Ever miss that crunchy texture that foods like chips and crackers used to provide? This easy cheese crisps recipe will hit the snacking spot! Best of all, unlike most storebought cheese crackers, the one ingredient is 100% real food!
The next time you need a healthy alternative to crackers or a break from carrots and celery for dipping into salsa or sauces, try these! And it only takes 15 minutes and a hunk of cheese.
Cheese Crisps? Isn’t That Unhealthy?
It’s true, 100% cheese crisps certainly aren’t an everyday food, but if you are craving chips, this is a much healthier alternative!
Cheese crisps are higher in calories and fat than some other snacking choices and not recommended for the lactose intolerant. In our house, we do keep moderate amounts of raw, aged cheeses and high-fat dairy like butter, cream, and yogurt in the meal rotation. (The keywords here are “moderate” and “rotation.”)
Getting “Real” About Dairy
There’s nothing better than snacking on fresh veggies and fruit. That’s undeniable. But dairy in its most natural form — raw, organic, pastured (meaning grass-fed), and full fat — does have nutritional value and can be handled digestively by most people. Even better if it’s fermented as it’s lower in sugar and lactose and contains probiotics!
Food rotation is a key element in getting good nutrition and avoiding food allergies. When I know we are carefully choosing what and when we consume, I can feel good about indulging in things like real dairy once in a while.
As always, a good meal planning system (check out my favorite, Real Plans!) helps guard against the overconsumption of any one kind of food.
For this reason, I have kept some dairy in my favorite 200+ recipes featured in The Wellness Mama Cookbook (although dairy is rarely essential to the recipe and easily skipped if needed).
For variety, the recipes frequently call for healthy milk substitutes like almond and coconut milk.
How to Make One-Ingredient Cheese Chips
There are a few important keys to making cheese chips. The first is choosing the right cheese. You need a nice, hard, low-moisture cheese such as Parmesan (a block or shreds of it, not the grated stuff in a canister), cheddar, or asiago.
The second is a close eye. Cheese crisps go from being not-quite-done to burnt in seconds! Take them out when they’re bubbly and just starting to brown around the edges.
If your cheese crisps are too lacy and crumbling, try mixing a couple of types of cheese together. I found that a mix of Parmesan and cheddar held together better than just cheddar.
Mix It Up!
If you’re feeling ambitious and would like to add some flavor complexity to your cheese chips, try sprinkling them with spices before baking. I like them with a dash of taco seasoning and a thin slice of jalapeno. Or try a pinch of Italian seasoning.
This creative recipe puts the cheese in a muffin tin to cool so to make crisps in bowl form.
Without further ado, here’s how to get your savory umami fix from 100% real cheese crisps. It takes little prep time or cooking know-how.
100% Real Cheese Crisps Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz low-moisture cheese (Parmesan, asiago, or aged cheddar, freshly grated)
- ½ tsp herbs or spices (try paprika, taco seasoning, or Italian seasoning, optional)
Instructions
- Very lightly oil a cookie sheet or use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Use a 1 tablespoon measure to put small piles of cheese onto the cookie sheet leaving sufficient space between for spreading.
- Sprinkle with herbs or spices if using.
- Turn the oven on 'Broil' and put the cheese in.
- Watch carefully. It may take a little practice to learn timing. When bubbles slow down slightly and at first sign of browning, it's time to take them out.
- Allow the cheese to cool slightly, then gently remove them using a thin spatula to a paper towel covered plate to cool completely.
- When cooled, use just as you would chips for snacking or dipping into homemade sauces.
- To store, wait until fully cooled and pack between layers of waxed paper in a shallow dish.
Notes
Nutrition
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Ever made cheese crisps? Have a better version to share? Do so below!
How do you store these and how long will they store for? Thanks!
Hello Katie! Do you stack like two slices of natural cheese?( I have a block of cheddar) And also, for about how long do you broil?
You can stack them and only for a few mins… watch closely!
I miss pretzels. I love the flavor of the outside of the pretzel, and the salt.
Do you have anything to help with that?
just log on to pinterest and search for paleo pretzels reipes for pretzels pretzel buns and more if you dont want them soft just leave them stale up
Try sourdough crackers, they are delicious
I love these chips, but I have 2 problems with them.
1) I can’t stop eating them.
2) I’m lactose intolerant. lol.
I can usually tolerate small amounts of dairy, but I had some earlier today and apparently have now had too much.
I might not be able to make these as often as I’d like to.
Parchment paper helps the chips slide right off. Some cheeses have a lot of fat (we all know that). It might take longer for these cheeses to crisp. To help it along, use a spatula and move the cheese out of the oil puddle to a clean section of the baking pan. Or, what I did (by accident, because they weren’t crisp enough)…let them cool, flip, put back in oven until lightly browned.
If you stick with long aged cheese you should be okay on avoiding lactose. As the cheese ages the bacteria that gives it flavor convert the lactose to lactase, leaving the cheese lactose-free. I don’t have a magic formula to say when the lactose is gone but I know that when we were selling cheese at a farmer’s market we had several lactose-intolerant customers who were able to eat our longer aged varieties.
Try raw goat cheese. Its my understanding that some that are lactose intolerant don’t have as much issues with raw cheeses in general, raw goat more specifically. I could be wrong, but I do recall reading that more than once. Just a suggestion.
I failed at this big time. Maybe I cooked it too long. Maybe my slices were too thin. Next time I will use parchment paper as I am having to chisel them off my baking sheets. No worries as I’ll just use the crumbs in fish breading tonight. Interestingly enough the Hickory Farms cheese didn’t melt, didn’t bubble, didn’t do anything. What do they make that out of?! Tillamook worked just fine. Operator error.
Yummy! Made them to go with our chili tonihht. Great substitute for cheese crackers and/or grilled cheese sandwiches!
My husband and I both loved these! Thanks! At first I didn’t cook them long enough to make them crispy, and then I learned that if you wait until they mostly quit bubbling they are perfect. Chips are one of my weaknesses and I’m excited to find something that can substitute. I like that I can control the portions by only cooking just enough.
Maybe I am confused, but I thought avoiding dairy was part of the diet?
For the most part, it is, but for those who don’t have an allergy, these are an occasional treat, and much better than chips fried in vegetable oils 🙂
All factory farmed animals are given hormone shots, to make them grow fatter, faster, and antibiotic shots, because they live in filth, and eat GMO (genetically modified organism) grain. Who wants all that nasty in their body? Everything you eat and drink should be organic, because most everything in your grocery store has these things and man made chemicals you can’t even pronounce! All dairy you put in your body should be organic…from animals that are grass fed, and have no shots given. I learned how to make my own nut milks, mostly from organic almonds. You can watch on youtube how to do this easy enough. I love cheese, so I only find this in organic, which I hope everyone will do. So much better for ya!
Mmm, I really need to try making these!
We love cheese crackers! I do a jack colby blend cracker quite often. Also, I do mine on parchment paper, and they slide right off easily! (you can reuse the parchment for several batches too.) Try them with guacamole – Heaven!
Have you tried them with sliced deli cheese?