I don’t make crackers all that often, but its nice to serve something made from scratch and the children like to get involved in anything that involves a cute cutter!

These are buttery, crunchy and just the thing to serve with a cheese ball!

The only thing to remember is that crackers need to be rolled out super thin and pricked with a cocktail stick or they might not be very crunchy.  You can leave them plain, or brush with melted butter when they come out of the oven and sprinkle with sea salt, seeds or crushed chillies.

I served these with my pumpkin shaped cheese ball here

Ingredients:
250g plain/all purpose flour
1tbs paprika
1tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
60g very cold butter, cut into dice
1tbs olive oil
Chilled water, around 180ml – enough to form a dough

Toppings:
A little melted butter
Sea salt
Nigella seeds
Sesame seeds

Method:
Place the flour, paprika, baking powder, salt and butter into the food processor and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Pulse in the olive oil and then adding the water, pulse until a rough dough is formed.

Halve the mixture and flatten into two discs and chill for around 30 minutes.

You want to roll out the dough as thin as possible, so I actually roll it out on the lightly floured liner before transporting it to the baking sheet.

When the dough is rolled out, stamp out the leaves (or whatever shape you are using) and prick with a cocktail stick.  You need to do this step or the crackers will puff up.

Put the remaining dough back in the plastic and back into the fridge and bake the crackers for around 10 minutes until golden.

When they are taken out of the oven, place on a cooling rack, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with your chosen topping.

Continue until all the dough is used up, or you can freeze and use at a later date