Spicy Cheese Bites

 

  These are not your mother's thumbprint cookies! Spiced up with the hot pepper powder I make by grinding my dehydrated home-grown jalapenos and filled with hot pepper jelly, these are crispy, zesty and satisfying. They were a hit with my Christmas guests who were my guinea pigs for this new creation.
    This is my variation of a recipe from my friend Sandra, who shows my paintings in her art gallery. The original recipe called for crispy rice cereal, which typically includes sugar, salt, vitamins, and other ingredients I don't want added to my food. Substituting rice crackers which have just 3 ingredients: rice, oil and salt, makes for a healthier treat. Next time, I'll go one step further... instead of the crackers I'll try using brown rice flour and a small amount of coconut oil - and eliminate the salt, since the cheese provides plenty. I make these gluten-free by using GF flour also, but regular wheat flour can be used. I used a hot pepper jelly made by the nearby Menonnite community and it is yummy!

Hot Pepper Cheese Crackers {Gluten-free}
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Gluten Free, Vegetarian
Makes: About 3 dozen
NOTE: Ingredients in red type are detailed on the "Ingredients" page of this blog

INGREDIENTS
rice crackers*, enough to make 2c of crushed cracker crumbs
4 c grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 c all purpose gluten-free flour
1 c softened unsalted butter
1/2 t ground pepper
1 t paprika
1 t hot pepper powder or chile powder (adjust to your taste)
hot pepper jelly

INSTRUCTIONS
To crush the crackers, place them in a zipper bag and roll with a rolling pin until crushed into small pieces. Whirl the cheese in a food processor to make it finer then gradually add all other ingredients except the cracker crumbs and jelly. Dump into a bowl so you can mix in the cracker crumbs - I found my hands to be the best tool for this step.

Shape dough into 1" balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet lined with baking parchment, placing them 2" apart. Press to flatten slightly, then push your thumb into the center just enough to make a small indent.

Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and spoon a small dollop of hot pepper jelly in the center of each. Bake an additional 10-13 minutes, until crispy and golden.

Alternately, if you don't want the hot pepper jelly filling, you can flatten the balls of dough with a fork before baking, then bake for a total of 25-28 minutes... see the photo below.

Remove to a rack to cool.

* I used Nabisco Poppy & Sesame Seed Rice Thins, whose ingredients include: white rice flour, safflower oil, millet, poppy seeds, salt, mustard flour and sesame seeds. The poppy seeds show up as the black specs in my photos of the dough and baked crackers. You can use Nabisco GF Original Rice Thins for fewer ingredients. Watch out for added sugar in other brands of rice crackers. It took a little less than 2 boxes to make 2 c of crumbs.

Making Homemade Ricotta

Some of the ricotta ingredients and tools

A new Mennonite community farm market has opened near where I live, and they sell whole, unpasteurized milk. By law, it is labelled "not for human consumption." I thought this milk would be perfect to use for making my own ricotta, a process which requires the milk to be heated, thus pasteurizing it in the process (according to the internet, milk is pasteurized at 161°).

Homemade ricotta is surprisingly simple, although my first attempt was a bit of a struggle; I realized later that I had measured the milk wrong! But some good came from this error - I discovered I could use less heavy cream than the original recipe called for. Also, I've written my recipe to make a larger quantity than the original made; same amount of work, so why not make plenty - it's so delicious there is no trouble using it!

HOMEMADE RICOTTA
(makes about 1-1/2 cups)
2 quarts (8 c  or 64 oz) whole milk
1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 t salt
1/4 c fresh lemon juice*

Adding lemon juice to the heated mix makes it curdle

To prepare for straining, line a colander or other strainer with cheesecloth. As my photo shows, you can buy cheesecloth in the paint department. My friend Sherri  strains her homemade cheeses with cardboard/mesh paint strainers from the home store! Alternately, you can use overlapping flattened coffee filters, or, for a small batch, a cone-style coffee filter set over a tall bowl.

Heat the milk and heavy cream in a large saucepan over medium high heat. If you have an instant read thermometer (the type for making candy), heat to about 185°.

Add the salt and lemon juice, and stir. Reduce heat to low, stirring until the mixture curdles, which should be in about one to two minutes.

Remove from heat and pour the mixture into a strainer set over a bowl to catch the "whey". (I dispose of the whey by pouring it into my compost pile).

Straining the liquid off the cheese.

Let the mixture drain for up to an hour, then remove to a refrigerator container.

SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE RICOTTA:
This is so yummy, just eaten plain off a spoon! You can, of course, use this ricotta in any recipe which calls for ricotta, such as lasagna. Or make an herbal spread as I did in my previous post, or mix with roasted garlic and chili powder for another delicious dip. I used some of this batch to make a chicken salad. I'll never be able to duplicate it, since I was using leftovers, but it was made with leftover grilled marinated chicken breast, chopped celery and scallions from my garden, a few spoonfuls of my homemade Caesar Dressing, a few spoonfuls of the fresh homemade ricotta, and about 1/4 cup of leftover homemade tabouli. It was delicious, with fresh garden lettuce, all wrapped in a spelt tortilla!

Chicken salad, with ricotta in place of mayo

* Apple cider vinegar, another acid, can be used in place of the lemon juice. I love the flavor with lemon juice, but I'll try the vinegar next time.

My Kind of Gift!

I received such a treasure from my fiddling friend Becca's sister and mom - fresh artisan ricotta made from their own dairy goats. I can't describe the delicious and distinctive taste, lightyears away from the taste of any store-bought ricotta. To prevent me from eating the whole container just plain, I decided to make into a delicate herbal spread. A visit to my organic gardens provided chives, thyme, lemon balm, Italian parsley, and fennel fronds… a combination I thought would taste good without overpowering the cheese. I chopped the herbs in my hand blender, then mixed them into the ricotta with a bit of cracked black pepper. The cheese was crumbly in texture, so I felt the need to add something to make it more spreadable. I had some plain organic Greek yogurt, and a few spoonfuls were all that was needed. A lovely chive blossom finished it off, and I served it with raw peapods just picked from my garden. Try this yourself if you are fortunate enough to find a source for artisan cheese, or use some gourmet goat cheese from the market.