jalapeño filled with cream cheese and then deep fried, yes please! These scones are a flaky bun filled with all that delicious jalapeño popper flavour!

Jalapeno Popper Scones

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Jalapeno Popper Scones

Yield: 6 scones

Preheat that oven to 350*F

• 1.5 cups Flour

• 1 Tablespoon Sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon Salt

• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

• 1 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

• pinch of Pepper

• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

• 1-2 Tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeños (or fresh) - these are spicy, so be careful if you don’t like the heat

• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar Cheese

• 2 ounces cream cheese, cut into little cubes (you can dust these with a touch of flour if they stick together)

• 2 Tablespoons chopped Ham or Bacon

• 1/2 cup Buttermilk (or 1/2 cup regular milk plus 1/2 teaspoon vinegar)

• 1 egg

1. In a large bowl combine all your dry ingredients, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and pepper. Toss to combine.

2. Dump all the cold butter into your flour mix and blend it into your flour by pinching and rubbing the butter. You want there to be some larger chunks of butter, and the rest of the flour mixture to look a bit like sand.

3. Add all your flavourings in, your cream cheese, jalapeños, ham, and MOST of the cheddar cheese, you want to save a small handful of cheese for sprinkling on top of your scones. Toss these to combine with the flour mix.

4. Pour your buttermilk and egg into the flour mix and stir to combine. You don’t want to mix this dough too much, it’s perfect when your liquid is mixed in, but there are still a few floury looking bits.

5. Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and press into a circle shape about 1” thick. Then using a knife cut it into 6 triangles, like you are cutting a pie.

6. Place the scones onto a parchment lined baking tray then brush the tops with buttermilk and sprinkle them with your remaining cheese.

7. Bake in a 350*F oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious!

8. Eat while warm or dunk into something yummy like chili!

Buttery scones baked with that jalapeño popper flavour!