My preschoolers love crackers and all things snack related. I was thrilled to have discovered Sara and her nifty blog, Splendidly Imperfect. She has graciously agreed to guest post her alphabet cheese crackers for us! Thanks Sara! Go check out her blog today and leave a comment there if you like these yummy preservative-free healthy snacks!
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I happen to have a boy and a husband who both love to have snacky-chow around the house. I didn’t want to have them constantly eating sweets, which are my forte, so it was time to branch out into salty snacks. Enter the Cheesy Cracker. They’re the perfect size for little fingers to grab by the handful and they’re so much better than anything I ever bought at the grocery store.
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Ingredients for the Alphabet Cheesy Crackers:
Crackers:1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (188 grams)
2 cups extra sharp cheddar, grated (about six ounces)
1/4 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
a stick of butter at room temperature
and just an eighth of a teaspoon of chili pepper. It doesn’t make them spicy at all, it just adds depth of flavor.
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Place all of your ingredients into a large bowl, along with a few grinds of black pepper. It’s best to grate the cheese yourself because the pre-grated stuff they sell at the grocery store is coated in cornstarch and that will throw off the consistency of your final product. I also like to grate my own Parmesan because it’s better quality and tastes better than the pre-grated kind. Just for goodness sakes, don’t ever use the powdered stuff in the green can. Gag.
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I used a pastry blender to start to bring everything together. Once it started to clean the sides of the bowl, I switched to my hand and made sure it was mixed well.
Separate into two halves, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. If you want to be like me, you can forget about it completely (whoops!) and leave it overnight too, it’s okay. Just let them sit on the counter for about half an hour before you attempt to roll them.
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These are my alphabet cookie cutters. I found mine at HomeGoods, but you can get these on Amazon as well. Each letter is about an inch tall.
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Roll out your cracker dough to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8 inch thick. These cutters are really tiny, so there is a bit of a learning curve to them. If you dip them in flour before each cut, it helps. Also, if a cracker gets stuck inside the cutter, just hold it about 1/4 inch above your cookie sheet and gently poke it loose with a toothpick. You can use a thin, flexible metal spatula to lift the ones that stay put from your rolling surface.
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Place your crackers either on a parchment lined baking sheet or one lined with a Silpat. Be sure to leave a little bit of room between them because they will puff slightly while baking. Bake at 325 degrees F for eleven minutes and then allow to cool completely on the pan before removing.
.These are always a big hit with my 21 month old. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on them! He likes to hold them up and tell me what the letter is before eating it. Smartypants.
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Confession time – I usually only have enough patience to do one pan worth of alphabet crackers before I find myself wanting to say bad words. For the remaining dough, I simply take a pizza cutter (or in this case, a fondant cutter/embosser) and cut the dough into plain squares before baking. They taste just as good and take a fraction of the time that the letters do. I store them in these Burken jars from Ikea and it keeps them fresh for quite a while!
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Do you think these look good? You should check out Sara’s Felt Food! They look yummy and like a lot of pretend fun! If you liked this alphabet crackers recipe, be sure to stop by her blog and tell her!
Those look delicious! And what a great way to get the kids to learn their letters!
Those look great. Can’t wait to try them but I have to find the cookie cutters first!
I’m impressed. I think I’m going to pass this to my 18yo daughter to do with my little guys. They will all love it!
Those look like so much fun! My boys would totally love them!!!
ahhhh those are so fun! They look tasty. i’m going to give it a try!
YAY! I cant wait to try this! I will have to post my own happenings!
Happy Friday from the Loop 🙂
These look wonderful. I wish I had you gift at baking. Stopping from Mom Loop!
How awesome! I found you on BF Comment follow and I think you’re great. I will definitely back! I have toddlers that are always bored and I saw some really great ideas while browsing here!
Julie @ Bunches of Bargains
Wonderful idea. My sister gets mad at me for having so much junk food at our house – her children come over almost daily and the first thing they do is head for our kitchen. I used to teach in the church primary so I got used to buying snacks, I think I’ll try the squares first – the letters look like work!
visiting from Mom Loop comment Follow.
Thanks so much!
I am always looking for recipes like this one. I too am trying to cut out as much processed food as I can.
What a great recipe! Thanks for posting this!
Great post! I was just thinking to myself the other day as I grabbed two boxes of name brand cheese crackers off of the shelf that there has GOT to be a healthier way to give my child (and me, I confess!) our cheese cracker fix. I will have to try this for myself!
Oh, these look so fun! I can’t wait to give the recipe a try 🙂 Thanks!
What a fantastic idea! Thanks so much for that cookie cutter link. We’ll def. be making these!
scheduled to link to this post on 10-6.
These look great, what an awesome fun food to make! karen
sippy cup central mom
This would make a really great snack for kindergarten or pre-school if your school allows homemade snacks. I can see lots of uses for those alphabet cookie cutters, but this one is really great.
What a wonderful idea! looks yummy!
Yum! I have letter cookie cutters, but I think mine might be too big… I’ll need to find these smaller ones. Thanks for sharing!