Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups pecan halves chopped fine
- 1 ½ cups sweetened dried cranberries chopped
- 2 cups salted butter softened (4 sticks)
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 4 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese shredded
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
Don't Want to Plan? I Got You.Every Saturday I share a full week of dinners, sides, and a dessert — with the grocery list already done. Come grab this week's Weekly Meal Plans!Equipment
Farberware Mixing Bowls I love these bowls. This is the exact one I use in the video.
Cutting Boards For chopping up the pecans and the cranberries
Sharp Chef's Knives For doing all of your cutting.
Farberware Measuring Cups I love these measuring cups.
Method Start Cooking
- Chop the pecans fairly fine. You want them small enough that the crackers hold their round shape when you slice them — big chunks will make the rounds split apart. If your dried cranberries are hard and dried out, cover them with boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes, then drain and pat them dry. If they are still soft and fresh, they can go straight in.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter with the salt and the cayenne pepper until smooth. Add the shredded cheddar and beat until the mixture is creamy.
- Add the flour a little at a time on low speed, mixing just until it comes together. Go slow and low here. It is a lot of flour and it turns into a stiff dough.
- Stir in the cranberries and pecans by hand, just until they are spread all the way through. Learn from me and add them at this step, not at the beginning — it still works if you dump everything in at once, it just takes you the long way around.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press it together into one big ball, working in any loose flour left in the bowl. No cracker crumb left behind.
- Cut the dough into 4 even pieces. Roll each piece into a log about 2 inches across, pressing as you go so there are no air pockets, then smooth the outside.
- Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. The dough has to be cold and firm all the way through or it will not slice clean.
- When you are ready to bake, heat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Unwrap one log at a time and slice it into 1/4-inch rounds. Lay them on the lined baking sheet. If a round crumbles along the edge, just press it back together with your fingers — it bakes right back into shape.
- Bake 13 to 15 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the crackers are crisp. Cool on the pan a few minutes, then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Video
Notes
Make ahead: This dough is built to sit. Wrapped tight, the logs keep in the refrigerator for about 2 months and in the freezer for 3 months or longer. Slice and bake straight from the log — if it comes out of the freezer, let it soften on the counter about 15 minutes first so the knife goes through cleanly instead of cracking it.
Yield: Each log gives you around 34 crackers, so a full batch is about 136. If that is more than you need at once, bake one log and leave the other three wrapped.
Storing baked crackers: Once completely cool, keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. They stay crisp for a couple of weeks and honestly get better after a day.
Heat level: A rounded 1 1/2 teaspoons of cayenne sounds like a lot, and it is not. It spreads out across four cups of cheese, four cups of flour and two cups of butter, so what you get is a little warmth at the back of your throat after you swallow, not heat up front. Cut it to 1 teaspoon if you are serving little ones.
Yes, I used bagged shredded cheese. Four cups is a lot of cheese to grate by hand and I was not doing it. If you want to shred a block yourself it will melt a little smoother, but the bag works and that is what I used. What matters far more is that it is extra sharp — that is where all the flavor in these crackers comes from.
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