Homemade Cracker Recipes

Saltines are a staple at our house that are served with all sorts of soups and stews. They are also perfect in all sorts of casserole recipes and my favorite – meatloaf.

Here’s a quick and easy homemade cracker recipe that tastes just like saltines. Often it ends up being cheaper to buy them at the store, but it’s fun to make them every once in a while. The taste is great and you can control the amount of salt (if any) you put on them.

Basic Saltines:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup milk
• 1 large egg

You will also need a large mixing bowl and and a fine sieve to make your crackers.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder and place into a large mixing bowl.

Cut cold butter into small chunks and “cut” into the flour until it reaches a grainy consistency.

Add milk and egg and knead until it becomes a stiff dough. Roll the dough out really thin. You can cut the dough into squares or you can also cut circles.

Prick little holes in the crackers with a fork and bake them in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 10 minutes.

*Tip: If you would like to make round crackers and don’t have any cookie cutters, just use the rim of a small glass or cup. Dip the rim into a little flour first and then you can cut your crackers.

If you like salted crackers, sprinkle the uncooked crackers with a little bit of coarse salt.

This next recipe is a bit more of a “special occasion” cracker. I make these as an appetizer when we have company over.

Parmesan Herb Crackers:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 3 ozs grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

Place butter into the bowl of your electric mixer and mix it until it becomes creamy.

Grate fresh Parmesan cheese (it’s okay if you need to buy already grated Parmesan from the market). Add cheese, flour, salt and thyme to the butter and mix until it form a ball of dough.

Place a long piece of plastic wrap on your work surface and place the dough ball in the center of one end. Form the dough into a log and roll it up in the plastic.Place the log into the freezer for 30 min.(this makes it easier to slice.)

Remove from the freezer after thirty minutes and cut the log into ¼ inch thick slices. Place the slices on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 20 minutes.