Cheesy Crackers From Scratch

It is no secret that most little kids love crackers. I often buy the whole grain goldfish crackers and Little Dude absolutely adores them. I went in search of a homemade cracker recipe just for fun. After some tinkering and tweaking, I came up with my own recipe.

This is a relatively easy recipe that yielded some tasty crackers that both my kiddos approved of. I don't think they will be replacing the goldfish anytime soon, but I do make them once a week now and they are always a hit. The herbs also make them a little fancier so they are great served with some cheese for guests. I love that all the mixing is done in the food processor!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of regular flour
• 1 cup of whole grain flour - I like the texture that the 50:50 regular to w.w. flour ratio gives but 2 cups of one type can be used instead if preferred.
• 1 heaping cup of shredded cheese - I used mozzarella but sharp cheddar would work great too.
• 1/3 cup of shredded Parmesan
• 4 Tbsp of unsalted butter - cut into small pieces
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• Optional - a sprig of rosemary finely chopped 
• water as needed (about 4 Tbsp)

Making the Cheesy Crackers:

Start by combining the flour, butter, cheese, salt, and pepper in the food processor.

I love adding herbs to my crackers so at this point I finely chop up some rosemary (basil and oregano would work great as well) and throw it in with the dry mix.

Pulse the food processor a couple of times until everything is well combined:

Slowly add in water while pulsing the food processor. Keep adding water until the dough balls up and rides along the blade:

Pull out the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap, and allow it to chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes (up to 24 hours).

Once chilled, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. The thinner you are able to roll the dough, the crispier the crackers will be.

You can use small cookie cutters to achieve any shape desired, but I wanted it to be as simple as possible so I took a sharp knife and cut little diamonds out of the dough. This saves a lot of time compared to a cookie cutter since you don't have any gaps between cookies that need to be rolled out again and again. If I were to use a cutter, I would probably pick a goldfish shape to look like the Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers. Here is a great tutorial for making your own cookie cutters.

place the diamonds on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. They don't expand much once baked so no need to space them out too far.

I baked mine at 375 degrees for 15 minutes for perfect, crispy, golden crackers. Almost all cracker recipes I have found call for 350 degrees, but I found that extra 25 to help with the crispiness.

Both of my kids gobbled them up!