Cheez It Duoz
Homemade Cheez-Its have become a Beantown Baker household favorite since I first made them earlier this year. In this variation, the crackers are cheddar on one side, and chipotle on the other side of the cracker.
I was recently contacted by Cabot Cheese to see if I was interested in a sample. Without a minute of hesitation, I said yes. I fell in love with Cabot’s cheeses while living in New England. It’s a local company and their cheeses are lactose free! Double win for me!
After moving to Ohio, I’ve had a more difficult time finding Cabot cheeses. One of the local grocery stores does carry it, but it’s not the store I go to regularly. When the goodies arrived in the mail, Hubby instantly asked for his favorite snack: Homemade Cheez-Its. I was happy to oblige since I love the cheesy little crackers too.
This time, I wanted to mix things up a bit, so I decided to do two flavors in one. So I made a batch of my homemade cheez-its and mixed smoked chipotle into half of the dough.
After the dough had chilled, I rolled out each half separately, and then stacked one on top of the other to get a two-toned-two-sided cracker. These Cheez It Duoz would be perfect to make for game day munching. Either use the original version, the chipotle version, or combine them to make these duoz!
It was a lot of fun taking one of my favorite recipes of the year and mixing it up a bit. Thanks Cabot for the cheese! We’ve been enjoying it on sandwiches, with crackers, and obviously in crackers as well!
Two Years Ago: BLTs with Homemade Mayo
Three Years Ago: Cuban Black Beans in the Crockpot
Four Years Ago: Lemon Blueberry Ice Cream Bars
Three Years Ago: Baja Fish Tacos
Six Years Ago: Spinach Balls and Cookies and Cream Cupcakes – Take 2
Cheez It Duox
Homemade Cheez-Its have become a Beantown Baker household favorite since I first made them earlier this year. In this variation, the crackers are cheddar on one side, and chipotle on the other side of the cracker.
Ingredients:
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1 Tbsp vegetable shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp ground chipotle
Course sea salt for sprinkling
Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine cheese, butter, shortening and salt on medium-high speed. Reduce speed to medium, slowly add flour and water.
Continue mixing until dough is smooth.
Divide dough into two. Add half of the dough back to the mixer and add ground chipotle. Mix until completely combined.
Create a disc with each half of the dough and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
Roll each disc of dough out a little bit. Then place one piece of dough on top of the other and roll to 1/8" thickness.
Using a ruler as a guide, cut long 1.5" horizontal strips. Rotate ruler to slice vertically, creating 1.5"x1.5" squares. Carefully transfer individual squares to prepared baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining dough.
Using a toothpick or cake tester (I used a straw), create holes in the center of each square.
Sprinkle with course salt. Sprinkle with pepper if using.
Bake for 10-15 minutes. I removed mine at 12 minutes. The time will depend on the thickness of your squares as well as the crispness you prefer. Watch your oven closely from 10 minutes on.
Best eaten the same day. Store remainder in an airtight container.
Recipe adapted from Beantown Baker
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Aren’t they the best? They’re so addicting. I’ve actually starting using the same ingredients, but mixing them like a more traditional chocolate chip cookie (i.e., softened butter instead of melted), because I like the dough better with softened butter. The baked cookies were just as good. Best of both worlds!
These look gorgeous. Don’t you just love AB??? 🙂
The cookies look great. I love AB too..he’s such a dork (in a good way).
I love the ATK/CI Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. I will have to try these to see what I think. I remember seeing that the recipes looked similar so I am sure I will love them.
Another AB lover here. My husband gives me a hard time about my DVR list with him but loves it when I give him a fun tidbit or cook him something from AB.
I completely agree CoCo. Hubby does the same thing. I sometimes even watch episodes I’ve seen before! Hubby doesn’t like to admit it, but he loves AB too. Sometimes he’ll be the one saying “AB says to do this…”
They look SO good!! I am a sucker for a chewy chocolate chip cookie. Although, I must side with your hubby – I prefer mine with just a bit of chocolate.
How much is a stick of butter? I’m not in the US and have never come across this measurement before.
Sorry about that Naomi – 1 stick of butter = 8 Tbsp. Does that help?
this is very similar to the ccc recipe i use, but anything that makes it chewier is good in my books! i will have to keep this one in mind 🙂
Yes Jen, thank you!
Yum! I will definitely be trying these. I always chill my cookie dough too usually because I’m too busy with 3 little ones but I also read that article in the NY times awhile ago and I felt like I deserved a nice big pat on the back for always doing the 24hour chill 🙂 Great post and beautiful cookies!
I love Alton Brown because of his scientific approach to cooking and baking. I’ve been baking “The Chewy” for years. One thing I do differently: Before chilling the dough, I scoop it into balls. This makes the process much easier. Sometimes I freeze the balls for baking later. After I place the balls on parchment, I carefully place a few extra chocolate morsels on top, pointy side up. This extra step produces picture-perfect cookies every time.
The Chewy is my go to recipe for cookies. I make a few alterations, occasionally, such as substituting 1/4 of the brown sugar with dark brown sugar. I bake small portions in mini muffin tins; one batch makes 48 cookie bites that are super chewy and the perfect size bite. I’ve made them every year for Christmas gifts for a few years now.