The Cottage Kitchen: Cheezee Hearts

For any of you out there who on occasion have been known to sit down and devour handfuls of the little goldfish cheesy snacks (guilty as charged), this one is for you. Now I'm not pretending that these are going to be a healthier alternative, lets face it the main ingredient is cheese!!, but at least this way you can adjust the ratio of flours if you want and even reduce the salt even more, although when an 1/8th of a teaspoon is divided among 100 or more crackers it's not really that much. More than anything though, if you're anything like me, you've pretty much always got these ingredients on hand, so within an hour of a cheese craving taking hold of you, you can have these little bites of 'love' in a bowl next to you :o)

Cheezee Hearts (or whatever shape you make them :o)
makes 100-120 crackers

1 1/2 cups sharp yellow cheddar cheese, grated
4 Tbs (1/2 stick) butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp salt

combine all the ingredients in a food processor and mix until it all comes together into a ball of dough - about 2 minutes.
press the dough into a disc shape, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes, to make the dough easier to roll out.
when the dough has been resting for about 20 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
on a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thickness.
using a small cookie cutter (I used my 1.5 inch heart), cut out the crackers and place them onto an ungreased cookie sheet, spaced about 1/2 inch apart; re-roll the scraps a couple of times to get as many crackers as you can (today I managed to get 112 :o)
bake near the middle of the oven for 12-15 minutes until just beginning to brown.
let them cool on the cookie sheets over wire racks and then store in a jar or airtight container.

Cheeze Hearts ingredients.

place everything into a food processor and mix for about 2 minutes until...

it all comes together in a ball of dough (don't worry about little bits being separate, just press it all together)

flatten the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

choose your favourite cookie cutter - you want it to be about an inch to 1.5 inch (I used my mini heart cutter....cuuuute!!)

roll out the dough to approximately 1/8 inch and cut out your crackers - you can re-roll the scraps a couple of times to use up as much as you possibly can.