• A great twist – instead of eating off the spoon, we now eat the whole spoon! Perfectly served as a canapé or after-meal snack. 

    Crackerbread spoons with watermelon preserve, gorgonzola and balsamic caviar

    Serves: 12
    Cooking Time: 2 hrs

    Ingredients

    • CRACKERBREAD SPOONS

    • 150g cake flour + extra, to dust
    • 5ml (1 tsp) salt flakes
    • 45ml (3 tbsp) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
    • 60g Gruyère, grated
    • 60ml (4 tbsp) milk, chilled
    • TO SERVE

    • Gorgonzola, cut into small cubes
    • ready-made watermelon/fig preserve, cut into small cubes
    • store-bought balsamic caviar (available at La Marina Foods) (optional)
    • microherbs, to garnish

    Instructions

    1

    For the crackerbread spoons, place the cake flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the chilled butter cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. If a food processor is not available, use a bowl and your fingers to rub the butter into the flour. Pulse in the cheese at this point with a few short bursts.

    2

    While the processor is running, add the milk until the dough comes together into a very loose ball. Transfer the dough to a sealable plastic bag and chill in the fridge, 1 hour. At this point, preheat the oven to 120˚C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Unwrap the chilled dough and place it on a flour-dusted work surface. Roll the dough out to a thickness of 1cm. Use a spoon-shaped cookie cutter or a knife to trace and cut the dough out around a teaspoon.

    3

    Gently lift the shaped pastry spoons using a spatula and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Gather and bring together the leftover pastry, and roll out again to cut out more spoon shapes – therefore, not wasting the dough.

    4

    Bake in the preheated oven, 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway, after 25 minutes. This helps the pastry cook evenly.

    5

    Remove from oven and allow the crackerbread spoons to cool on the baking sheet before lifting them out onto a wire cooling rack.

    6

    To serve, layer cubes of Gorgonzola and watermelon or fig preserve on the spoon, dollop with a little store-bought balsamic caviar, if desired, and garnish with microherbs.

    Notes

    Chill the milk and butter in the fridge before using them in this recipe – this aids in combining the dough more easily and lends texture to the crackerbread spoons. The “rubbing in” method, in which flour is rubbed into a fat, can be done very quickly in a food processor using the pulse button. It is also useful for making a crumble topping.



    Imka Webb
    Author

    Imka Webb is a freelance digital marketing expert and the digital editor of Food & Home Entertaining magazine.  www.imkawebb.com