pizza cutter, crackers

I hesitated buying this forever. I thought it is silly. And I can cut everything quite well with my chef's knives. They're awesome. While this is irredeemably uni-tasker. For such a seldom used thing as pizza. And the thing will get all gunky with cheese. And that is unacceptable. So I thought.

Then I realized I can use this for my light-as-air dry cheese-bacon breadsticks. And I can use it for slicing fresh pasta too. And it can be used for cutting dough for crackers, all much more easily than with a large knife. And this thing works! Rolling the breadsticks like long worms takes half an hour. Rolling the dough flat and cutting with a knife takes about 8 or 10 minutes, I don't know. Didn't time it. This pizza cutter rolls through the whole batch in 1 minute flat, maybe less.

This thing is not a loose cheap wobbly disc, it's an actual knife. It's sturdy and heavy in the hand. It's a real thing, not a gimmick. I figured Oxo will have this thought out the best. And they do. $13.00 on Amazon. They come even less expensive.

Making dough for the breadsticks is easy and careless as making dough for crackers except the breadsticks use yeast. So those are covered and allowed to rise after they're cut. The crackers are not. The crackers are rolled out flat, very easy to do because there is no resistance. It's like Play Doh. They roll thinly beyond the edges of the baking mat and then trimmed. The trimming collected for one final rollout.

The crackers can have baking powder included if you want them to puff up. And they can have yeast in them too if you like.

You heard of biscotti, biscuit, twice baked, for extra dry cookie, and you heard of Triscuits, thrice baked. These breadsticks and crackers are all triscuits to rid them of water and to assure they're crisp and light as possible. They're all excellent. I cannot keep off of them. They sit there in a bowl or upright in a jar and every time I pass by I grab one until they're gone. And it doesn't matter what combination of ingredients I put into them.

I used a knife for these cheese crackers. They imitate Cheez-it.

Pretend the cheese is butter. Enough cheese to load up your desired amount of flour. Here, the flour can be anything even dry beans turned to powder in your coffee mill. Whatever you choose add at least some regular flour to behave as a paste. Salt, of course, and any seasoning that you like. Then water in increments to bring your pile of ingredients to a workable dough. The water is temporary. It will be baked out.

The joy that you bring to your life with the variety of crackers you concoct is amazing.

One time I made designer crackers loaded with various spices. This batch was incredible. But a major pain in the butt to lay out the stripes, using cardboard to block out the stripes. And very odd eating them not being able to predict what flavor will burst in your mouth. The pizza cutter would have been useful for this.

For crackers, it helps to have a number of trays and silicone baking mats like these. I have a lot of them and they're used all the time. They're stored upright on the counter next to the stove. That's how much they're used.