Savory Valentine's Heart Crackers

Did I say savory? For Valentine's Day? Yup, because man cannot live on chocolate alone. Women can, of course, but I find that men need something crunchy, too!

On weekends Brian frequently pokes around the kitchen and asks what there is to snack on. In our usually healthy household the answer is typically fruit, veggies or fat free yogurt. But for the weekend before Valentine's Day I thought I'd make him something a little more special.

The truth is that these butter-free, olive oil based crackers are actually healthy as well as ridiculously easy to make. The recipe comes from one of my favorite savory tart doughs. There's always a little dough left over which I bake on the sheet pan with the tart and which we love snacking on. That leads to snacking on bits of the tart crust and so on and so on... So for a little treat I decided to just forget the filling, roll out the crust dough and cut out fun shapes to bake with a bit of Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Obviously I was having a little fun with my three sizes of heart shaped cutters but, holiday cuteness aside, you can just cut out rounds and serve these delicious crackers with cheese or dip any time of the year. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 1/4 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup olive oil
1/3 Cup low-fat buttermilk

Combine the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil and buttermilk and add to the flour mixture. Using a fork or whisk, combine the wet and dry until you don't see any more flour. Place the dough in a plastic baggie and refrigerate for about an hour.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to approximately a 1/4" thickness and begin cutting any shape desired. You can re-roll the scraps and continue cutting shapes. If the re-rolled dough begins to break apart, let rest on the counter for a couple of minutes. The olive oil will begin to seep out again and relax the dough so you can re-roll.

Place the cut out crackers on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for approximately 35-40 or until lightly golden brown. You can place the shapes fairly close together on the sheet pan because this dough will not spread in the oven.

This recipe is easily doubled if you're making a top and bottom crust for a tart. If you're cutting out shapes, this amount will yield anywhere from one to two dozen crackers depending on the size cutter.