Summer is the time of being out and about for my family. We’re always on the go–to the lake, beach, pool, play dates, whatever. This means we need a constant supply of portable snacks. Of course, summer is a fabulous time for fresh fruits and veggies, but crackers are always in demand.
The other day, Erin, aka The Gluten Free Illustrator (go check out her site, it’s beautiful!) was on Twitter asking for a gluten-free cheese cracker recipe. That reminded me that I have a great recipe that we’ve been using for a couple of years–and I promised that I would post it on my site. And, here it is!
This recipe is adapted from the Crazy Cheese Straws recipe in What’s Cooking: A Cookbook for Kids (inspired by the movie, Ratatouille ). This is a super-cute cookbook, by the way, if you can find it. And, it has a forward by Thomas Keller, of The French Laundry restaurant and cookbook, and Bouchon bistro and cookbook. Keller is my pantheon of chef gods! I am so inspired by his work.
This is a very versatile recipe–you can use it in several ways. We usually use it for cheese straws:
or tiny cheese crackers (a la Goldfish Crackers):
The cheese straws are fast and easy. The tiny cheese crackers are more time-consuming, but are so charming and yummy, they are worth the effort. And the cheese crackers are so handy to have around, especially for kids, when everyone else is eating gluten-filled Goldfish Crackers.
Gluten-Free Cheese Crackers
Special equipment needed:
–Small animal cookie cutters
-if you want bigger crackers, cutters of any shape you’d like
-food processor (you can get away w/o one, but it really makes the process go faster)
-rolling pin
-Silpat mat
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Jeanne’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cup grated Parmesan and/or Romano (we use just Parmesan)
1 extra-large egg
1/4 cup milk
-Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper
-place flour, butter, and the cheeses in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse off and on for about 1 minute–until the butter and cheese are evenly mixed with the flour
-Add the egg and pulse until it’s incorporated
-with the processor running, pour the milk through the feed tube and blend until the dough forms a ball-blob:
-Place 1/2 of the dough on the Silpat mat in a blob-ball (sprinkled w/some tapioca flour:
-Roll out the dough until it’s about 1/8″ thick:
-Cut out shapes and place on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet:
Gather, re-roll, and cut out until all dough is used (do the same with the second blob of dough). I got something like 140 crackers out of the dough, plus extra to make some cheese straws. The crackers completely filled 2 cookie sheets.
-Bake for 18-20 minutes. Time will depend on how crunchy you want them to be. I baked them until they were brownish around the edges:
-Cool in pan until you’re able to pick them up
-store in airtight container
These are great to take on trips or as an easy snack for kids (and adults). Mine don’t last very long–they are yummy and fun!
Gluten-Free Cheese Straws
Follow same process as for cheese crackers. Instead of rolling out the blobs of dough with a rolling pin, pick out a small piece, roll in your hand into a ball, and then roll the ball into a cylinder:
-Repeat until all the dough is used
-place cylinders on greased or parchment-line baking sheet
-bake for 18-20+ minutes (again, how long will depend on how crunchy you want these–experiment to see what your taste is).
-again, store in an airtight container
These are also great for on-the-go snacks. Or as nibbles with cocktails.
Enjoy!
Note: If you use a different gluten-free flour mix, alter the amount of or eliminate the xanthan gum or use a different gluten-replacer, use dairy-free or egg-free substitutes, or change any other ingredients in this recipe, your results may not match my results.
This post contains affiliate links–which means that I get a tiny percentage of each purchase you make through the link (at no extra cost to you!). Thank you!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Jeanne Sauvage
Hi Jeanne,
Do you have a recipe on your blog for similar straws that are sweet, instead of savory? (I am talking about the dipping sticks that come will the grab and go nutella snacks) My son is now gluten free for the past month and has been craving for this snack. I have recipe for home-made nutella but looking for the dipping sticks/straws to go with the nutella.
I appreciate your response!
Thanks in advance 🙂
Swarna: Hm. I don’t have a recipe on the blog. But I just checked out the Grab and Go Nutella snacks and it looks like those sticks aren’t that sweet–are they? What you might want to try is the Grissini recipe in my new book Gluten-Free Wish List (available on Amazon among other places). These are thin bread sticks. You can make them shorter than in the picture so they match the sticks in the GandG pack. If you do this, let me know what you think.
Hi Jeanne,
Thanks for a lot for your prompt response! I just ordered your cookbook on Amazon 🙂 Yes, you are right those stick are not that sweet but they are not savory like cheese straws. They are somewhat bland, as they will be dipped into Nutella the sweetness will be balanced out. I should have your book by Friday and am definetely trying this out over the weekend!
I will let you know of the outcome.
Thanks and have a great day!
Swarna: Yay! Let me know how it goes!
I can not wait to try this recipe I have been craving cheese-its and all the GF cheese crackers I can find in the store are not cheesy enough or worse they used powdered cheese on the outside to up the flavour. 😀
Alison: Yay! These are so good. I just made them for a party this weekend–I brought them to the same party last year and everyone (including wheat eating people) loved them and asked me to bring them again this year!
Oh these are not at all like goldfish crackers…they’re what I wished goldfish crackers tasted like! So good! I have tried so many gluten free crackers and hated them all. Now I have a great cracker to deliver the smoked salmon to my mouth (I made them into squares). Thanks yet again!
Tracy: Yay!!
Hi, I want to ask if you just want to make a simple plain cracker but shaped in animals, hearts, etc and I am allergic to milk & eggs, can I remove the eggs, and cheese, and use suet/lard or vegan butter? Please advise. If you have recipes that already show this I’d love to read them bye! ^-^
Raisha: I think the only savory crackers I have on my site are the cheese crackers. I will be working on more recipes for this type of thing (I realize that this is a definite “hole” in my repertoire.) That said, I would check out my post about substitutes–it has links to other gluten-free bakers/bloggers who are doing vegan baking.
Can you activate the printer friendly version? It is so much easier to just take the recipe into the kitchen! Thank you for all you do for us!
Lucia: Sure! I don’t know why I don’t already have it up. Will do that now.
I really liked these, but my kids said they were too “cheesy” and my six-year old is my Celiac patient. =) I was wondering if I could substitute some milder cheeses and perhaps still come out with an okay result? I was thinking maybe colby jack? Could I sub out some of the parmesan as well do you think? Again, I really really like these, but I guess the flavor is not quite as bland as goldfish for them! =)
Emily: Yes, you can totally substitute any kind of cheese you want to. Just make sure the total is the same!
Great! I will play around with the cheese combos then. =)
The recipe sounds great and enjoy reading all the reviews. the fact that they are like goldfish is a plus! Lucinda
I made these last night crackers n cheese sticks. But I had to hand mix which was hard. This maybe a stupid question but is the ninja a food processor.? Also the sticks n crackers came out a little chewy, almost as if they were stale, what did I do wrong?
Ana: Yes, they can be chewy. They get more crunchy the longer you bake them.
Made these last night – yum! Cocktail party worthy, even! I sprinkled coarse salt on top too. Next time I might roll in little balls and squish flat to make rounds. Thank you!
Pam: Oh, I’m so glad! And rolling into balls and flattening is what I do for rounds in my upcoming book–yay!
I’m making these now, and they are divine! My daughter declared them better than any boxed cheese cracker – gf or no gf!
I do have to admit my weirdness. The first batch of sticks were so wonky that I actually got out my decorator bag and tips. lol Now everything is nice and straight. 🙂
Thanks for the great recipe!
Steph: Oh, I’m so glad! And I get the desire to make them look less wonky. My sticks always look wonky!!
ohh! i just tried to make some cheese crackers the other day- what a disaster, i wish i had looked here first, these look fantastic, mine looked… drastic.
will try them next week and let you know how they go- thanks again for your innovation
You’re welcome! Let me know what you think!