A homemade cracker that takes less time than a batch of muffins! Simple, whole food, and everything you could wish for in a buttery, homemade, snack food.
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Homemade crackers just seem so extra. Most days, I struggle to put dinner on the table, so rolling out homemade crackers is out of the question. Where are the “healthy-dinner-in-20-minutes” ideas? I’m all the way here for those.
So when I came across Cheese Straws in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, I rolled my eyes. There are a lot of recipes in our How to Cook Everything Challenge that I will probably never repeat. I was sure this was one.
I was wrong.
(To read about our first week of the Challenge, go here!)
Quick & Easy Cheese Crackers
After adjusting it a little bit, I found a simple snack recipe that was remarkably easy, inexpensive, made from real food, that my whole family loved.
This recipe takes very little time to make (way less than a batch of cookies!), but the buttery, crispy layers of pastry taste far more complex.
And with only four inexpensive ingredients, this homemade treat guards our budget and avoids a lot of unwanted ingredients most snack foods use.
Get the recipe below (I won’t make you scroll through paragraphs of backstory you don’t care about). But check below it for nutrition information, tips, and ways this recipe helps us save money and eat healthy!
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag a photo #cheapskatecook and @cheapskatecook on Instagram.
Time Machine: One year ago: The Pros & Cons to Buying Real Food at Costco Two years ago: Frugal Juicing (What to do with Leftover Juice Pulp)
Print Quick & Easy Cheese Crackers A homemade cracker that takes less time than a batch of muffins! Simple, whole food, and everything you could wish for in a buttery, homemade, snack food. Based on a recipe from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman Author Steph Jenkins Ingredients 1 lb shredded cheese (we like cheddar, but use any kind or a combination of cheeses!) 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 8 tbsp cold butter, cut into bits Pinch coarse salt (optional) Instructions Preheat the oven to 450 F. Place the flour and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until flour and butter are combined. Pour the flour and butter mixture into a bowl and stir in the cheese, using your hands or a potato masher until it comes together into a ball. You may need to add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time to make it come together. Roll the dough out on a sheet of parchment paper until it is 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Cut the dough into your desired shapes (We like rectangles, like in the pictures). Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake 5-8 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy! Notes Cheese Tip: If you’re using block cheese, shred it in the food processor, then dump it into the mixing bowl and proceed with the recipe. (Check out why you should shred your own cheese!) I like aged cheddar in this recipe, but use any you have on hand. It’s a great way to use up leftover cheese. Whole Wheat Flour In the recipe, I use a combination of white and whole wheat flour. This is purely for taste and texture, as using all whole wheat can make crackers a little tough and crumbly. That being said, they are still delicious if you use all whole grain flour. This recipe would also work great with spelt flour. Nutrition Facts
Please note: The actual calories and nutrition of this dish depend on what ingredients you use.
This Recipe is:
Simple
Fast (faster than a batch of cookies!)
Whole grains
Flaky
Buttery
Cheesy
Crispy and just a touch soft
Delicious
Minimal ingredients (only 4!)
Real Food
Kid-friendly
Portable (easy to bring on picnics, to parties, or pack in lunchboxes)
Party food (as an appetizer)
Snacky (because crackers)
How Quick & Easy Cheese Crackers Help Us Save Money & Eat Healthy
Snack food is not easy when you care about your health and your budget. Obviously, fruit, veggies, nuts, and raisins are easy go-tos (and normally the only food we eat between meals).
But crackers are amazing. And crackers with clean ingredients are usually very expensive.
I don’t think you should make homemade everything. Your time is precious. Sometimes, instead of making homemade crackers and saving $2, we should put in an extra hour of work that we get paid for.
However, these crackers are fast and delicious. They’re a great homemade treat and only use 4 inexpensive ingredients. This helps us keep our expensive snack food for another day, and keeps questionable ingredients out of our diet.
Isn’t Making Your Own Crackers a Little Much?
I get it. Homemade crackers are so extra. I will never tell you to spend your precious time rolling out all your family’s crackers in order to avoid unwanted ingredients.
Most crackers – even the homemade ones – are not especially healthy. Instead, my family tries to fill our diet with other things – fruit, veggies, protein, other whole-food carbs or homemade bread.
But if you need a go-to homemade cracker recipe – either because you love crackers, have a picky eater, or need to avoid processed snack food – this is it.
It’s quick, easy, and awesome.
Faster Than Cookies
Normally, our go-to homemade goodies involve scratch-baked cookies or a quick apple crisp.
But these Quick & Easy Cheese Crackers are faster than either one and don’t coddle the ferocious sweet tooth. We snacked on them while watching Ultimate Beastmaster on Netflix, and everyone asked for seconds, then thirds, then tenths.
If you want a fun homemade treat that doesn’t make much fuss, steal your time, and isn’t a dessert, these Cheese Crackers fit the bill.
Kid-Friendly
Because it’s so simple, and my kids love it so much, this is a very kid-friendly recipe that the kids can whip together themselves. Since I’m trying to work myself out of a job, this is great news.
By the way, if “Mom, can I have a snack?” is the soundtrack at your house, you’ll definitely want to grab this free ebook full of healthy snacks kids can make!
Using All Whole Wheat or Other Flours
In the recipe, I use a combination of white and whole wheat flour. This is purely for taste and texture, as using all whole wheat can make crackers a little tough and crumbly. That being said, they are still delicious if you use all whole grain flour. This recipe would also work great with spelt flour.
Gluten-free, almond flour, or oat flour can be crumbly, so I would look for a specifically gluten-free recipe, like this.
“Should I Get a Food Processor?“
First, this recipe.
I bought my first unbranded food processor for five dollars at a yard sale. It was a cheap plastic thing that lasted another five years of almost daily use.
If you have food allergies and are on a tight budget, I highly recommend a food processor. We were gluten-free and dairy-free for many years, and the food processor helped me whirr together allergy-free alternatives that otherwise would have cost a lot of money.
We use our processor to make:
Healthy chocolate peanut butter cookies 3-Ingredient frozen berry whip Chocolate peanut butter dessert hummus Grain-free peanut butter banana muffins (um, we like peanut butter) The best black bean brownies 1-ingredient banana ice cream Budget-friendly hummus
When my yard sale find bit the dust, I got an 8-cup Black & Decker replacement. It works great and was far more affordable than my dream Cuisinart. It comes with a slicing & shredding attachment that I highly recommend. We use it to simplify prepping these veggies:
shredded cabbage sliced peppers ( to freeze – mostly for breakfast sautes) sliced onions shredded zucchini (for this baked oatmeal) Step-by-Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 450 F.
Place the flour and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until flour and butter are combined.
Pour the flour and butter mixture into a bowl and stir in the cheese, using your hands or a potato masher until it comes together into a ball. You may need to add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time to make it come together.
Roll the dough out on a sheet of parchment paper until it is 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Cut the dough into your desired shapes (We like rectangles, like in the pictures). Sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake 5-8 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy!
More Simple Cracker Recipes: 3-Ingredient Whole Wheat Crackers Homemade Cheez-Its Homemade Wheat Thins Sourdough Crackers Whole Grain Spelt Crackers You Might Also Like:
Here are more simple, budget-friendly snack recipes!
Budget-Friendly No-Bake Energy Bars 3-Ingredient Berry Whip Cheap & Simple Guacamole (plus how to store it without browning!) What You Can Do Now:
Homemade crackers: overkill or so-delicious-they’re-worth-it?
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