Our smoke detector is really loud.
How loud? Loud enough that it can be heard 4 houses away. How do I know this? Because once I set off our smoke detector and Brian was down the street in the building where we do our laundry and he heard it. And came running. And our downstairs neighbors called up the back stairs to make sure that there wasn’t a fire. There wasn’t, I’d just burned the cookies.
It’s that paralyzing fear of our smoke detector that kept me from making crackers. And my fear really is bad; I check the oven constantly, which I have to open it to do because our oven door doesn’t have a window. I am terrified that the alarm will go off again, the entire neighborhood will hear it and I will be incredibly embarrassed. I could care less about burning things, I just don’t want to hear the alarm.
But then I saw this recipe for cheddar crackers. It only has 6 ingredients and that, unlike some cracker recipes, it didn’t look like they needed to be rolled out super thin or that they’d burn too easily. And so, I decided to risk scaring all our neighbors and make them. (Side note: I have set our smoke detector off twice. I have never heard anyone else’s go off).
Completely worth it. These crackers are Goldfish meet Cheez-its, but better. They puff up while baking which gives the crackers a really nice texture. The prep was incredibly simple and I did what I could to improve the health level by substituting half the AP flour for whole wheat. The only difficulty I had was rolling out the dough after refrigerating it overnight. It was seriously hard-to the point that my triceps were sore the next day and it took me a moment to figure out why because I hadn’t been to the gym. As a result, the crackers didn’t turn out as thin as they may have otherwise. But the taste was still fabulous. I rolled out the dough on my pastry mat
Make these crackers. We went through them incredibly quickly because they are delicious. I’m trying to refrain myself from making more and making them the staple of my diet but I’m also really looking forward to trying other varieties: cheddar and cayenne, Monterrey jack and dried herbs…I’m pretty sure the possibilities are endless.
If you’ve got a moment, click over to Then Heather Said and check out the Raffle for Life she’s running to help the American Cancer Society. There’s some really great prizes up for grabs and the cause is well worth giving to since cancer affects all of us in some way. Thanks!
You are not alone! I set off the smoke detector every single night- steam sets it off! I have no idea why it’s so sensitive, but our dog hides in the bathroom every time she sees me turn the oven or burner on. The crackers look delish and so worth the noise!
Yum, your crackers look so puffy and delicious! Luckily my smoke detector seems to have a very high threshold for smoke before it goes off. Or maybe it is out of batteries? Probably should check that out…
It should be noted that I didn’t *actually* set off my smoke detector making these crackers, which was part of why they were so wonderful. I edited to post to make that more clear. And seriously, make these crackers!