Alas, two members of my family, Sprog the Elder and Mr. Geeky, are the classic carb-aholics. Put a loaf of bread and wedge of cheese in front of them and they swoon. A big plate of pasta is a sure way for me get a moment of quiet because they gorge and fall asleep. I knew wasn't going to stem this love of bready-type things, so I decided to make the options as healthy as possible. I've been making our bread for a little while now, and I started making cheese crackers to replace the ever-present vat of Goldfish crackers on the counter. Just last weekend I made my own batch of whole wheat pasta and it was a huuuuge hit.
Anyway, I thought the sprogs would be the ones eating the cheese crackers, but it turns out Mr. Geeky usually empties the jar. I use super sharp Cheddar in these crackers, so they've got a stronger cheese flavor than Goldfish. I'm guessing the sprogs resent that.
I don't mind making these crackers, but I do sure hate shredding cheese. No, I don't buy the cheese in bags. Check the ingredients. There's almost always an ingredient to reduce clumping, usually something like a form of cellulose... which, in simpler terms, is sawdust. Would like a side of tree with your cheese? No thanks. So I buy big blocks of all-natural cheese and make Mr. Geeky shred it.
He's really quite good at it.
This is a mixture of whole wheat flour, butter, cheese, salt, and water.
I turn it out onto a floured surface and form it into logs. I used to roll it out and use a pastry cutter to make little squares with pretty fluted edges... and then I realized there's a better, faster, less messy to do it. Duh.
Here's the pretty stick of cheese dough ready to be sliced.
And here are some rounds after Mr. Geeky's done the slicing. I did say he's the one eating them. He can help.
This is after about 12 minutes at 375 degrees. After some trial and error, we discovered that we prefer them cut very thin. They get quite crispy, almost like cheese cracker chips.
And this will be gone in about four days.
Like I mentioned before, I decided to make my own pasta last weekend. I got a pasta machine fairly cheap from Amazon, the Atlas Pasta Machine. I chose that one after perusing many reviews and thinking about getting attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I put the Kitchen Aid attachments on my wish list, but opted to just get the simpler hand cranked version. It seemed easier for a beginner. I'm really glad I did. I love it.
Here's the dough I started with. It's a half-and-half mixture of whole wheat and semolina flours with eggs. I cut this into four pieces and flattened each piece just enough to get it started through the smooth rollers.
Here it is going through the smooth rollers.
And again. I did this five or six times on the widest setting to get it into shape, then reduced the gap between the rollers to get thinner dough. I went up to number five on the pasta maker, whatever distance that corresponds to. Skinny enough.
I'd like to be skinny. I wish it were as easy as this was.
Here it is after I've rolled it out through number 5.
And this is after I cut into lengths for the noodles.
Here I'm running the individual dough pieces through the linguine cutter device. Sprog the Younger was abso-frigging-lutely delighted by this.
And here's the finished product! I boiled these for about four minutes and served them with a basic alfredo-type sauce with a drizzle of truffle oil on top. On the side we had roasted asparagus.
I have lots more to share, but I'll spare you a very lengthy post. Questions? Just leave me a comment!
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