Parmesan Black Pepper Thyme Crackers Recipe 435

Steps:

• Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix until creamy. (**I think this is where personal preference and maybe even altitude will effect the outcome of these crackers. I started out with 1 stick of butter, then blended all the other ingredients together. The "dough" was too crumbly and looked like a struesel topping that you would put on top of muffins or a coffee cake. The one stick of butter is what Ina calls for in her recipe. I think this is a typo. I added another 1/2 stick of butter to the flour mixture, and then beat it with the paddle attachment on my mixer. This is when the "dough" balled up and looked right. So, I think this recipe needs between 1 stick and 1 1/2 sticks. You might even get by with 1 1/4 sticks.).
• Add the Parmesan, flour, salt, thyme and pepper and combine.
• Dump the dough on a lightly floured board and roll into a 13-inch long log.
• Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cut the log crosswise into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick slices.
• Place the slices on a sheet pan and bake for 22-25 minutes.
• **Cook time does not include freezing the dough for between 15-30 minutes (mine were hard enough to easily cut at 15 minutes).

Steps:

• In a food processor, combine ingredients, and pulse until dough comes together. Turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, and form it into a log 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill until firm, at least 2 hours.
• Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two baking sheets. Cut log into 1/4-inch-thick crackers, and place them an inch apart on sheets. Bake until firm, about 12 to 13 minutes. Remove baking sheets from oven, and raise temperature to 500 degrees. When temperature comes up to correct heat, return sheets to oven, and bake for 3 minutes more, or until crackers are deeply golden brown all over. Let cool on a wire rack.

Steps:

• In a bowl stir together the Parmesan, the flour, the zest, and 3/4 teaspoon of the pepper and with a pastry blender blend in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the center, add the water and the lemon juice, and combine the mixture with fork until it just forms a dough. On a work surface knead the dough until it is just combined, transfer it to a sheet of wax paper, and using the wax paper as a guide form it into an 11- by 1 1/2-inch squared-off log. Chill the dough, wrapped in the wax paper, for 1 hour, or until it is firm enough to slice. (The dough may be made 2 days in advance and kept wrapped well and chilled.)
• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the dough into 1/4-inch-thick slices, arrange the slices 1 inch apart on baking sheets, and bake them in batches in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, or until they are golden around the edges. Transfer the crackers carefully with a spatula to a rack, let them cool, and sprinkle them with the additional pepper.

Steps:

• Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the parmesan cheese, flour, salt, thyme, and pepper, and beat until it clumps together into a ball, pulls away from the sides of the bowl, and few, if any, loose crumbs remain. Wrap the log tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes, or until firm. While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Slice the log into roughly 1/4 to 1/2-inch pieces (just make sure they're all the same thickness). Place the dough slices about an inch apart on the half-sheet pan and bake for 16 to 22 minutes (depending on their thickness), or until firm and golden brown.