Parmesan Cream Crackers
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:About 4 servings
- 1cup all-purpose flour, more as needed
- ½teaspoon salt
- ½cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼cup cream or half-and-half, more as needed
- Coarse salt, pepper, sesame or poppy seeds, minced garlic or whatever you like for sprinkling (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
308 calories; 18 grams fat; 11 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 10 grams protein; 231 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly dust with flour. Put flour, salt, cheese and butter in bowl of a food processor. Pulse until flour and butter are combined. Add about ¼ cup cream or half-and-half and let machine run for a bit; continue to add liquid a teaspoon at a time, until mixture holds together but is not sticky.
- Step 2
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until ½-inch thick or even thinner, adding flour as needed. Transfer sheet of dough to prepared baking sheet (drape it over rolling pin to make it easier). Score lightly with a sharp knife, pizza cutter or a pastry wheel if you want to break crackers into squares or rectangles later on. Sprinkle with salt or other topping if you like.
- Step 3
Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack; serve warm or at room temperature or store in a tin for a few days.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Melissa
Borrowed a trick from a different cracker recipe and rolled the dough out with a pasta maker. Worked out great.
Zenmaster
I think the 1/2" was an error. I roll to about 1/4" then transfer to the parchment and continue to roll to less than 1/8". That way they are easier to cut with a pizza roller before transferring to my baking sheet.
This is one of my favorite appetizers to make and have done so many times. Delicious with a glass of wine.
MzPhyz
Recipe is a definitive test for how evenly an oven heats—I’m guessing Mark Bittman does these in pro-quality convection oven :-)? At 400 degrees in my lesser old electric for the given time, I had burnt edges, uneven browning, center mostly underdone. Corrected by lowering temp to 350, bake for 15-20min on two sheets, switch sheets & rotate every 5 min. Perfect. And, As Wallis Simpson noted “ one can’t be too rich or too thin”—at least if one’s a cracker. Definitely roll out to 1/8”.
Nancy
The biggest problem with this recipe is that I can't stop eating the crackers! I didn't have cream but skim milk seemed to work fine. (Between the cheese and butter, there's still a lot of fat.) I rolled the dough directly on the parchment paper using wax paper on top to prevent sticking to the rolling pin. I cut the crackers with a pizza cutter before cooking. This let me remove the edge pieces, which cooked faster, while leaving the internal pieces to cook longer.
Brianna
These are great! I roll them MUCH thinner than the recipe suggests - 1/2 inch thick seems waaaaay too thick to me. I'd say they shouldn't be more than 1/8" thick. They are certainly on the softer side, and the texture is very similar to a Cheez-It. It puffs a little, but nothing that takes it too far away from being a cracker (again, think Cheez-It). I've found that as long as you use high-quality cheese, these are wonderful.
ee
I added garlic and thyme in the mix, then just before baking, added an egg wash and sprinkled with a bit of salt. A big hit!
Paul S
I used the pasta roller attachment on my KitchenAid mixer to roll out the dough evenly using the widest opening. I then used a pastry cutter to trim the edges and cut the crackers. Transferred the crackers from my granite counter to the parchment paper using a thin metal spatula.
Simple_Chef
The puff of the dough is often because of the butter bits. The moisture in the fat heats and creates steam which creates a bubble (puff), separating the baking dough. Softer cheeses contain more moisture which may also contribute to the puff. If still bland, add a sprinkle of salt to the top prior to baking as others have noted.
Shannon
We made these with white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, and they were delicious!
susan
Someone may have suggested this already, but I’m rolled mine out on the parchment paper then picked up the corners and plopped the whole kitten-caboodle on a sheet pan. Voila! No mess to clean up.
SheraM
Pretty good with grated lemon zest and parsley mixed in with the dough.
Melissa
These crackers are such a great sneaky party trick — so fast, yet so impressive. I doubled the recipe and had to add about another two tbsp of cream and another 1/8 cup of cheese, and then rolled them in two batches to be a little less than 1/4" thick, added coarse salt and pepper. They lasted well for cocktails with 8 people.
Liza
I rolled these out fairly thin (1/8") and wound up baking them close to 20 min so they would be crisper. I am at 5000 ft elevation so have to adjust but that was a big difference. Flipped them halfway thru and set a sheet of foil over the top so they would not burn. Tasty.
wwojnar
Needs to be rolled much thinner than 1/2 inch, go as thin as you can. I added more cheese and garlic topping, superb and simple recipe!
Penny
Used the idea of rolling out on the parchment paper. Next time will roll out on the parchment paper on the baking sheet.
KCWS
These are great Parmesan cheez-its! I would recommend splitting the dough in half and baking each half on a cookie sheet.
Hilary
I'm curious if anyone has tried freezing these? I'm considering adding these as a savory addition to my holiday cookie platter gifts, but I don't assemble them all at once and would love to freeze and grab as needed. I wasn't sure if maybe they'd lose their crispness however. Appreciate any thoughts!
Alicia
Really good flavor. Used pasta roller to get thin - would go even thinner next time.
Rachel
These are great and easy to make (I like them with freshly ground black pepper on top), but they really only last a couple of days, even tightly sealed. Not that they're at much risk of lasting that long!
Liz
Sprinkled Italian seasoning on top which made an INCREDIBLE Italian herb and cheese cracker - definitely recommend
Teri
Substituted all-purpose GF flour (Better Batter) and these were fabulous, though I did have to bake longer than 10 minutes to get them browned. Used a light color aluminum pan. Might be different with dark colored steel pan. You do want them browned in order to get them crisp. Also, even though I cooled them completely before putting them in a covered container, they were soft the next day. A short second bake at 400 degrees restored crispness.
pekio meow
These are tasty little things, and MB was right - it didn’t take more than one try to nail as the dough comes together easily, is easy to work with and to roll quite thin, as others have noted is preferable. One thing that I’m still working on is the crispness factor. These are more crisp than other recipes I’ve tried, but are still primarily chewy. Someone in the comments mentioned her husband made a batch with water versus cream which turned out to be much crisper. I will do the same. :)
kate
Anyone have a weight amt for the parmesan? 1/2 cup can be so variable.
Julie
Per the King Arthur Baking Ingredient Weight Chart (which I highly recommend) it's 50 grams.
JJL
Has anyone tried making these with sourdough discard? If so, what was your process and results? Thanks in advance!
Pat Harris
These were amazing! Really easy, too. Thanks to all the cooks who suggested using my silpat mat. I used sour cream instead of milk, rolled the dough out very thin on the mat and then put the mat on a cookie sheet. I used a pizza cutter to make small Cheez-it sized crackers, then topped the whole thing with a generous amount of TraderJoe's "Everything but the Bagel' topping. (Sesame seeds, salt, dried garlic, dried onion, chia, poppy seeds). They slightly separated while baking and came out great
michelle
These are fantastic. Made them Gluten Free with a mix of cassava flour and almond meal (50/50). Used half the salt (I’m not a big fan of super salty) and sprinkled with everything bagel seasoning. Addictive.
michelle
No food processor here - used a stand mixer (GF flour) and it worked great. Rolled to 1/8” between parchment and baked on bottom parchment layer.
Megan
Used 1/2 buttermilk and 1/2 soda h20. Took 1/2 dough out of processor(dough is crumbles but stays together when pinched) and rolled on silapat lightly floured on top. When very thin cut with a pizza cutter it will separate as it bakes. Added1/2 lemon zest and lemon thyme topped then with lemon salt. Baked 10 mins 375 convection. Crisps as cooled.
Joy P
Any way to accomplish these if we dont have a food processor?
Maggie
Joy, use an old-fashioned pastry blender, or a sturdy fork, and a little elbow grease. This dough looks no more difficult than mixing pie crust in a bowl.
Zenmaster
I doubled the recipe, but it was too much for the food processor to handle easily and too difficult to roll out thin enough. Best to make 2 single batch.
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