Cheese Its, Pecan Crisps and Dog Bones

Hello and Happy Christmas Eve!

Wow! Christmas Eve is here already! I can’t believe it! Any plans for this day? For me, it’s wrapping up the gifts, taking inventory of what I have and making sure I didn’t forget anything or anyone. Hopefully I didn’t forget anyone, otherwise I am heading to the store for gift cards, or hope the gift of cookies will do.

Friday I was suppose to do my house chores, but I didn’t, shame on me! So what did I do instead of my house chores? Well I baked of course! I made three, yes three different kinds of crackers, one for me, one for my Hubby and one for my babies!

My first cracker or should I say doggie biscuit is for my bad babies. I saw this recipe on Whole Foods website, and I just had to make it for Sampson and Samantha for Christmas.

Ok, so I gave them a cookie today and couldn’t wait till Christmas, how could I resist there face? Look at little Samantha Sue.

Ok, now my boy didn’t deserve a bone, he was a bad boy and wouldn’t listen to me and tried to steal my crackers! But just look at his ~~little~~ big head and that cute face, I just couldn’t resist.

These dog bones are made from Sweet Potatoes, Apples and Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. The recipe called for fresh mint, but I didn’t have any, so I omitted it.

Sweet Potato Apple Dog Treats – from Whole Foods

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cooked plain mashed sweet potatoes

3 tablespoons chicken or beef broth (or water) (I used water)

2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal

1/4 cup finely chopped mint (I omitted this)

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and grated

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sweet potatoes and broth. Add flour, cornmeal, mint and apples and stir until combined.

Knead the dough a few times until it holds together. Roll out half of the dough on a generously floured surface until about 1/4-inch thick. Use (2-inch to 4-inch) cookie cutters to cut out treats.

Transfer to baking sheets; reroll and cut the scraps. Bake until dried and just slightly golden on the bottoms, 35 to 40 minutes. Turn off the oven, leave oven door ajar and let the treats cool and dry out in the oven for 1 to 2 hours. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Calories per cookie: 35 calories (0 from fat), 0g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 5mg sodium, 7g total carbohydrate (1g dietary fiber, 1g sugar), 1g protein

The next batch of crackers I made are for me! These are to take place of my cookie intake, though I am craving sugar cookies, so I may make a batch, I only have a day left for holiday cookies. Isn’t it funny, you only make certain kind of cookies during the holidays? Are you the same way?

These crackers are adapted from my Pecan Crisps with Cranberries and Rosemary which came from The Cafe’ Sucre’ Farine. These crackers are made with raisins and cinnamon. I love these just as much as the Cranberry and Rosemary ones! They taste very similar, but the cinnamon really makes it! I dip these crackers in Apple Honey Butter and oh my do they taste good! Yum, yum!!! This is a great cookie replacement.

This time I cut my crackers a little thinner and I got 91 crackers out of this batch. Just be careful if you cut them thin, they cook faster. These are a great crackers and would be wonderful also dipped in a cream cheese spread, like maybe pumpkin or cranberry or keep it simple with a little drizzle of honey! Be warned, these are addictive!

I still love the tall ones, I don’t know why but I think there pretty cool! I’m weird, I know!

Pecan Cinnamon Raisin Crisps

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups non-fat milk, with 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

¼ cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp. honey or maple syrup

1/2 cup raisins

½ cup pecans, lightly chopped

¼ cup flax seed

1 tablespoon Ground Cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the milk & lemon mixture, brown sugar and honey and stir a few strokes. Add the raisins, nuts, flax seed and cinnamon and stir just until blended.

Pour the batter into two 9×9″ cakepans or 4 small loaf pans that have been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack.

Allow the loaves to cool completely, then freeze for 45 minutes to 1 hour. This will help you slice the loaves very thinly. Slice as thin as you can and place the slices in a single layer on a sheet pan that has been lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 300˚F for about 15 minutes, then flip them over and bake the slices for another 10 minutes until crisp and golden. Let crisps cool for about 10 minutes, if not super crispy, return to oven for another 5-7 minutes. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 4 dozen long thin crisps (made in the 9×9″ pans) or 6 dozen square crisps (made in the small loaf pans).

Makes 91 Crisps:

Calories per crisp: 24, Fat: .07, Cholesterol: .1, Sodium: 31, Potassium: 13, Carbs: 4, Fiber: .06, Sugar: 1.7, Protein: .07

My next cookie intrigued me when I saw it in my e-mails. I just had to make them for my Husband! What is this intriguing cracker? It’s a Cheeze It! I saw this recipe on Cooking Healthy for Me and I just had to make them! Mine of course doesn’t look like there suppose to, but look more like a Tater Tot. But you know what, they taste like a Cheeze It! I am shocked! They turned out so good!

These crackers are light, airy and buttery and has the perfect amount of salt on them. You are suppose to roll them out, but I tried that and they were sticking to much, that I lost my patience, so I decided to roll them into little balls and flatten with my palm, and it worked. They took about 10 minutes to bake and out came these cheesy little guys! I hope my Husband likes them!! I will definitely make these again! It was easy and not many ingredients, which is perfect in my book!

These crackers really take no time to put together. The longest is refrigerating them for 30 minutes or so, but the rest is fast!

Cheeze It’s – From Cooking Healthy for Me

Ingredients

8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated (I used Trader Joe’s light Cheese Blend)
3 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temp
1 Tablespoon vegetable shortening ( didn’t have shortening, so I used butter)
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
2 Tablespoons ice water
Coarse salt for sprinkling

Directions

Combine cheese, butter, shortening (or butter) and the ½ teaspoon salt in a the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until it is crumbly.

Slowly add the flour – and then the ice-water. You may need to add a few more drops of water for the mixture to come together – but be careful. The less you use, the better! This comes together very much like a pie crust.

Cut in half and pat the dough down into a disc, cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375.

Using parchment paper roll each disc to 1/8 inch thickness or less.

Cut into 1-inch squares (I used a 1” ruler) using a pastry wheel or a pizza cutter. (NOTE: I skipped this part and I rolled them into little balls with my hand and flattened with my palm.) Use a toothpick to make a hole in each square. (I found that rolling the tooth pick around and making a slightly larger hole worked best after it was baked).

Transfer to a baking sheet (I line mine with a silpat). If you have trouble transferring them to the baking sheet – just pop them in the fridge for a couple minutes!

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and crispy! I pulled some out too soon….but be careful – there’s a fine line with these between golden brown and over done – and it only takes seconds to burn!

Remove to cooling rack – makes 7 dozen

Calories per Cheeze It: 10, Fat: .6, Cholesterol: 1.5, Sodium:15, Potassium: 1.5, Carbs: 1, Fiber: 0, Sugar: 0, Protein: .01

If you love Cheeze It’s you must make this recipe! There really, really good!! Glad I made my Pecan Cinnamon Raisin Crisps, or I would be popping these little cheesy treats in my mouth, but I want to save them for when Hubby comes home from work, then all bets are off, I’m going to eat them all up!

You should check Cooking Healthy for Me blog. It has some great recipes. I just discovered Ann’s blog and I love it!! Thanks Ann, hope you don’t mind I put your delicious Cheeze It’s on my Blog, but there to good not to share!