Cheddar Cheese Crisps

These cheese crisps are great as an alternative when you are craving chips.  I always bought the cheddar crisps at the farmer’s market for my little kids or for parties/playdates since they are so popular, but are quite pricey.

If you search online, you will notice parmesan cheese or any other hard cheeses will turn out crunchy while cheddar is more chewy (this is not what you want).   After doing a little experiment myself, I finally got the trick!  I’m sharing the method as to how to make the cheddar cheese crisps today – It’s all about the baking time!

Ingredient:

1          8oz medium cheddar cheese block (grated)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees ◦F.
• Place little lumps of  grated cheese about 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet (make sure you use parchment paper).

• Bake at 300 degrees ◦F for 10-15 minutes, cheese will start bubbling, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
• Return the cheese to oven and bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.  Use a spatula to flip the cheese,
• Return the cheese to oven and bake for another 10 minutes.  Cool on a rack.
• They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Note:

1. I adjusted the temperature to 300 ◦F (instead of 350 ◦F which is what most other recipes listed).  High temperature will brown the edges while the middle part is still chewy.  For other hard cheeses, you can probably stick with 350 ◦F  and just bake in the oven without removing and returning the cheese from/back to the oven.
2. Since each oven is different, if the cheese crisps are not hard enough after baking, you can bake it for another 5 minutes.
3. These can be spiced up with any spice you want before baking.
4. Medium cheddar has a better flavor, sharp cheddar may be a little too strong.
5. When placing little lumps of the grated cheese on the pan, make sure it’s not too thick.  Try to spread a thin layer so that the middle part won’t take too long to get crispy.