Want your favorite snacks, but much cheaper?
Raise your hand if you are someone who hears of a homemade version of a favorite food, and you immediately assume it must be super time consuming and/or involves expensive and hard to find ingredients –I raised mine too!
Snacks and all the other “add ins” that go inside the lunchbox are also important. It’s easy to prepare a healthy lunch and then blow the good efforts on junky treats. If you need more lunchbox ideas click here.
Related: Top 5 Lunchboxes We’ve Tested
Not so long ago, my hand would have shot up before I was even done reading that sentence. Fortunately MOMables has a ton of How-tos…
I was totally under the false impression that homemade recipes were only for people with a much higher cooking skill set than me. Thankfully one day, I decided to just go for it and experiment with recipes I had assumed would be hard to make.
I was shocked to find that not only was it much easier than I had assumed, it was also cheaper…not to mention much healthier.
Take this recipe for homemade wheat thin crackers for instance. There was a day when I would have thought making these would be an all-day process and that at the end of it, they would taste nothing like the real thing. If you are under the same impression you must try this recipe! It is so easy to make, requires very few ingredients, and tastes exactly like the real thing. I seriously couldn’t believe it! Join us and you will learn a ton of new stuff!
Make these crackers for a snack, or pack it as the crackers in the MOMables deli box. I am confident you could fool your kids into believing they are consuming crackers from a box!
Homemade Wheat Thins
- Yield: approx. 60 crackers
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups 100% whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt, plus extra for sprinkling
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons water
- (or more if dough it too dry)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, paprika, and salt.
- Using a cheese grater, shred butter onto flour mixture. Using your hands, combine until thoroughly mixed.
- In a small dish, mix together the water and vanilla and pour liquid into the flour and butter mixture. Stir this until it comes together. You made need to use your hands a bit to really mix this together. If the dough appears dry add a touch of water, but not too much, as you do not want the dough to become sticky.
- Split the dough in half. On a floured surface or on a non-stick mat, roll out one half of the dough very thin (1/16th inch). Using a pizza cutter, large knife, or cookie cutters, cut into whatever shape you desire. Immediately after cutting, transfer the crackers onto lined baking sheets. Repeat as necessary. Sprinkle with more salt, if desired.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, watching closely, because they can burn quickly. Half way through baking, rotate the pans to ensure even baking. Cool completely. Store in an air-tight container.
Notes
This recipe also works with all-purpose gluten free flour mix (one that already has xanthan gum in it).
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Cookbook.
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Thank you for the recipe and for some of the comments too. I really like wheat thins and crackers in general but try not to eat processed foods. The vanilla seemed off to me too, but you are correct the processed crackers have a ton of sugars.
★★★★
It’s crazy how much refined sugars they have! This is definitely a better way to enjoy crackers every now and then.
I just made these with Bob’s Red Mill low carb baking mix and they are AWESOME. Had to make another batch right away because the kids gobbled them up. For the second batch I added a little onion powder and garlic powder to the paprika and left out the vanilla. Savory, wonderful little crackers. Thanks for this recipe! We’ve really been missing crackers around here.
Loved this recipe! I added some Old Bay Seasoning to please my Marylander husband, and used my pasta machine to roll out the dough- saved me so much time!
★★★★★
what a great idea to use the pasta machine Liz! I’m thrilled you liked it.
Oh, I see that both your version and the ohsheglows version are from the same source. Guess that explains it.
We credited the original source: King Arthur Flour Cookbook. Nothing suspicious about crediting a source.
How many days are these good for?
2-3 in an airtight container. if you are not going to eat them, bake half and freeze the other half of the dough.
Could you sub out maple syrup or honey for the sugar? I try to avoid it whenever possible. I’ll try it either way but i just thought i would ask before i went through the effort! Thanks!
Quianna, I haven’t tried it but in this recipe it’s only 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar so using a liquid sweetener will work! I use coconut palm sugar myself and they come out great.
Do you think I could sub coconut oil for the butter?
absolutely.
I’m getting ready to try these now. Do they still taste like the real deal with the sugar and vanilla? Have you tried them without?
wheat thins are not sugary and vanilla. they are whole wheat and salty..
I know… what I meant was, I was surprised to see the recipe include sugar and vanilla since they taste salty and I was curious if they really have that same taste despite those ingredients. I’m going to whip up a batch now and find out :)
Real wheat thins have an outrageous amount of sugar/corn syrup. The vanilla does seem odd though.
karin, the vanilla adds a little hint of the packaged flavorings… you can of course leave it out. Our recipe has no corn syrup… I hope you enjoy them!
Have you tried making these gluten free? Wondering if this would work with gluten free flour. Thanks!
Christina, I have a gluten free version coming out very soon. sign up for our newsletter so you know when the recipe is published! :)