Gruyere and Cayenne Crackers | Friday Night Bites

My addiction with homemade crackers continues. As a kid, and still today, I love the traditional “cheez-its” cracker. That perfect square shape with ruffled edges and the tiny dot imprint in the center has a certain appeal.  Perhaps, it is since they are incredibly easy to eat and snack on. Since the cheddar variety is the most traditional flavor, I thought I would mix it up and put my own spin on this iconic cracker. After much internal debate, I came up with Gruyere cheese and cayenne - a little spice along with the rich nutty cheese flavor; simply perfect for our Friday night bites.

It doesn't feel much like winter here in the bay area. We did experience a fairly vigorous rainstorm on Tuesday night which awakened me during the middle of the night. The weather man is predicting that we will have sunshine and warm weather over the weekend. I wish winter would happen here in the bay area since we definitely need the rain. I was certainly hoping the rain would continue through the weekend especially for our traditional Friday night bite celebration.  A cozy fire along with the sound of rain hitting the windows sets the tone for a perfect winter Friday night.

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We are preparing for a system conversion in a few months at work.  This is going to be a fairly dramatic change for numerous folks at my company however it will provide most robust functionality, productivity, reporting and a better user interface and experience.  With the impending positive change, we are preparing our outside sales folks with tools to make their jobs streamlined.  One such tool, well smart phone app is “Dictation Dragon”.  Now my sales folks can be out in the field and simply record the results and next steps of each sales call, email it to themselves and input into our CRM.

It got me thinking, how can I streamline and use my time wiser when I am blogging.  I actually used this app to write this post.  It was so cool.  I am sure that all of you can find numerous uses for saving you time.

Would love to hear from all of you what imaginative flavored crackers you might want to see for future Friday Night Bites posts. Look forward to hearing all of your creative ideas. 

Gruyere and Cayenne Crackers

1 ½ Cups (6 oz) Gruyere Cheese

4 Tablespoons Butter, cut into 6 pieces

¾ Cup Flour, plus additional for dusting

½ teaspoon Salt

¼ to ½ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper, depending on how spicy you like it

2 Tablespoons Half and Half

In a food processor, combine the butter, gruyere and pulse until combined.  Next add the cayenne, salt and flour and pulse until the mixture resembles course crumbs.  Add the half-and-half and process until the dough forms a ball.

Chill the dough for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use a large board and lay plastic wrap on top, lightly flour the dough and  roll the dough into a 13 by 8-inch rectangle that is 1/16^th inch thick.  With a pastry wheel, trim off the sides into a 12 by 7 inch rectangle.  Cut the dough into 1 by 1 inch squares using a ravioli cutter to achieve the ruffled edges.  Use the blunt end of a skewer to make a hole in each cracker.  Transfer the crackers to a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with a bit of salt if desired.

Bake the crackers on the middle rack for 10 to 11 minutes, or until they are barely browned.  Remove and let entire baking sheet rest on a wire rack to cool. 

Serve at room temperature and store in an airtight container.