Pantry Revamp Continued – Replacing the Cheese Cracker

The Pantry Revamp is a series here on this ol’ blog.  To read more about it, check out the first post here.

So, I started with the graham crackers and was met with pretty good success.  Now, I’m attacking those little critters – the Goldfish Crackers.
Overall, Goldfish Crackers aren’t really a terrible choice, especially the cheese variety, as they don’t have any artificial colors, partially hydrogenated oil, or high fructose corn syrup.  The main problem with them is the high amount of sodium that they contain, especially when thought of in terms of a child’s daily intake.  However, as part of this project, I really want to get away from store-bought processed snacks and move toward only offering snacks that have been made in my home with whole ingredients.
With that being said, my goal for this week was to make a replacement cheese cracker.  I, again, referenced  The Homemade Pantry and made Alana’s cheese cracker recipe.  (The full recipe can be found here.  I’ll save you the boredom and me the work of reproducing it here.)  I would say it, too, was a success.
The recipe requires a stand mixer.  I do not own a stand mixer and almost decided not to make this recipe because it seems like it would be a pretty big pain to make it without one.  Luckily, upon mentioning this to my friend Lauren, she offered to let me borrow her Kitchen Aid.  (On a side note, MAN, Kitchen Aid’s are nice.  Definitely on my “dream kitchen” list.)  So, if you don’t have a stand mixer, you might run into a problem.
I followed the directions exactly as they were laid out and they came out pretty great.  Next time I make them I’m going to try to use whole wheat pastry flour in place of half of the white flour that the recipe calls for.  This will make them that much more healthy.
In sum, while I can still see myself buying Goldfish Crackers on occasion, as a convenience food, and not feeling terrible about it, I think that these cheese crackers will definitely be a new staple in our pantry.  Let me know if you give them a try.