You, there! Stop reaching for that box of Goldfish crackers! Yes, they might be delicious, but did you ever consider making your very own cheese crackers at home? The cheese crackers at the store are an easy snack choice, but you might be surprised how easy it is to make them on your own. Try out the these recipes and follow your cheese cracker dreams!
Comté Wafers
Let’s start with the simplest. You only need one ingredient for these Comté wafers: cheese. That’s right. You can make a cheese wafer out of nothing but cheese. This might seem like a no brainer, but it hadn’t occurred to me to apply Occam’s Razor to cheese and go for the simplest solution.
Poppy Seed–Parmesan Crisps
Moving up in difficulty ever so slightly, these Poppy Seed-Parmesan Crisps have two ingredients. Sprinkling the poppy seeds on top of the Parmaggiano Reggiano might take a little extra out of you, but I think you’ll power through.
Parmesan Cream Crackers
Photo Credit: Evan Sung for the New York Times
A bit more complicated than the crisps but following the Parmesan theme, this recipe from The New York Times yields a buttery, flaky cracker. Butter, flour, and cream make the cracker more substantial than the two recipes above. There’re more steps, but it still takes only about 20 minutes to bake. If you want to dress these crackers up, feel free! Like garlic? Add it. Still want the poppy seeds? Go ahead.
Comté Crackers
Add a little kick to your life with this Comté cracker offering from culture. A pinch of cayenne pepper adds some a nice, subtle kick, and throwing in a stick of butter is doing everybody some favors. You gotta stick the dough in the fridge to allow it to cohere for up to 48 hours, but after that all you gotta do is slice ’em up and stick ’em in the oven!
Chicharrones de Queso
To mix it up, try chicharrones de queso, a cheese cracker that acts sort of like a toasted tortilla. If you can, you’ll want to go to Jimmy Shaw’s Loteria Grill for your chicharrones de queso, but all of us can’t fly out to Los Angeles for cheese crackers. In a perfect world, right? Shaw is nice enough to provide an alternative you can make yourself, using Mexican manchego and cilantro. Best paired with salsa or guacamole, chicharrones will inject more cheesy goodness into your life and will, at least temporarily, replace the corn-based tortilla chips you usually buy.
Whole Wheat Goldfish
Photo Credit: Smitten Kitchen
Finally, if you really want to recreate what you can get in the store, or because your kids demand it, you can try these whole wheat goldfish crackers from smitten kitchen. You will have to invest in a fish-shaped cookie cutter, but really that’s more of a pro than a con for this one. The end result is delicious and adorable, and you really can’t do any better than that.
Gabrielle Roman
Gabrielle Roman is earning her Master's in Publishing and Writing at Emerson College in Boston. She is originally from Kansas City and misses the BBQ but the Thai food is good consolation. Her favorite hobby is cuddling with her puppy.
