Kind of like Vegan Cheez-Its

Ready to Bake

I’ve been wanting to try out the goldfish crackers recipe from Vegan Lunch Box for so long, but never got around to it because I don’t have a little fishy cookie cutter.  Today I decided to take the plunge and just cut them into squares.  After I did that, I noticed that if I just put a hole in the center of each cracker, they would look a whole lot like Cheez-Its!  Woo hoo!  So I made the recipe and they turned out pretty well.  I’m sure I didn’t get the timing exactly right though, as my 3 year old pushed a button on my microwave timer and I didn’t realize that the timer wasn’t going until I started smelling the crackers and went to check!  So they were slightly over-baked, but oh well!

I’ll post the recipe here as I veered away from the Vegan Lunch Box recipe a little.  I substituted some whole wheat flour, omitted cayenne pepper and onion powder, and increased the nutritional yeast.  I enjoy nutritional yeast quite a bit and plan to increase it even more next time around!  Here’s the recipe I used today:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp turmeric (optional, for color)
• 1/2 cup canola oil, chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes or more
• 1/2 cup ice water
• 1 Tbsp vinegar
• Olive oil cooking spray
• More salt for sprinkling

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together flours, nutritional yeast flakes, spices, and salt.  Drizzle in cold canola oil and mix in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Mix ice water with vinegar.  Drizzle in water and vinegar mixture and mix with your fingers.  Knead lightly until dough holds together.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and roll to about 1/8 inch thickness.  Cut into about 1-inch squares and transfer to parchment paper-lined baking sheets.  The squares will fill at least 2 large baking sheets.  Poke a hole into the center of each square with a toothpick, swirling it around just a bit to widen the hole.  Spray crackers with olive oil spray and sprinkle with additional salt as desired.

Bake for about 10 minutes, then slide parchment paper off baking sheets and let cool.  Enjoy!

The finished product!