Personally, this Cheergerm has always thought you must be crackers to make your own crackers. No, not really, it’s just that writing that sentence was too good an opportunity to pass up. Upon reading the savoury biscuit blog posts of far less lazy cooks than myself, my admiration and envy has only grown. Many is the time I have murmured in a soft and sibilant whisper, ‘one day I will get off my behind and attempt to scale the lofty heights of cracker cooking.’ (The family no longer looks askance at such utterings, they are used to it by now.)

Just because I enjoy a challenge, it had to be a crisp biscuit that provided a punch of flavour and was also free of gluten. These are made with almond meal so sorry to say, out of the question for those with nut allergies.

Fortuitously, in attempting to dip my toe into these treacherous waters, I perchanced upon an easy (highly important) recipe from the marvellous SBS food website. Get Ye Splendid Selves Over to Thee Magnificent SBS Foodie Website and Ye Shall Be Richly Rewarded. (But if you don’t mind, please finish reading this blog post first, thanks, thanks kindly.)

These lightly bronzed tidbits were sharply piquant, nutty and went wonderfully with a gin and tonic. A few days later, I reheated the remainder in a low oven and they crisped up beautifully. I may have come late to the foray of savoury bikky baking but I am here to stay.

GLUTEN FREE PARMESAN CRACKERS

WHAT YOU NEED
200g (2 cups) almond meal
150g (1 1/4 cup) Parmesan cheese finely grated, do use the good stuff and you will be highly rewarded in the flavour stakes plus extra finely shredded to sprinkle
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (I used 1/8 tsp of super hot chilli powder)
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil and extra to brush on the biscuits

HOW YOU DO IT
Preheat oven to 200C (180C fan forced) and line two trays with baking paper.
Combine the almond meal, Parmesan and cayenne pepper in a medium size bowl.
Whisk the egg and olive oil together then add to the almond meal mixture, use your hands to mix into a soft dough.
Divide the mixture in half, place one portion in between two sheets of non-stick baking paper and roll to a 5mm thickness. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter (I used a pizza cutter) to cut into 5cm squares (mine were not exact) and place on the baking paper. I used a nonstick spatula to do this.
Repeat with the remaining portion of the dough and re-roll the cut offs. (If you so desire, I did and you get a lot more bikkies.)
Lightly brush the biscuits with a little extra olive oil and sprinkle with a little finely shredded Parmesan.
Bake for 10-15 minutes swapping the trays halfway through or until the biscuits are crisp and golden. Cool on the trays.
Store in an airtight container. I made about 40 crackers, by using all of the scraps.

Cooking Notes:
The crispier and golden they are, the better they are. After a few days, they do soften just a tad so I like to crisp them up in the oven for five minutes or so on 160C. Let them cool and they willmbe super nice and crunchy again.

Find the original recipe here:
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/gluten-free-parmesan-crackers

https://stonepinedistillery.com.au