Wasabi Cheese Crackers

Wow. It's been over a year since my last savoury recipe. I guess it's pretty obvious I have a raging sweet tooth! But all this healthier eating has left me craving all kinds of naughty snacks, not just cake and lollies, but cheesy and salty snacks too. I had this sudden urge to make cheese crackers, ones that were like goldfish crackers or dixie drumsticks. A little bit of google searching and I found the perfect recipe - it's super easy and you basically throw everything into a food processor. Then I decided to add a little twist by making it wasabi flavoured, because I love the tingly heat of wasabi flavoured snacks (wasabi peas OMG...).

So these are my Wasabi Cheese Crackers. Aren't they so cute??? I am in love with how they look. They're so dinky, puffy and golden crisp and they taste awesomely light and cheesy. They're the perfect TV snack and it would be so great to serve a big bowl of these at a party. The only part I was disappointed with was the strength of the wasabi heat in the end product, it tasted super strong when I taste-tested the dough but after baking the heat was almost completely gone, except for the tiniest afterburn. We ended up eating them dipped in extra wasabi paste, which made them perfect! So I've adjusted the amount of wasabi in the recipe below, as well as adding that you can roll the crackers in extra wasabi powder after baking if you like your wasabi snacks super strong-flavoured like me.

It would have been even better if I had some real wasabi root to add to the mixture, I was at least hoping to buy a block of the cheese I always get that has wasabi root added to it which has a great, distinct flavour of wasabi. Unfortunately it wasn't available at my supermarket anymore :( I ended up using a bright orange coloured Red Leicester cheese because I figured it would give the crackers some extra colour, and that worked really well.

I'll definitely be making these again, either with heaps more wasabi or with some other flavours. Maybe some chilli and pepper ones, or ones with chicken salt or other types of cheeses. It's a great, simple recipe and they look great. A was gobbling them up by the handful and kept cursing me for making them when he's trying to be good with his diet, they are so addictive that it's really hard to stop at one or two!

Wasabi Cheese Crackers
(based on this recipe from Home Cooking in Montana)
1 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2-2 tbsp wasabi paste (can be substituted with wasabi powder or grated wasabi root if you can get it)
55g (4 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
225g (8 ounces) grated cheddar cheese (I used half regular cheddar and half Red Leicester cheese, but a wasabi root flavoured cheese like Ashgrove Tasmanian Wild Wasabi is ideal for this recipe)
2-4 tbsp water (less if you're using wasabi paste, more if you're using the powder or not adding wasabi)
Optional: extra wasabi powder or paste

In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt, then add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add grated cheese a little at a time until the mixture again resembles coarse meal. Mix together wasabi with 1-2 of the tbsp of water and then pulse in, one tablespoon at a time. You can adjust the amount of the wasabi to your liking, but remember the flavour will be significantly dulled in the baking process. You may need to add another tbsp of water after this, and pulse until the dough forms into a ball. It will probably take a minute or so.

Remove, wrap in plastic (I split the dough into 4 separate portions to make it quicker to chill and easier to roll out later) and chill for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours. The longer the better, but mine worked fine after chilling for about an hour until the dough was nice and firm. Roll the dough out to 3mm (1/8th-inch) thickness between two pieces of baking paper. You don't want to roll them paper thin, neither do you want to roll them too thick. If they are too thin, they will not puff up as much. If they are too thick, they will not be as crispy. Using a knife, pizza cutter, or cookie cutter cut 1 inch shapes and transfer to a baking paper-line baking tray. I chilled the prepared trays in the fridge while rolling and cutting the rest of my dough. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crackers are golden brown. Watch them after the 10 minute mark. Because I was only using the bottom coils of my oven, I found it was best to flip them over after 10 minutes so they browned evenly on each side. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. If the wasabi flavour is not strong enough for you at this point then you can toss the crackers in extra wasabi powder or serve with extra wasabi paste to dip it into. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days.