Doing some housecleaning around my web site, and I don’t want this recipe to get lost to the ages, just because I wanted to delete the page it was on.

Orb’s Homemade Crackers

1/2 c Grated cheddar (I used a mix of what I had on hand, not just cheddar)
1/2 c Flour (plus some for rolling)
2 tb Butter or margarine (softened or at room temperature)
1/4 ts Salt
pinch Chili Powder
2 tb Water

Mix all together in a bowl. Flour your hands and work more flour into the dough by hand until it is just barely sticky. You don’t want it too dry.

Roll out very thin on a floured work surface. Get it as think as you can. The ones pictured above started out about 1/8″ thick. They do puff up while baking.

Cut into small pieces with a knife or small cookie cutters. I used a cutter designed for cutting finger sandwiches, the sort with the plunger on the top to push things out when they get stuck, and that worked rather well too. My final crackers were approximately an inch long or so.

Place the crackers a 1/2″ apart on a cookie sheet. I covered mine with foil, which worked reasonably well for getting them off. A teflon sheet or perhaps even a light coating of non-stick spray would probably work as well.

If you like, you can top them with coarse salt, garlic salt, or pepper … or get creative and use your favorite spice/flavored salt. I used regular table salt very meagerly, and they turned out just a wee bit too salty, which wasn’t an issue since we were eating them in soup. For snacking, you might want to use something other than a salt. If the tops of the crackers are dry by the time you are ready to put in the topping, brush them with a light touch of water or just press the spices into the tops of the crackers. Additionally, you can leave out the chili powder or add some other finely ground spice to the dough itself. Dry leaf spices likely won’t work in the dough or as a topping owing to the potential to burn in the oven.

I might have been able to get them just a little crispier had I remembered to poke each cracker with a fork, but I didn’t, and they turned out fine anyway.

The original recipe said to bake them for 5 minutes in a 425 degree oven. Mine took slightly longer, probably about 15 minutes. My suggestion is to not bother setting a timer and just check on them every minute or two until the tops and edges are just starting to brown. Take them out and let them cool at that stage. If they are still a little too soft, you can always put them back in. I pulled mine out about three times to check on them before I declared them ready to consume.

This batch made two small cookie sheets worth of crackers, about the same amount of salty crispy goodness you’d find in a snack-sized bag of potato chips … just enough for two people eating soup. I’d imagine this recipe can be doubled without too much trouble, but I don’t know what the shelf life on these might be. As quick and easy as these are to make, there’s really no reason to make too many in advance. The dough can be refrigerated or frozen for later use. I have half of yesterday’s batch in the fridge, and later today I’ll take it out and see what happens when I bake them up. While I think the flavors will meld together better, I am concerned about a change in texture. I’ll edit this post after I have experimented with it.

These aren’t going to be exactly like store-bought crackers. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to achieve quite that level of crispy crunch. What they will be though is far healthier than any crackers you might buy in the store thanks to the use of natural ingredients and lack of chemical preservatives and colorings. Lin says he wants them all the time now, so I’ll probably be doing a lot of experimenting with this recipe. It might even get better than it already is, and though I hate to say so myself … these turned out really good and were an excellent addition to the Rosemary Chicken Soup (canned) we had last night.

Future experimentation will include using margarine instead of butter, fork poking vs. no fork poking, different spices and cheeses, thinner rolling, and larger shapes. Now that my stomach is all awake and wanting a snack, I think I’ll go bake up the rest of last night’s batch right now.

UPDATE:

Just finished using the refrigerated dough, which I had rolled into a snake last night. I just cut it in the thinnest slices I could (between 1/4″ and 1/8″, poked them with a fork several times, and baked them for 10 minutes at 425 degrees. Thinner is better than thicker, if you want a lot of crispiness. The thicker ones stuck to the foil badly, but the thin ones came off without to much trouble. I am thinking a non-stick baking spray may be the way to go. These were a little larger also. About the size of a quarter. Thick or thin (broken or whole), they were just as tasty as last night’s batch.