Cheddar cheese crackers are one of the few things I've really missed
since I embarked on a healthy ketogenic diet
in 2019 (and lost nearly 60 pounds). The only acceptable replacement I've
found for those famous, small, square cheese crackers in the bright red box
with the cutesy name were Defy Foods' yummy keto cheddar crackers, which were
sold only online, cost significantly more than their unhealthy,
conventional cheese crackers counterparts and, sadly, are no longer made.
Recently, I began experimenting with my own homemade keto cheese crackers
recipe, inspired by recipes from two of my favorite low carb recipe
developers. I combined elements of both their recipes and added some powdered,
dehydrated, real cheddar cheese for an extra flavor boost. This past weekend,
I finally perfected my version. Both my husband and I couldn't be more
thrilled with the results!
I am delighted to share my delicious new keto cheese crackers.
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My healthy, homemade low carb crackers are bursting with real cheddar
cheese flavor
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My Inspiration for This Recipe
When I decided to try my hand at making homemade cheddar cheese crackers, I
started by searching for recipes on my two favorite low carb keto recipe
developers' blogs, Carolyn Ketchum's
All Day I Dream About Food</ > and Maya Krampf's
Wholesome Yum. Carolyn and Maya are two of my go-to gurus for reliable, delicious
recipes that support my low carb lifestyle.
Carolyn's Keto Cheese Crackers with Pepper Jack looked great, but I'm not a big fan of pepper jack cheese or red pepper
flakes. I also wasn't sure that adding garlic powder to the dough would give
me the classic flavor I was looking for. The recipe also called for brushing
the thinly rolled out dough with melted butter and then sprinkling it with
coarse salt before baking. While it sounded delicious, I preferred to start
with fewer ingredients and fewer steps for my first attempt.
Maya's
Low Carb Keto Cheese Crackers Recipe
had fewer ingredients and steps. However, the optional nutritional yeast "for
cheesier flavor" wasn't something I had on hand, since I didn't care for the
taste the few times I had tried using it as a substitute for grated cheese.
Recipe Experiment #1: Tasty, But Not Quite There Yet
Since I wanted my crackers to have a strong cheddar cheese flavor, I replaced
the optional nutritional yeast in Maya's recipe with Vermont sharp cheddar
cheese powder.
The resulting crackers were quite tasty. However, I wanted them to have a
stronger cheddar flavor and be a bit more buttery and salty. In addition, the
small, fragile squares of thinly rolled dough were quite prone to tearing as I
transferred them to the parchment-lined baking sheet.
Recipe Experiment #2: We Have a Winner!
For my second batch, I changed a few things when I was making Maya's cheddar
dough:
-
I substituted twice as much Vermont sharp cheddar cheese powder for the
optional nutritional yeast.
-
I increased the amount of salt from 1/4 teaspoon to 3/8 teaspoon.
-
After stirring together the dry ingredients, instead of combining them with
the egg first, I stirred them into the melted cheese along with the egg.
I also made several other changes based on Carolyn's pepper jack cheese
crackers recipe:
-
The dough was rolled out on a silicone baking mat sprinkled with almond
flour (using parchment paper on top to prevent the dough from sticking to
the rolling pin). After pricking and cutting the dough, it was much
easier to just slide the mat onto the baking pan instead of lifting and
transferring the fragile squares of raw dough.
-
I used a pizza cutter to slice the sheet of dough into approximately 1-inch
squares. (I also didn't worry about trying to cut perfectly parallel and
perpendicular lines, since I wouldn't succeed in any event!).
-
Before putting the crackers in the preheated oven, I brushed them with
melted butter and sprinkled them with coarse salt.
-
This time, I baked the crackers at 300 ℉ instead of 350 ℉, left them in
longer, turned off the oven when they were barely golden brown and left them
inside to finish developing their color, cool slowly and crisp up.
Maya and Carolyn are extremely talented, very experienced low carb recipe
developers. Combining elements from both their recipes and adding the Vermont
sharp cheddar cheese powder turned out to be a winning strategy. This new
version produced dozens of perfectly crisp, deliciously salty, buttery cheddar
cheese crackers that tasted absolutely amazing!
My husband adored them, too. (In fact, he might easily have devoured the
entire batch on the spot if I hadn't set aside a small plate of these crackers
to photograph for this recipe!)
Wholesome, Homemade Low Carb Cheddar Cheese Crackers That Everyone Will
Love
I'm really excited to share my new keto cheese crackers recipe!
For the many people who follow a low carb or ketogenic diet and have been
searching in vain for buttery, salty, flavor-packed low carb crackers that
don't cost an arm and a leg, these scrumptious bite-sized savory snacks will
satisfy those cravings. Unlike the conventional grocery store kind, these are
made with minimally processed, "real food" ingredients.
These crisp, delicious, high protein cheese crackers are tasty enough for
everyone can enjoy, whether or not they are trying to cut back on highly
processed foods with empty calories.
They're wonderful to bring to holiday parties or get-togethers with family and
friends any time of year. You can indulge without "cheating" on your low carb
diet and no one who tastes them will guess that your homemade cheddar crackers
are made with almond flour instead of wheat flour.
Who says you can't enjoy holidays treats without gaining weight?
How to Make Keto Cheese Crackers
These irresistible keto cheese crackers are quite easy to make. However, low
carb baking is quite different from conventional baking methods. Here are a
few important tips to keep in mind, especially if this is your first
experience baking with almond flour.
Choose High Quality Ingredients for the Best Taste and Texture
This recipe calls for only a few ingredients, so the quality of each one will
have a major impact on the taste and texture of your homemade crackers.
For the best flavor, buy a block of good, sharp (or very sharp) Vermont
cheddar cheese and grate or shred it yourself just before making this recipe.
Cabot Creamery cheddar, which Carolyn Ketchum recommends, is one of my
favorite brands, too.
I used King Arthur Better Cheddar Cheese Powder
for these keto cheese crackers, which I had purchased for another recipe and
like very much. King Arthur Baking Company (formerly King Arthur Flour) has a
a well deserved reputation for excellence and baking expertise. I have relied
on their products and recipes for decades.
It's important to use fresh, finely ground and blanched almond flour for most
low carb keto baking recipes. My favorite is Maya Krampf's
Wholesome Yum premium almond flour.
You will need two kinds of salt: fine sea salt (or table salt, if you prefer)
and coarse or flaked salt. For the dough, I used
Redmond Real Salt Ancient Fine Sea Salt, an unrefined, unprocessed sea salt with trace minerals and no additives.
It's comparable to pink Himalayan sea salt, but has been "mined in Utah since
1958 from an ancient seabed protected from modern pollution."
After pricking, cutting and brushing the thinly rolled out dough with melted
butter, I sprinkled the tops of the crackers with a combination of coarse sea
salt and crushed
Maldon sea salt flakes before baking. The Maldon sea salt flakes were too coarse to use
straight from the package, but crushing them with my fingers and mixing them
with the regular coarse sea salt turned out to be the perfect topping.
Use a Silicone Baking Mat and Unbleached Baking Parchment to Roll Out the
Dough
Rolling out and cutting the dough on a silicone baking mat and then sliding it
onto your baking sheet is much easier than rolling the dough between sheets of
baking parchment and cutting and transferring the small, fragile squares to
the pan. The best known brand, Silpat, commands a premium price. Fortunately,
I've also had good luck with much
less expensive silicone baking mats.
It's essential to cover the raw dough with a large sheet of baking parchment
paper when you're rolling it out, so that it doesn't stick to the rolling pin.
These days, I only use unbleached baking parchment. (Who wants to risk
leaching chlorine bleach into their homemade baked goods?) I find the
flat, 12" x 16" pre-cut sheets of unbleached baking parchment
much easier to use than wrestling with a piece torn from a roll whose curl
stubbornly refuses to flatten out.
Use a Large, Microwave-Safe Bowl and a Sturdy Silicone Mixing Spatula for
Making the Keto Cheese Crackers Dough
I often use my 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup as a large mixing bowl, especially for recipes that require melting
ingredients such as butter, chocolate or cheese in the microwave. The handle
provides a good grip on the microwave-safe glass bowl as you incorporate the
dry ingredients and the egg into the melted cheddar cheese.
The best tool for the job is a sturdy, stiff rubber spatula. I prefer the
DI ORO Seamless Series Large Silicone Spatula
for this purpose, which was named
"Winner: Best All-Purpose Spatula" in
Cook's Illustrated's March 2017 Silicone Spatulas Equipment
Review (paid subscription required)
Roll Out the Dough as Thinly and Evenly as Possible
The thinner you roll the dough, the crisper your crackers will be. Try to roll
out the sheet of dough to as uniform a thickness as possible, which will help
the crackers bake at the same rate. (You may want to make the dough near the
edges slightly thicker to prevent the outermost row of crackers from browning
too quickly.)
Use a Pizza Wheel With a Plastic Blade to Cut the Dough Into Strips and
Then Squares
The plastic blade cuts through the dough cleanly without slicing into your
silicon baking mat. It's also faster, easier and safer than cutting the small
squares with a knife. The OXO 1065872 Good Grips 4-inch Pizza Wheel and Cutter for Non-Stick Pans
is very similar to the one I own (which is no longer made) and gets excellent
customer product reviews.
If You Are Using a Countertop Oven, Divide the Dough Into Quarters and Bake
It in Four Batches
The built-in double wall ovens that came with our 1950s ranch-style house died
several years ago. Since then, we have been making do with a countertop oven.
(If you are considering one, I encourage you to read
Sylvestermouse Cynthia's recent Calphalon Performance Cool Touch Countertop Toaster Oven product review.)
Obviously, having to use a much smaller silicone baking mat and pan
(approximately 8.5" x 12.5") that could fit inside my large toaster oven took
much longer than using a large silicone mat and baking sheet and baking in a
full-size oven. However, as you can see from my photos, it is certainly
doable.
Keto Cheddar Cheese Crackers Recipe
These buttery, low carb crackers will satisfy your cravings without kicking you
out of ketosis. They're yummy enough to share with carb-loving friends and
family of all ages, so they're perfect for holidays, football games, parties,
kids' lunchboxes and everyday snacks.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30–60 minutes
Total Time 50–80 minutes
Servings 8–10
Ingredients
- 6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
-
1 ½ cups finely ground and blanched almond flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 2 Tbsp good quality sharp cheddar cheese powder
- 3/8 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten, at room temperature
- 1 Tbsp butter, melted
- Coarse salt for sprinkling
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 300 ℉. Place a large silicone baking mat on your
counter, table or other work surface and sprinkle it with almond flour.
-
Grate or shred the sharp cheddar cheese into a large microwave-safe bowl or
a 2-quart (8-cup) Pyrex measuring cup.
-
Stir together 1 ½ cups of the almond flour with the cheddar cheese powder
and salt.
-
Microwave the cheese on High at 30-second intervals, stirring with a large,
sturdy rubber or silicone spatula until the cheddar is completely melted and
has a smooth consistency.
-
Stir in the almond flour mixture and the egg and use the spatula to "knead"
the dough against the the sides of the bowl. Then, turn out the dough onto a
lightly greased sheet of parchment or waxed paper and use your hands to
squeeze and finish kneading the dough into a compact ball. The dough should
be soft and pliable and feel a bit oily. If it's too sticky to work with
easily, you can either chill it for 15 minutes or so or work in another
tablespoon or two of almond flour.
-
Flatten the ball of dough and shape it into a square patty, then place it in
the center of the prepared silicone baking mat. Cover it with a large sheet
of baking parchment (or wax paper) and roll it out as thinly and evenly as
possible (no more than 1/8-inch thick).
-
Use a pizza wheel with a plastic cutting disc to slice the sheet of dough
into small squares or rectangles approximately 1-inch wide (although you can
make them wider, if you prefer). You should end up with between 5 dozen and
8 dozen (60–100) crackers, depending on how thinly you roll the dough and
what size you make your squares or rectangles.
-
Prick the tops of the crackers with a fork or toothpick, brush them with the
melted butter and sprinkle them with the coarse salt. Then transfer the
silicone mat carefully onto a large baking sheet and place it in the
preheated oven.
-
Bake until the crackers turn a light golden brown and the edges begin to
crisp up (approximately 15–30 minutes, depending on the size and thickness),
then turn off the oven and allow them to remain inside until they are firm
to the touch. Keep a close eye on the color of the pieces around the edges.
If they are browning faster than the ones in the center, remove the darker
pieces and let them cool at room temperature while the rest of the crackers
cool down more slowly inside the warm oven.
I like to store these keto cheese crackers in single layers, separated by
paper towel, inside an airtight tin or
large Stasher silicone food storage bags, which are extremely easy to seal and unseal. Layering them with paper
towels helps absorb ambient moisture and keep them crisp. However, if they
last more than a day or two, you can just pop them back into a 300 ℉ oven for
a few minutes. Just be sure to keep an eye on them so they don't get too
brown.
My New Irresistibly Delicious Keto Cheese Crackers Recipe by Margaret Schindel
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