Gluten-Free Cheez-Its
Frances K.
My dad has always had stomach issues, and recently we found out that a gluten-free diet really helped! One of his favorite snacks are Cheez-Its but, sadly, they are not gluten-free. So we made it our mission to find a gluten-free recipe for them to make at home! Here it is, enjoy!
(In my humble opinion, they are better than the original!)
Ingredients
3/4 cup GF All-Purpose Flour
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tbsp. ice water
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375F.
If you have a food processor, this works best. Place your shredded cheese in the food processor and pulse until it's smooth. Then add in the butter and pulse again. Finally add in the sea salt and flour and pulse until a dough forms. Finally add in the cold water.
If you do not have a food processor: in a mixing bowl, beat butter & cheese together until blended nicely with a hand mixer. You might have to really smash and work the cheese with the back of a fork to get it smooth. The smoother the better.
Combine the flour and salt into your bowl. Add ice water and mix, making sure all dough has been incorporated.
Divide dough in half and place half in the fridge to keep it chilled while you work with the first half. Roll out the first half with a rolling pin between two pieces of parchment paper. Roll them thin enough so they'll bake up crispy (about 1/8”is ideal).
Then with a sharp edge, cut lines into little squares. I like to use a bench scraper to make straight lines. Make a little hole in the center of each cracker with a toothpick. Brush a light coat of olive oil and sprinkle the tops with a little coarse sea salt. Put the parchment paper on a baking sheet and separate the squares.
Bake for 20 minutes or until browned, they should be nice and crunchy. I usually check them around 17 minutes to make sure they aren’t getting too dark. Take them out of the oven and put them on a cooling rack. They will start to get crunchier when they start to cool down. If you like them even crispier, you can freeze the squares on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before baking and take them right from the freezer to the oven.
Repeat the process with the first half of the dough.
Let them cool completely before putting them in an airtight container. Just as long as you don’t eat them all first!