Oaty Blue Cheese and Thyme crackers

This is one of my favourite recipes, particularly at Christmas time.  You can freeze the mixture in rolls once made, then defrost, slice and bake when required.  If you slice them thickly they will be more like savoury biscuits. They tend to be crumbly, but ever so delicious.  You really do need a food processor to make this recipe. 

I'm thinking of making some blue cheese this week for Christmas time.  Last year I made a huge wheel of blue cheese and wedges of it made fantastic gifts.  I used the rest to make these delicious crackers.

Oaty Blue Cheese and Thyme crackers.

1 cup plain flour
½ cup instant rolled oats
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
50g blue cheese
120g butter
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 175°C (you may like to turn it on when you chill the recipe below).  In the bowl of a food processor combine the flour, oats, baking powder and salt and pulse together to combine. Make sure that the oats are well blended into the flour.

• Add the thyme, blue cheese, butter and lemon juice and pulse until the mixture is 
well combined and forms a ball.

• Transfer the mixture to a clean surface and shape it into a firm log, about 4-5cm in diameter. Wrap the log in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.
• Roll in poppy seeds.

• Cut the log into thin slices, about 5mm thick, and arrange them evenly on lined trays (do not cook on baking racks - the cheese in the crackers will make the mixture stick to the racks). Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until they are golden, you may want to flip them over at ten minutes to make sure both sides have a good colour.

• Leave the biscuits to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. 

Variant: 

Use 50g grated parmesan and 1 tsp fresh diced rosemary instead of blue cheese and thyme.

Inspired by Issue 68, food magazine.