Homemade Cheez-Its

I found a recipe on pinterest.com for homemade cheese-its and thought I would share it because really, what’s better than cheez-its? Yeah that’s right, nothing. Now you can make your own cheez-its however often you want without paying three dollars every time you want fourteen ounces of them. So I have described below how to make your very own batch

                First off, you need the ingredients. You will need eight ounces of extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded, ½ stick of unsalted butter, one teaspoon of kosher salt, one cup of flour and two tablespoons of iced water. For the materials you will need some bowls, stirring devices (including an electric mixer), a grater, and some measuring utensils. You will also need a rolling pin and a cutting apparatus.

                To begin you will need to measure out the eight ounces of cheese if it wasn’t already measured. If it was, then just go ahead and start on step one.

1.)    Before you start any of the steps, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

2.)    Cream the cheese you just measured with the butter and salt in the mixer until it is combined.

3.)    Add the flour slowly to the cheese and butter mixture until it is kind of crumbly looking.

4.)    Next add the iced water until the dough forms a ball. This does not require the great help of the mixer; I would suggest forming the dough by hand. Mostly because the dough feels so cool that it would be a shame to miss out on. Make sure you wait a couple of seconds for the dough to make a ball before you add any extra water.

5.)    Pat the ball into the shape of a disk and put in the fridge for about an hour. It doesn’t matter too much if the hour is not precise, you can go over by however much you want. Only if you leave it in the fridge for less than an hour will it cause problems for you.

6.)    When your hour is up, roll the dough out so it has about an eighth of an inch thickness

7.)    Cut them into little squares that have about a one inch diameter. If you want you cheez-its to resemble the store-bought kind, use a cutter that will leave the same kind of edges. A pastry wheel works very well.

8.)    To get even more of the store-bought appearance, poke a hole right in the middle of each of the squares.

9.)    Place the squares  onto a baking sheet and put them in the oven for about twelve minutes

10.) When they come out, I recommend test-tasting them. If they are good, hoard them. If not, share them with everyone else! (460)