Homemade Cheez-its

My husband and I are both trying to lose that baby weight we gained (only 10 pounds to go). In an effort to support my husband I have stopped buying snack foods, including cheez its, which are my husband’s favorite late night snack. I personally don’t like them I find them too greasy but whatever makes him happy.

My new favorite obsession is pinterest. You can find ideas for dinner, desert and multiple crafts. I can’t wait to try some of the awesome things I found. So the first thing I had to try was a recipe for homemade cheez its. The first batch I followed the recipe to the letter and found the dough was too crumbly and the cheese flavor a bit too mild. Therefore, I altered the amount of cheese and milk added. I do have to say this is now one of my husband’s favorite and I have already made two other batches with different types of cheese (cheddar and pepper jack). I am sure these will also be a family favorite in your house as well.

Recipe
2 ½ cups of cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, parmesan etc.)
¾ cup flour, you will need more for dusting and rolling out dough
4 tablespoons of salted butter cut into pieces
½ teaspoon salt and pepper
3 table spoons milk (this was perfect for the cheddar I would probably do 2 tbl for the pepper jack )
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a mixer, combine the cheese, butter flour salt and pepper. Mix until the butter is the size of peas and the mixture is course. Add the milk and mix until the dough forms a ball.



On a lightly floured surface, with a rolling pin roll the dough into a rectangle about 1/16 inches. An easy way to accomplish this is to place the dough in between two rulers and once the rolling pin hits the ruler, the dough is perfect. I used a pastry cutter to cut out the cheez its. I eyeballed the size of the cheez its. The recipe says 1x1 inch but I was running into feeding time and wanted to get them into the oven before I had to feed the baby.


Once the cheez its are cut place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a chop stick or anything with a dull end poke a hole in the middle of the cheez it. You can sprinkle with sea salt but I opted out because I used salted butter and the cheese is also salty.



Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the ends are browned. Remove from the oven and let cool. These will not stay in your house for long so make sure you get to eat some before they are gone.