Texas Cheese Wafers

These Tex-Mex cheese wafers pack sharp cheddar, a full cup of butter, cayenne pepper, and crisp rice cereal into a tender, crumbly, spicy little cracker. The rice cereal is the surprise ingredient, adding a light, airy crunch that keeps the wafers from being dense and heavy like a typical shortbread-style cheese biscuit.

The dough comes together without eggs or liquid, just butter, flour, cheese, and seasonings stirred until it holds. Rolling teaspoons of dough into balls and pressing them flat with a floured fork in a crisscross pattern gives each wafer that classic cracker look while flattening them thin enough to bake crisp all the way through.

That half teaspoon of cayenne is what makes these Texan. It’s not blow-your-head-off hot, but there’s a definite warm tingle on the back end that keeps you reaching for another one. The sharp cheddar amplifies the bite.

Kitchen Tips

• Grate the cheese finely. Coarse shreds don’t incorporate as evenly and leave lumpy pockets in the dough. A box grater on the fine side works well.
• Dip the fork in flour before each press. The buttery dough sticks to bare tines and you’ll pull the wafer right off the sheet. Flour prevents that.
• Watch them carefully at 12 minutes. These go from lightly browned to burnt fast because of the high butter and cheese content.
• Store in airtight containers. They stay crisp for about a week and actually get better after a day as the cayenne mellows slightly.

Variations

• Use pepper jack cheese instead of cheddar for a more complex heat with jalapeño flavor.
• Add chopped pecans to the dough for a nuttier, more Southern-style wafer.
• Increase cayenne to a full teaspoon if you like serious heat.