Vermont Cheese Crackers Food

HOMEMADE CHEDDAR CRACKERS

Steps:

• Put the Cheddar, flour, butter, salt, seasoned salt and cayenne in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles sand. Add the ice water and pulse until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.
• Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness and cut into squares with a pizza cutter. Use a wooden skewer to poke a small hole in the center of each square. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden brown, 15 to 17 minutes. Allow to cool before packing up.

VERMONT WHITE CHEDDAR MAC AND CHEESE

Steps:

• Cook elbow macaroni as directed.
• Melt butter in frying pan over medium heat. Stir in salt and pepper. Add flour, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Remove the frying pan from the stove and add milk.
• Return the frying pan to the burner and gradually increase heat as you stir constantly. When mixture boils, continue to stir for one minute, then remove from heat. Stir in shredded cheddar cheese.
• Add cheese sauce to the macaroni and stir thoroughly. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle top with paprika, then bake for another five minutes.

VERMONT CHEESE CRACKERS

Steps:

• Whisk together the flour, cheese powder, yeast, salt, and baking powder. If you're using baker's ammonia in place of baking powder, set it aside.
• Add the shortening, working it in to make an unevenly crumbly mixture.
• If you're using baker's ammonia, dissolve it in a tablespoon of the ice water, and sprinkle it over the dry mixture before adding the remaining ice water. Whether you're using baking powder or baker's ammonia, stir and toss in enough of the ice water to make a cohesive (but not sticky) dough.
• Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a small rectangular slab.
• Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to a couple of hours; don't chill longer than that. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Very lightly flour a piece of parchment, your rolling pin, and the top of the dough. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough about 1/16" thick, or slightly thicker. If you don't have parchment, roll on a lightly floured work surface or silicone rolling mat. The dough will have ragged, uneven edges; that's OK. Just try to make it as even as possible.
• If you've used parchment, gently slide the parchment and crackers onto a baking sheet. Cut the dough into 1 1/4" squares; a rolling pizza wheel works well here. Don't separate the squares. If you haven't used parchment, gently fold the rolled dough in half, pick it up, and place it on a lightly greased cookie sheet, THEN cut it.
• Prick each square with the tines of a fork.
• Bake the crackers for about 8 minutes, till the ones on the outside are starting to brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven, and transfer the browned crackers to a cooling rack or piece of parchment; they're done. Quickly and carefully pull the remaining crackers apart to separate them. Return to the oven.
• Bake for an additional 3 minutes or so, or until the remaining crackers are a very light golden brown. You'll need to watch these closely at the end; don't walk away from the oven. They go from golden to dark brown very quickly.
• Remove them from the oven, and cool right on the pan. When completely cool, store in an airtight container.