Sourdough Cheese Crackers
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)
- ¼ c salted butter, melted and cooled
- ½ - 1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon mustard powder
- ¼ teaspoon 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 ⅛” 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.
Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.
I've been making these wonderful crackers for several years. I came back to your website to reprint it,(too many stains on the 1st copy).
Everyone who has them, loves them. I have a rye sourdough starter and I use oat flour to make them higher fiber and lower gluten. I'm gluten intolerant, but tolerate my rye sourdough starter. I bake on a convection setting for 18-20 minutes. Thank you for such a great recipe.
We're so glad you enjoy them! Thank you for sharing!
Made them for the first time yesterday and they were absolutely delicious! I've been making herbed sourdough crackers for awhile, but had been looking for a cheesy cracker recipe. Your recipe was perfect! Other than the spices, baking soda and cheese, it is similar to the basic King Arthur Sourdough cracker recipe, so I used the weight measurements from that just to make things easier. I also mixed everything together, kneaded it to bring together and then divided into two equal parts, refrigerating the discs for 30-60 minutes before baking. Baked for 25 minutes, turning the trays half way through. I then ended up using the convection bake at 200F for about an hour to really crisp up the crackers. Such a great taste and crispness to it all! Thank you for sharing! Next time I might add a dash of cayenne to see what it does to the flavoring.
So glad you're enjoying them! Thanks for sharing your process!
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!