Sunday, September 6, 2009

Homemade Crackers

I LOVE crackers. Last week the store was closed, we were out of them and I had the munchies. So what's a girl to do?

Make them herself of course!

They are actually quite easy to make. See the basic recipe below.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbs salt
3 tsp shortening
3 ounces milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Combine first two ingredients. Using a fork, pastry cutter, or food processor, cut in the shortening. Add milk starting with 2 ounces using the remainder if necessary. You want a stiff dough that forms a ball but is not sticky or wet. ALMOST like pie dough. Roll out to about 1/8" (or thinner) on a lightly floured surface. Transfer dough to parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cut into squares or other shapes with pizza cutter. Use a docking tool or fork to poke holes in dough. Sprinkle with salt or other spices as desired. Bake approximately 10-12 minutes till golden and crunchy. Store in airtight container.

Jenn's Tips
  • The thinner the rolled dough the crunchier the cracker and less cooking time required.
  • Crackers will become crunchier as they cool.
  • Give crackers a zesty kick with spice combinations.
  • Use butter flavored shortening for a Ritz-like cracker.
Find other recipe and craft ideas at the Frugal Front Porch.

11 comments:

  1. Oh dear lord that is COOL. Now to find shortening here in Australia.....

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  2. Do these actually come out like crackers, and not bits of pie crust? All of the cracker recipes I've tried are like eating plain pie crust, but I'd love to find a good one!

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  3. I love home-made crackers. They are so much healthier.

    Also, to answer your reader’s question, shortening can be found in USA food website. :)

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  4. Liss-Vegetable shortening is located in the baking aisle in most US grocery stores. I'm sure you could substitute animal lard or possibly vegetable oil if you can't find the shortening. But try asking the store manager if you can't find it in your local store. Crisco is the popular brand sold in the states but I use the store brand since it's cheaper!

    Rachel-These taste like crackers to me. The key is getting the dough just sticky enough to form a ball and rolling it out very thin so they bake up crispy (not flakey). And the salt...gotta have salt in crackers! I'd love for you to try it out and let me know what you think! ;)

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  5. I've been making crackers for a while. I did a post before with some recipes and tips. http://kimberlys-cup.blogspot.com/2009/04/going-crackers.html Just sharing bc I think everyone should be doing this!!!

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  6. Recipe for homemade crackers that are great for soup but low in the glycemic index?
    Thank you
    Brad Fallon

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  7. This is an excellent recipe but a bit salty so I cut the salt by half and instead of using shortening I use margarine instead gives them the butter flavor and makes em perfect for cheese.

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  8. Just made these. I used half margarine and half bacon fat for the shortening, and kefir for the milk. Turned out great. They were a bit salty - but I think since i used margarine and bacon fat - that added to the saltiness, so I would cut down a bit for the next recipe. I also raised the temp a bit to 400 after 10 min, since they weren't browning like I would like. These are great with peanut butter!

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  9. So glad I found this! Off to try it now.. Thank you! :D

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  10. So glad I found this! I'm going to try this now... Thank you! :D

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