Cheese Crackers from The Boston Globe

The food section at the Boston Globe used to be something to look forward to. In recent years, they've kind of "dumbed it down" which is really too bad. The recipe for cheese crackers that ran today is a good example. Basically, it is a cheese pie crust, cut into crackers. Not terribly difficult to manage, but made confusing by the directions. What's more, not everyone owns a food processor. I suspect a number of people looked at the recipe and dismissed it assuming a food processor is needed to make pastry dough, which of course it is not.

If you decide to make these crackers (which by the way are not really anything special) mash together the butter and cheese and then cut it into tablespoon sized chunks. Then, sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl and cut in the cheese/butter mixture as you would any shortening (a pastry cutter works great, or two knives, or if you have poor circulation like I do, just work it in with your fingertips. I did not have any difficulty managing it as a single roll, but the article suggests two. I'm not sure how to address the absurd instructions for wrapping the dough in cling wrap (for heaven's sake, just roll it up in the plastic and smooth it out-really, it's not rocket science) other than to say it probably doesn't matter as long as you seal it well.

Anyway, I just wanted to reassure people that a food processor while nice, isn't always needed and is probably overkill for pastry as you can't feel what is happening with the dough.

Lecture over. I'll just step down off my soapbox now...