Home-made crackers with melted cheese

I live in a completely crackers household; we go through them at a rate of knots and finding ones to make with relative ease at home has been top of my list for a while. The home-made ones taste so much nicer than the dry flaky ones sitting around in packets. You always imagine they will be buttery in texture, crunchy in bite, and airy and light, but they aren't!

This recipe is the perfect canvas for snow-flakes of sea-salt and black pepper, or mounds of any of your favourite cheese. I'm also thinking of using these as a bruschetta/canape type base with grilled mushrooms, balsamic vinegar and feta on top or with soup instead of bread. They're so versatile you can do pretty much what you choose with them.

The mature twice baked-ness of these crackers came from playing around with a basic cracker recipe. If you do it this way with the dried chilli, sea salt, and cheese it really is the holy grail of cracker indulgence. I used some really nice flour I bought from Wholefoods by Sala Cereali and was of the double 'OO' wheat flour variety. Try it if you can find this or anything similar.

Ingredients:

350g/12 oz of good plain flour

1 and half tsp baking powder

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

30g/1 oz butter, soft

15ml Olive Oil

100ml water

Sprinkles of sea-salt

Black pepper

250g/9 oz Mature Chedder

Equipment:
Cling film

Baking paper and rolling pin

Plan ahead of time and make the dough early on. The day before - great if you remember - it's in the fridge then ready to roll any time you're in the mood for eating some crackers.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, add the sea salt, pepper and chilli flakes and mix together with your fingertips.

Add the soft butter and work through again. Lifting your fingers up high to get the mix light and airy, until you have a fine breadcrumb texture.

Add the olive oil and water, bit by bit to the flour mix. Shaping the flour into a firm dough. Add more flour or oil depending on how the mixture develops. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for an hour.

Baking: Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C

Makes: 12 crackers

Cut a piece of baking paper out to cover a large oven proof tray.

Break off small bits of the dough, about a tablespoon size.

Flour your surface and roll out the individual dough pieces relatively thinly. It's quite springy so they tend to bounce back. Roll as thin as they will go, any old random shapes will do - be adventurous. Lift and place on the tray and baking paper; repeating until you fill your tray.

Sprinkle them with sea-salt, black pepper, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the oven for about 10minutes; until they are a light golden colour. Take out and leave to cool.

Heat the grill on a medium heat and while the crackers are cooling off grate your cheese, sprinkle over the crackers and pop under the grill until the cheese is bubbling (about 3-5 minutes).

You may need to do two tray loads as this makes about 12 crackers. Otherwise, keep your dough for another day. It will keep for up to 4 days.