I come from a long line of cracker devotees. My family is famous for its high daily consumption of Huntley & Palmers Cream Crackers. When all six of us lived at home I swear that we ate our way through a whole box every day. We ate other crackers too, but kiwi-made Huntley & Palmers were always king. Most of the time we ate them spread simply with butter and sandwiched together (known as “the double”), but we also loved them topped with a thin slice of cheese and often pickle too.

I think I was the most hardcore H&P junkie in my family. I’m not totally sure about that though, so perhaps I shall reveal some secrets as a test. I know that I had the habit in my teenage years of spreading them with peanut butter, then topping them (weirdest of all) with carefully placed rows of roasted peanuts (who knew that double-peanut was a flavour?). I still retain a slight obsession with always putting the topping on the “inside” of the cracker, as in my mind, the “outside” is indicated by the words Huntley & Palmers stamped across it. As a 3 or 4 year old, I apparently objected to my grandfather’s blatant disregard for this unquestionable rule of etiquette, which means that this habit was formed “charmingly” early (did I get it from you Mum?). As a young adult at university I sometimes had to force myself not to buy H&P crackers, as when they were in the house I found it hard to stop eating them for morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea. Even now, when anyone I know is travelling across the Tasman Sea, forget Vogels, forget chocolate fish, I always beg them above all, to tuck a precious box or two of H&Ps in their luggage just for me. (Goodness, the talking cure does work; I feel so much better now all of that’s off my chest.)

Despite the predominance of cakes and cookies on this blog, my tastebuds swing towards savoury more than sweet. My all time favourite snack is good crackers topped with good cheese. These days I am forced to be more democratic with my cracker consumption (probably a good thing), and I’ve grown an appreciation of how different crackers can enhance different cheeses. One of my favourites is a firm goats cheese with an oat wafer (divine) but I’m also rather partial to homemade olive oil crackers topped with homemade ricotta cheese.

Oh, I hadn’t mentioned that before? Yeah, I make my own cheese and crackers. No big deal.

Actually, it’s a pretty major deal. When I stumbled across these recipes on Brandi’s site I was totally gobsmacked for a second – homemade crackers? It was honestly a completely new and thrilling concept for me. That Brandi then topped said crackers with homemade cheese just tipped me over the edge. I’m the kind of person who gets a bit excited about complicated, time consuming recipes (a cake that takes three days to make? I’m in!!), so the workload (and there definitely is work here) didn’t faze me one bit. I had tried other recipes from Brandi’s site and trusted her implicitly. She’s right again – the crackers and cheese are amazing.

The crackers are a bit time-consuming, but only during the rolling out and baking stage. The soft, creamy ricotta is the easiest thing ever, and just takes a few hours of patience while it strains. Brandi recommends topping her crackers with the homemade ricotta then a drizzle of runny honey and a grind of black pepper. This is unquestionably delicious, but the crackers are also fantastic with ricotta and smoked salmon or simply with a slice of cheddar. They are also rather good with peanut butter, although extra peanuts are clearly overkill and should not be attempted. Go on, make your own crackers and cheese: impress yourself and wow your friends (revelation of nervous tics optional).