Cheese and pepper crackers

I love snacking! And one of my favorite snacks is crackers and dip. While it's easy and convenient to buy a box of crackers from the store, these homemade crackers come together pretty easily too. You can be quite creative with the flavors and add whatever you like. These crackers have sharp cheddar cheese, black and red pepper. You can use any cheese you like but a strong flavored cheese like cheddar works best. The crackers have just a handful of ingredients and they taste amazing! Do try them out.

Makes 40 - 50 crackers | Prep. time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 3/4 cup stone ground/fine whole wheat flour

• 1 tbsp. Kosher salt

• 1/2 tbsp. crushed black pepper (add less if you don't want too much spice)

• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (red pepper flakes) - optional

• 1/4 cup canola oil

• water

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven at 420F.

2. Add all the ingredients (except water) into a large mixing bowl and with the help of a wooden spoon, mix till it forms a crumbly mixture.

3. Now, use your hand to bind the dough. Add some water, a tablespoon at a time to bring the dough together. Make sure to knead well every time water is added. Do not add a lot of water all at once. We want the dough to just come together. Do not over work the dough. Shape the dough into a large ball.

4. Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface and place the dough ball on it. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough till it is about 3 mm thick (don't worry about the shape of the rolled out dough).

5. Using a pizza cutter or small cookie cutter, cut out the dough into desired shapes. Using a fork, poke some holes in the dough.

6. Place the cut out pieces of dough on a lined baking sheet in a single layer.

7. Place in pre-heated oven for 8-12 minutes (depending on your oven). After the first 5 minutes, check on the crackers in the oven and if one end of the tray seems to be cooking faster than the other, rotate the tray 180 degrees.

8. Pull out of the oven and let them rest on the tray for 10 minutes. During this time, they will turn crisp. After this, they can be placed on a cooling rack or a plate until they cool down completely. Then, place in an air-tight container. These will keep for a week at room temperature.