A great use for that sourdough starter, these sourdough crackers have a slight sour bite like Cheese Nips, but they pack more cheese flavor than the store bought kind, and they don’t leave your fingers greasy!
Homemade Crackers
I’ve been wanting to make crackers for quite some time now. I’ve also wanted to start working with sourdough for a while. For both, I had let myself be content simply researching.
I was intimidated.
Crackers were a mystery. How do you get that crisp texture?
Everything pointed to loads of butter, which just isn’t our style. And the more I looked, the more I knew I needed to start making my own because of the reality of how bad for you the store-bought kind are.
Sourdough seemed tricky. What was I supposed to do with this living thing in the back of my fridge? When to feed it? What if I didn’t want to make bread every week?
Too many questions.
But a couple of things converged last week that pointed everything in the direction of these crackers, in addition to giving me the boot in the rear that I needed.
Making Sourdough Crackers
First, I was able to take some sourdough starter home from work, where we had been training on sourdough breads. I was excited about the starter, but had no idea what to do with it, since we really didn’t need any more sourdough bread.
A quick look around the internet showed me that there are a lot of other things to do with sourdough starter, particularly the discarded starter from a feeding. And crackers were number one on the list.
BINGO!
Our Sourdough Cheese Cracker Recipe
Everyone who has tried these crackers has loved them. They have a slight sour bite like Cheese Nips, but they pack more cheese flavor than the store-bought kind. And, they are not greasy at all.
Get ready for some cheesy snacking!
Sourdough Cheese Crackers
Ingredients
- 1 c sourdough starter (this can be your discarded starter from your most recent feeding)
- 1/4 c salted butter, melted and cooled
- ½ - 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp mustard powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- dash paprika
- ½ c cheddar cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Mix the melted butter into your starter. Add baking soda and enough flour to achieve a stiff dough. Knead mixture together until a smooth, stiff dough forms.
- Place in a bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let set at room temperature for 8 hours.
- When you are ready to make your crackers, preheat oven to 350F.
- Knead seasonings into the dough until well incorporated.
- Add cheese and continue kneading until evenly distributed.
- Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a rectangle, roughly 10” x 12” and 1/8” thick.
- Transfer rolled dough to a greased baking sheet. Cut into desired shapes with a pizza cutter.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes have passed, turn off the oven, but leave the crackers inside for an additional 10-15 minutes.
- Remove crackers from oven when crispy.
- Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Would parmesean cheese work the same as cheddar?
Hi Jody. I think Parmesan would be great in these crackers! Let us know how you like it!
I just made a 1/2 recipe of these, but used the full 1/2 c of cheese (by mistake). I baked them in my Instant Vortex convection oven at 325°F for 15 minutes on the lower & middle racks, rotating the racks at mid-point of baking. They came out scrumptious!
Glad you enjoyed them! And thanks for sharing what you did!
Wonderful recipe and easy instructions to follow. I keep a whole wheat sourdough starter and used freshly milled whole wheat flour for the recipe and the crackers turned out delicious! Definitely a keeper.
Glad you enjoyed the crackers Jessica!
Excited to try these! I would like to use whole wheat. Would it be fine to use half all purpose and half whole wheat?
Hi Nikki. Yes! These are great with half all purpose and half whole wheat flours. You may need to add a bit of water to your dough to help get a good consistency with the heartier flour though. Enjoy!
These are the best crackers! I discovered you can use a pasta roller to flatten them out super thin and then only cook them for about 12 minutes. You have to refrigerate the dough for a couple hours before you roll them out. I use jalepeno salt, but a slow melting sea salt like Mauldon salt is also good. Be careful cooking them because they burn quickly when they are this thin. Also, you don’t have to leave them in the oven afterwards. Whenever I take these to a party, people go crazy over them.
What a great trick! Thanks for sharing! Jalapeno salt also sounds like a wonderful addition to these cheese crackers! Glad you’re enjoying the recipe!
I made these last week and loved them! The only seasoning I had was paprika and only used a pinch and I used just a bit more cheese than called for. These are my new fave snack crackers!
So glad you enjoyed them Cindy!
If I leave out the cheese to make a different flavor cracker, do I need to adjust anything else?
Hi Nancy, You should be fine to leave out the cheese. You can always add a touch more butter if you want the extra crispness. (But not too much, because you don’t want a sticky dough.) This recipe is incredibly easy to adapt, so have fun with it!
Made them last night. Left cheese in, used garlic powder in place of onion powder, and sprinkled generously with Penzey’s pizza seasoning and a bit of course salt. Delicious! Dough is a dream to work with. We especially loved the ones that got rolled paper thin. They are strong crackers and don’t crumble. Thanks for the tutorial! Wish I could share a picture!
Thanks Nancy! Your version sounds DELICIOUS! We’ll have to try them with a pizza seasoning soon! We’d love for you to share a picture with us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CuriousCuisiniere/!