Monday, August 22, 2011

Parmesan Crackers

I didn't think I would ever say this but 

So I've resorted to finger food and food that requires little to no cooking time. Nothing that will heat up my kitchen. Soup is right out. Unless it is gazpacho. Comfort food? A thing of the past.

So finger food is perfect and since I love caviar I felt the need to make something caviarish. I don't eat caviar. It's that whole vegetarian thing. Sure, if I could be guaranteed that no fish were harmed in the making of caviar and the price per ounce was less than what one might pay per ounce for a new BMW, I might be more tempted but I can't so I don't, eat caviar that is. Not buy cars by the ounce. That would just be silly.

I sort of put caviar into that space in my head like pastured chicken eggs. Pastured chicken get to do what chickens like to do and are not killed in the process of laying eggs so all's good. Now, just substitute fish for chicken. Yeah, it doesn't really work. 

Then there is that whole grain-free thing I've been up to lately. Takes the fun right out of a caviar and creme fresh topped cracker. So where am I going with this? I have no freaking clue. Oh I know, crackers.

I decided that JR and I hadn't had finger food in a while. You know? What fancy restaurants call appetizers or tapas. And, I was jonesing for some caviar or something caviar like.

I decided to make Parmesan crackers. I've never made them before and I learned a couple of lessons that I'll pass on to ya'll.

Lesson 1; bake them a little longer than the 5 minutes that the recipe calls for. They don't get crispy enough if you don't. Nobody likes a limp cracker. It's unattractive and doesn't have that crunchy texture that you want in a cracker.

Lesson 2; these babies are salty enough! You do not need to be adding a salty topping. Unless of course, you own a bar and want people to buy a ton of drinks. So totally disregard the photo below of these topped with creme fresh and mixed olive tapenade. We switched to a tomato slice and all was good. I think floating one of these on top of some cold tomato soup would be wonderful. I'm also giving a lot of thought to baking it into a pie shell for the base of a very simple (non-cheese) quiche. I'll let you know how that goes.

Anyway, if you are doing low-carb but want a salty crunchy snack give these a try. Did I mention that they only have one ingredient? No? Well, they do. It hardly even qualifies as a recipe at this point.

Parmesan crackers
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Take one heaping tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese. Plop onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Press down a bit. You are looking for nice rounds.

Depending on your oven bake for 7 to 10 minutes. See those up there? You want them a little more golden brown. Those were the 5 minute ones. 8 minutes was perfect for my oven. Let them set a bit before transferring them to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

Don't do what I did. Top with non-salty stuff.

Don't worry about that olive tapenade. It won't go to waste. I'm thinking that it will be yummy stuffed in mushrooms. How does Muffaletta stuffed mushrooms sound?

Off to work for me.



  1. Cheese crisps/crackers - the cracker replacement of a low carber, they are delicious. Unless you happen to be dairy-free. *sigh* Oh, well - we had our yearly sweet corn indulgence this last week, so I'm happy.

  2. omg you're kidding, that's IT?? Fantastic...

    Now. If only India sold Parmesan....


  3. It sounds so wonderful, and a lot easier than I thought it would be!

  4. I've seen them done on a silicon mat so you don't have that problem of them sticking on the paper. They just peel off like stamps.
    Where I'm not following your logic?/tastebuds is the leap between salty-fishy-gloopy and the crispy-cheesy. And I'm not all that sure I want to either.

  5. I'v never tried Parmesan crackers, but I do know that homemade Parmesan potato chips are the bomb!


  6. Sounds good, esp with the tomato slice, and a sprinkle of black pepper? Parmesan is very salty, isn't it. I have o leave any extra salt our of my spaghetti sauce because HB and kids smother it with parmesan. (They don't understand he concept of "a sprinkle".)

  7. Ohhhh! That sounds like the PERFECT finger food! Wonder if I could get away with making/eating them for breakfast this morning? ;)