Forget the pasta, these cacio e pepe crackers, aka cheese and pepper crackers, are your new obsession. Packed with two types of cheeses and freshly cracked black pepper, these buttery 6-ingredient-crackers will be perfect with your next glass of wine or charcuterie board!
Cacio e pepe pasta is one of my most favorite things in the world. It’s a weekly craving. But why limit the delicious combination of salty Pecorino Romano with sharp black pepper to just a pasta?
Ingredients
Because there are only 6 ingredients in these cheese and pepper crackers, it’s key to use good cheese and pepper!
- All-purpose flour
- Pecorino Romano & Parmesan cheeses. Look for a good aged wedge of each cheese and grate yourself. Pre-grated cheese includes extra preservatives and anti-clumping agents that we don’t need!
- Unsalted butter. Skip salted butter, the cheese already adds quite a bit of salt.
- Cracked black pepper. Fresh, coarse black pepper is the best way to go for flavor.
- Whole milk. To bring the dough together. Water will also work, but milk provides a richer flavor.
Making Cheese Crackers
Cheesy crackers are actually very easy to make! The hardest part is the patience to cut up over 100 crackers equally. And the best part – no mixers are required!
First, make the base of your dough with the flour, grated cheeses and black pepper.
Pro tip: Use a food processor to quickly grate the cheeses! The standard blade works perfectly to grate hard cheeses.
Next, rub in cubes of cold butter with your finger tips until you have a sandy texture with small, pea-sized clumps of butter. The cold butter is the key to flaky and light crackers. When the cold butter goes into a hot oven, the steam released will create the flakes!
Finally, stir in the milk. The dough will look crumbly, but should hold together when pressed. If it doesn’t, add a few more drops of milk only if necessary.
Cutting Crackers
I mentioned cutting the crackers is the most time-consuming part – but there are a few tricks to help speed things up.
I recommend to roll the dough out between plastic wrap. This makes the crackers easy to move and prevents sticking while rolling. Plus, we don’t need to add extra flour and create a dry cracker.
Silicone rolling guides (or you can use balsam wood dowels from a craft store!) are great for even rolling. Using these with a straight rolling pin keeps the dough at a consistent height.
For slicing, I cannot recommend a 5-wheel pastry cutter more. You can set your width as needed and cut 5x as fast! A sharp knife will also work too, but you will need a bit more patience.
Baking Crackers
Crackers need to be babied a little bit in the oven. We will place cold crackers very closely on the baking sheet to prevent spreading.
Keep an eye on the pan, if one side is browning too quickly, rotate the pan halfway through baking.
It may also be necessary to remove an outer row or two of crackers if they are browning before the rest. Don’t be afraid to use a spatula to remove the golden brown crackers and return to the oven. If you underbake the inner rows, they will not have that crispy texture we are looking for in a cracker!
Frequently Asked Questions
Other hard cheeses that can be grated will also work – for example Grana Padano or Asiago.
You can add a few more drops of milk if the dough doesn’t hold together when pressed. The dough will be rather dry and avoid a wet dough.
Store baked crackers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Cacio e Pepe Crackers (Cheese & Pepper Crackers)
Ingredients
- 180 g all-purpose flour
- 50 g Pecorino Romano, freshly grated plus more for topping
- 25 g Parmesan, freshly grated
- 1 ½ teaspoon Cracked black pepper plus more for topping
- 85 g unsalted butter cold and cubed
- ¼ cup whole milk
Instructions
- Whisk together flour, cheeses and black pepper.180 g all-purpose flour, 50 g Pecorino Romano, freshly grated, 25 g Parmesan, freshly grated, 1 1/2 teaspoon Cracked black pepper
- Using finger tips, rub in cold butter until texture is sandy with a few pea-sized clumps of butter remaining.85 g unsalted butter
- Stir in milk with rubber spatula until a crumbly dough forms. Dough should hold together when pressed. Divide dough into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30-45 minutes.1/4 cup whole milk
- While dough chills, preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).
- Remove one disc of chilled dough from fridge. Place between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and roll to 1/8" thick layer. Cut into 1" squares and transfer to parchment lined baking sheet. Place squares closely together.
- Repeat with second disc, rerolling any scraps. Using a skewer or toothpick, pierce hole in center of each cracker to let steam escape. Sprinkle additional Pecorino Romano and black pepper on top. Return baking pan to fridge for 10 minutes to rechill dough.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, turning pan halfway through. Towards end of baking time, watch tray and remove any crackers that are browning more quickly on the edges and replace pan to oven until all are golden brown. Transfer hot crackers to a cooling rack with spatula and allow to cool completely.
Notes
- Store baked crackers in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.
- To freeze unbaked dough, spread cut cracker dough in a single layer on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Once dough is fully frozen, transfer to a freezer-safe container. When ready to bake, continue with Step 7, adding a 1-2 minutes to the bake time.
Disclaimer: We test all recipes using the metric weights shown, we cannot guarantee outcomes when switching to US measurements.
