Leaf Shaped Paprika Crackers

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

Pumpkin Shaped Cheese Ball

There is nothing particularly sophisticated about a cheese ball, but they are so good to eat!  I’ve made lots of them over the years as they are super easy to make and use just a few ingredients so you can whip one up in no time at all.

This one is fairly traditional with equal quantities of cream cheese and hard cheese and dusted with spices but shaped into a pumpkin!  Great for an autumn party, Halloween or Thanksgiving.

There are a million of these on Pinterest and everyone uses a pepper stalk, but I used one of my faux pumpkin stalks – I knew they would come in useful one day!  (My husband thinks I’m a hoarder btw).

A cheese ball will keep for a few days in the fridge, but you can also freeze them.  I think they taste at their very best when they are room temperature, so of course they make a great choice for a buffet table.

You can go spicy or non-spicy.  I normally put chilli in mine, but just taste your chilli first for heat.  I had pretty mild ones here, so put a green and a red one in.  I burn the skins of the pepper and chillies over the gas flame and then put them in either a plastic bag, or a bowl, covered by a plate and rub off the skins when cool enough.

Ingredients:
Cream cheese at room temperature – I used a 280g family pack
Grated cheese, I used a mixture of Cheddar, Red Leicester and Double Gloucester, use whatever cheese you have, just use equal quantities of cream cheese and hard cheese
1tbs tomato puree
1-2tsp Dijon mustard
1-2 chillies, grilled and skin removed, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, grilled and skin removed, finely chopped (reserving the stalk to use to decorate the cheese ball later)
1tsp paprika
1tsp Worcester sauce
Salt and pepper

Coating:
2tbs paprika
1tbs mild curry powder

Method:
Beat everything together with a wooden spoon and check the seasoning.

Form into a ball and wrap with plastic and chill for 30 minutes

When it has had chance to firm up a little, wrap fairly tightly with string (or elastic bands) to form a pumpkin shape before leaving to chill until firm – at least another 30 minutes.

Place the paprika and curry powder into a bowl and mix together.

Unwrap the chilled cheese ball and place onto the spices, before dusting with the coating all around and brushing off any excess using a dry pastry brush. The pumpkin is now ready for its stalk – use the stalk from the pepper you grilled earlier (if you don’t happen to have a hoard or faux pumpkin stems!)

Serve with crudites or crackers, I used my leaf shaped paprika crackers here

Smoky and Spicy Cheese Ball

Since I made my very first cheese ball here, it was so good, I have been needing an excuse to create new ones.

cheeseball2b

With the festive season upon us, a cheese ball is the perfect make-ahead addition to a any party or buffet table. Served with cruditiés or crackers, they are really good for feeding a crowd and delicious to eat.

This one is all about smoky and spicy flavours. Smoky cheese, smoked paprika, smoky and spicy chipotle chillies and the crust has chopped smoky almonds, smoked paprika and lots of crispy shards of smoky bacon goodness. Like my first cheese ball recipe, I haven’t used any extra salt in this at all.

cheeseball2

Ingredients:
8oz/226g room temperature cream cheese
8oz/226g room temperature Applewood smoked cheddar, grated
Small bunch of chives, very finely chopped
1-2tbs of chipotle chilli paste.
1 roasted red pepper, skinned and finely chopped. You can easily cheat and use one from a jar for this.
2tsp smoked paprika – sweet or spicy, the choice is yours
Freshly ground black pepper

Crust:
1 pack of salted smoked almonds, very finely chopped
6 thin slices of smoked streaky bacon, cooked until crisp – then cool and finely chop
Freshly ground black pepper
2tsp smoked paprika
Crackers for serving

cheeseball slice

Method:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the room temperature cheeses, peppers, paprika and chilli and mix on low speed until well mixed.  Add the chives and mix until just combined.

Place onto cling film and form into a ball. Refrigerate for at least two hours in order for it to firm up and be rolled in the crust ingredients.

On a plate, spread out the chopped almonds and bacon. Season the plate all over with freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle over the paprika so you have an even coating.

cheeseball slice2

Then just roll the cheese ball around in the crust ingredients, until fully coated. This is ready to serve immediately but will only get better if left to come up to room temperature. Otherwise you can refrigerate for up to 3 days.

cracker1

This could easily be made vegetarian by leaving out the bacon and using more of the other ingredients to coat the outside.