Cheese Buds
Cheesy, salty, tender bites of melt in your mouth goodness. These crackers are great to make for the holidays.
Ingredients
- 4 ounces extra sharp white cheddar cheese, grated (approximately 1 cup)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into chunks
- 1 cup cake flour all purpose flour can be used if you don't have cake flour on hand
- 1 tsp course sea salt
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 egg white whisked till frothy, but no peaks
- smoked paprika for garnish
- whole pecans for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Grate cheese
- Add flour, cheese, butter chunks, salt, and cayenne pepper to a food processor. Turn food processor on and allow to process until ingredients form into a ball. This will take approximately 1 minute.
- Remove dough from food processor, wrap with plastic wrap and press into a flat round, place in refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Dust counter top with flour and roll out dough until its 1/4 inch thick, using a 1 inch round cookie cutter (you want your cheese buds to be bite sized) cut out rounds and place on parchment paper lined baking sheets.
- Place a pecan on top of rounds, using a pastry brush lightly paint each cracker with egg wash, and sprinkle with smoked paprika.
- Bake in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until buds just start to brown around bottom edge. Check after 12 minutes.
- Remove from oven, and immediently remove to a cooling rack. Allow to cool and store in an air tight container for put to 1 week, or freeze for 1 month.
Notes
Note: Cheese buds can also be made plain without the pecan, or pecans can be chopped and sprinkled on after egg wash, with or without smoked paprika.
Another suggestion if you like spicy feel free to be more liberal with the cayenne pepper in the recipe.
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