Whole Wheat Goldfish Crackers

The boyfriend and the roommate are out of town this weekend, partaking in some sort of post-bachelor party reunion tom-foolery that I’d rather know nothing about.

What does this mean for me? It means that I have the whole place to myself. It means that I can dance to Taylor Swift in the living room. It means that I can write this post while I watch The Wedding Planner and I won’t get any ho-hums from boys who will never understand. It also means that I can, yet again, neglect my school work to paint my nails, have lunch with friends, go for a run along the beach, and spend far too much time cutting tiny fishy shapes from a cheesy cracker dough.

Yes. I have gone off the deep end. I spent $8 on an itty bitty fish-shaped cookie cutter that I bought for the sole purpose of making my very own goldfish crackers. While I usually require my kitchen gadgets and bakeware to be multi-taskers (I simply don’t have the drawer space for ridiculous, one-use tools!), I just could not resist this little guy:

I mean, could you resist him? My point exactly.

These crackers are absolutely delightful. They are light, crisp, and cheesy, just the like that familiar little cracker kids love, only these are better because they contain four ingredients!

To make the eyes, I cut the sharp tip from a toothpick to get round, blunt end. I used the curved tip of a steak knife to form the mouth, but you could just as easily use the pointy end of the toothpick. The first batch I made was rolled very thin and cooked in just 7 minutes, but I preferred the later batches which were closer to 1/8″ as stated in the recipe. The thicker fish crackers actually had that hollow center that is reminiscent of the commercial brand.

Whole Wheat Goldfish Crackers

-adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (about 6 oz.)
• 3 Tbsp. butter, cut into cubes
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

1. Throw all ingredients into a food processor and let the machine run for about 2 minutes until it forms a ball of dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Turn the chilled dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll about 1/8″ thick. Cut into fish shapes, dipping the cutter into some flour every so often so the dough does not stick. Transfer fishies to an ungreased cookie sheet, and adorn with an eye and smile, if desired. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are very lightly browned. Cool before transferring to a storage container. Makes 100+ mini fish crackers

After a minute in the food processor, your dough will begin to pull together.

In another minute, it should form a ball. Mine was rather soft and falling apart when I tried to roll it out, so I wrapped it in plastic wrap and refrigerated it for 30 minutes. I found it much easier to work with after that.

Form the dough into a rectangle, and roll to 1/8″ thickness. Working with smaller portions of the dough makes this job easier and allows you to get a more even thickness.

Feel free to squeal with delight at this point.

There’s always one who doesn’t want to go with the flow…

The actual crackers are more orange than this picture lets on.

Even though the picture quality is poor, you can see the little hollow pocket that gives these crackers that light and airy crisp!

 

The hardest part of this whole process is not eating the entire batch before anyone else gets to try them.

Bon Appétit!

-Lou