French Fridays with Dorie: How to Make Dinner with Cheez-it-ish Crackers

Along about Wednesday afternoon, I took a look at this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe - Cheez-it-ish Crackers. Simple enough to make with only three ingredients and some spices, and I happened to have a 4-ounce wedge of Manchego cheese sitting by its lonesome in the refrigerator, but what was I going to do with a few dozen crackers mid-week?

Contemplating this further and deciding to stay with my Spanish themed Manchego Cheez-it-ish Crackers, I stopped at Whole Foods on the way home from work to gather up some complementary nibbles for a tapas platter...thinly sliced Jamón ibérico ham, shrimp, olives, membrillo (quince paste), and Marcona almonds.  I'm not into making much of a dinner for myself on weeknights, so tapas with a bottle glass of Tempranillo wine sounded just about right.

Dorie's Cheez-it-ish Crackers are your basic cheese crackers, best served freshly baked and still warm, with a glass of wine or cocktail before dinner.

Make the dough with 4 ounces of cheese (Dorie suggests cheddar, Gruyere, or Emmenthal), 5 ounces flour, 1 stick unsalted butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon white pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Pulse the ingredients together in the food processor until curds form. Dump out the dough, knead it together, divide in half, form into two disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to 3 days. Roll out a disk of dough, cut small rounds with a cookie cutter, transfer to a lined baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes. I gently pressed a Marcona almond into the center of each round before baking. Repeat with second disk of dough, or keep the second disk refrigerated and bake fresh crackers on another night.

While the crackers baked, I poured a glass of Tempranillo, arranged the deli items on my board and prepared Gambas al Ajillo - shrimp sauteed with olive oil, garlic, Spanish paprika, red pepper flakes, dry sherry and lemon juice.

Tapas for two, inspired by a recipe for Cheez-it-ish crackers!

Buttery, flaky, a touch of heat from the cayenne, and added crunch from the almond...

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French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!