The Cracker Project: Parmesan and Pepper Sticks / Cinnamon Sugar Sticks

The Cracker Project lives!  Well, it's turned into a once-a-month extravaganza, so really, how hard is that?  Amazingly hard, actually.  I need to rethink my resolution for next year.

I sort of cheated this time around.  I got the April 2012 issue of Everyday Food in the mail the other day, and Johanna and I spent a bit of time looking through it together.  It's sort of funny how much she likes cooking magazines, considering that she doesn't like many things that are actually cooked.  Her dinner last night was frozen green beans.  From our garden, if that makes it any better, which I'm pretty sure does not.  Such is life.  I've decided nutrition happens over the course of a week.  Otherwise I'd just be tearing my hair out all the time, and honestly, I do enough of that already.

The point of that paragraph?  Johanna saw this recipe, which uses store-bought puff pastry, and decided it looked "really good."  I mean, what could I do then but make it?  Especially since I have some puff pastry in the freezer.  We're a good five months past the "best by" date, truth be told, but whatever.  There's one less box in my freezer now.  Freezer burn doesn't taste that bad.

Parmesan Pepper Sticks dough.
Again, yes, this looks whack, okay?  I'm just in it for
the photographic proof.  Sheesh.

So as I was readying the ingredients--puff pastry, melted unsalted butter, freshly grated parmesan and black pepper--I noticed that ol' Martha had a little note at the bottom of the page suggesting cinnamon and sugar for a sweet stick.  Puff pastry and parmesan!  And puff pastry and cinnamon!  I mean, how do you choose?

Answer: You don't.  You split the dough in half and viola!  No choices necessary.

Cinnamon Sugar Sticks dough.

And yes, there's a recipe, but it's probably copyrighted, PLUS Martha went to jail and all so she's probably like a total law abiding citizen now, having been scared straight in the slammer, so I don't want to get on her bad side.  Happily, this isn't rocket science.  It's rolling out dough, and cutting it in half lengthwise, and spreading it with butter, and then sprinkling on toppings.  And gently rolling over those toppings to get them to adhere, and then FLIPPING IT OVER AND DOING THE SAME THING on the other side.  Oh, and cutting them into strips, I suppose, and popping them in the oven (may I suggest 375º?) for like 7 or 8 minutes.

Cinnamon and parmesan, living in harmony.

Although if you want the recipe and I know you, I'll totally email it.  I get these things on my iPad too, so it's easy to send it along.  But honestly, that's all you do.  You can TOTALLY do that without a "recipe."  Skilly can do it, and he doesn't even have working thumbs.

Skilly leads a hard life.

The verdict:  Well, both kinds disappeared with alarming speed.  In fact, I've had to declare a radius of safety around the cooling rack so Eric will be able to try them later.  The recipe supposedly makes 72, but I didn't come even remotely close to that because my measuring skillz suck.  You'd think I'd feel bad about that, and yet, not so much.

Abby suggested I make the sticks bigger next time, so they're more breadstick and less cracker (well, cracker in the loosest sense of the word).  "Do you have more of that puff pastry?" Johanna just called out.  "If you buy more, we can make more!"

So yay.  I love it when a project works out.