These Homemade Gourmet Crackers are a revelation. A copycat of the gourmet fruit and nut crackers sold at the stores to serve with cheese that I love but are pricey! These are simple to make, keeps for weeks, cost 80% less than store bought and taste so much better, you’ll be amazed (I was!).
Spectacular with cheeses and spreads, and for gifting!
Stop press!!! Big news – DOZER HAS A BUTTON!!
↑↑↑ For all Dozer lovers out there who just want to skip straight to Dozer and see what cheeky antics he’s up to today, just click on the Dozer button and it will take you straight down to him, then you can come back and read the post!!!
Oh – there is a button to jump to the Recipe too, which I’ve had for a while now, and I also added a button to jump straight down to the Video.
A button for everyone – whatever you’re after! Dozer, recipe video or just the recipe!
OK, enough about the Dozer button. Onto today’s recipe – Homemade Gourmet Crackers!! I am super excited about this one because I’ve had some great feedback from my official taste testing team (aka my mother’s golf friends who descend upon the beach shack for a post-golf lunch and provide very constructive feedback on my recipes).
These crackers are so great, I really wish I had a fantastic story to go with them. But actually, I don’t. Quite simply, gourmet crackers are all the rage nowadays but I just can’t bring myself to pay the rather obscene prices for them. Fellow Aussies may have noticed a certain brand of gourmet crackers prominently placed near the cheese and spreads section of supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles. Crackers that look just like these homemade ones – except they are round – and they cost $6 for 15 pieces. $6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been known to drop a small fortune on designer shoes a handful of times in my life. However, I cannot bring myself to pay $6 for one packet of gourmet crackers, especially when 1 packet would never suffice for my gatherings, I’d have to get 3 or 4. Can you imagine paying $24 just for the crackers for a cheese board??
Oh wait, I just realised I totally lied. I did buy one packet – for taste testing purposes, to copy them. 😉 I’d been eyeing them off for months, wanting to do a huge cheese board with these gourmet crackers. Then finally the penny dropped – get a packet and copy them.
So that’s what I did.
These are very simple to make. It’s just like mixing up a muffin batter, except it’s baked in a loaf tin. Freeze (to make it super easy to slice thinly), slice, then bake again. It’s like making biscotti (ooooh, haven’t done that yet!!). It’s highly customisable, and brilliant for making ahead because the baked crackers stay crisp for at least 1 month OR you can keep the loaf in the freezer for weeks and weeks, then bake when you want them.
My taste testers agreed 100% that there is no contest when comparing these Homemade Gourmet Crackers to the store bought ones. With homemade, you can actually truly taste the ingredients – the spices, the cranberries, the sunflower seeds. The store bought one has far less flavour. When you taste them one after the other, which we all did, the difference is so “in your face”, it’s quite extraordinary.
If you’re planning a cheeseboard these upcoming holidays, I truly hope you consider these. Your family and friends will be blown away. They really are so simple, customisable, and make ahead – my taste testers were eating crackers I’d made 4 weeks earlier!
Oh – and they cost about 20% of the gourmet crackers that I copied. 🙂 I have a little gathering with friends this weekend, and I’m wondering how many times I will point to the crackers on the cheese board and proudly say “I made those”. I’ll ask my friends to keep count! – Nagi x
More cookie / cracker copycats
Other recipes I’ve created in the past for the same reason as these Byron Bay cookie copycat recipe (ie because I love ’em but they’re expensive!)
Byron Bay Cookies Copycat White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies – big, thick, buttery cookies loaded with white chocolate and macadamia nuts. Crisp with a tender melt-in-your-mouth texture, just like Byron Bay Cookies!
Muesli Cookies (Breakfast Cookies / Granola Cookies) – copycat of the thick, chunky, chewy muesli cookies sold in cafes across Australia. A healthy breakfast option because it’s like a bowl of oatmeal in cookie form – refined sugar free, low fat, gluten free, keeps you full for ages but it tastes like a sweet cookie!
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Homemade Gourmet Crackers
Ingredients
- 1 cup / 250 ml milk (any fat % cow’s milk)
- ¼ cup / 50g brown sugar , packed
- ¼ cup plain unsweetened yoghurt (I used Greek)
- ½ cup / 75g plain flour (all purpose)
- ½ cup / 75g whole wheat / wholemeal flour
- ½ cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit of choice)
- 1 tsp baking soda / bi-carb (or 3 tsp baking powder)
- ½ cup rolled oats (or 1/3 cup more nuts of choice)
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds (or other seeds or nuts of choice)
Spices:
- ½ tsp ground turmeric (can omit)
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg (or All Spice or 1/8 tsp cloves)
- ¼ tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary (or ½ tsp more thyme)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (all oven types). Grease and line a small loaf tin with baking paper (mine is 21 x 11 x 7 cm / 8.5 x 4.5 x 3”) (Note 1).
- Whisk the milk, sugar and yoghurt in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, add plain flour, wholemeal flour and cranberries. Stir – use fingers to break up cranberries if required.
- Add remaining ingredients, including Spices, plus the milk mixture. It should be a thick batter, like muffin batter (note: batter in video looks slightly thicker because it was standing for a couple of minutes, doesn’t affect outcome).
- Scrape/pour into tin. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Cool on rack, then wrap in cling wrap and freeze for at least 2 hours, up to 3 months. (Note 2)
- Unwrap loaf and allow to thaw partially so the outside is not rock hard frozen (around 20 minutes).
- Preheat oven to 120C/250F (all oven types). Place one shelf in the middle, and another shelf beneath it.
- Use a serrated bread knife to slice thinly – around 2 mm / 1/12” thick (see video). Place biscuits on 2 large baking trays, you can squeeze them in as they won’t expand or stick.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until they are a light brown, swapping trays halfway.
- Leave biscuits on tray to cool – they will harden so they snap when you break them. (Note 3)
- Store in an airtight container for 4 weeks (probably ok for longer, I’ve only done 4 weeks). Brilliant served with creamy cheeses like brie, camembert, but soft, creamy blue cheeses is the ultimate pairing!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
LIFE OF DOZER
Dozer smacking his lips over MY lunch today – a very spicy Asian Noodle Salad. No spicy salad for you Dozer! Too painful for you!
Made them for upcoming girls weekend….we eat a LOT of cheese LOL and these are so amazing! Added half a tsp of fennel seeds and some walnuts & raisins, sooo good!
I hear ya Zoe! And they are so versatile you can change up the flavours!
I made these beauties a little while ago and they were absolutely scrumptious. I used almond milk and almond yoghurt instead of cow milk and yoghurt, coconut sugar instead of brown sugar, and I also substituted the flours for buckwheat and spelt. Delightful – the whole family loved them. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
They are so versatile Katerina, thanks so much for the feedback ❤️
Made mine with craisons and almonds – wonderful. I didn’t taste the cinnamon, but one person noticed it and loved it, and one didn’t. Will try something different next time – cumin?? What do you think?
Hi Sandra, this recipe is so flexible you can add whatever flavours you love!
These are amazing, I made the ‘loaf’ yesterday and before I put it in the freezer I snuck a warm slice from the end and enjoyed it with a cup of tea.
They taste exactly like the Leslie Stow original cracker that they used to sell before all the big brands made a facsimile.
Minus the inch I took off while warm I managed to cut 56 crackers. Just curious how many others were able to yield. My pan is 9”x 3.5”.
Thank you for this easy to follow and very successful recipe.
I’m so glad you loved them Pip!
These crackers were fantastic. I have a fig tree and was wondering if I could use fresh figs instead of the cranberries?
Hi Susan, I’m just worried they may have too much moisture being fresh – Would love to now if it works though!
But the fresh figs would be great on the cheese platter with the crackers! 💜
I made the Gourmet crackers..They are absolutely delicious..Thank you..
That’s great Holly, I’m so glad you loved them ❤️
I will NEVER buy gourmet crackers again, because I can now make gourmet crackers thanks to you! They really are dead-on (actually, they’re better). I did a few subs as for anyone reading this (see below), but that just goes to show you how versatile this recipe is.
You’re amazing Nagi! Thank you so much!!!
Cheers,
Becca
You’re converted now Becca! They are soooo much cheaper and you can customise to any flavour really!
These are so lovely. I made for a drinks get together and everyone adored them, even kids! I substituted the flours for all plain white gluten free flour and even the gluten eaters found them delicious! Thanks Nagi for another keeper.
I’m so glad they were a hit Suzie!
Any suggestions on what to substitute for the flour in order to make these gluten free?
Hi Heather. funny because I just posted my comment and saw yours. I swapped both types of flour in the recipe for plain white gluten free flour (White Wings All Purpose Plain flour) the crackers were still a complete winner 🙂
Hi Heather, you could use gluten free flour – but I haven’t tried so I can’t confirm the texture will come out the same – N x
Oh Nagi, I feel like you read my mind sometimes! I have been on this huge kick with “Rainforest Crisps” (a brand they sell here in Canada) that yes, cost between 6 and 7 dollars!!!
Anyway, I do have a question: I’m allergic to cranberries; can I sub in raisins? Would I need to adjust anything else in the recipe to accomodate the sub? Also, could I do half walnut peices, half sunflower seeds? Oh, and would fresh rosemary work in this? (Can you tell there’s a particular type I like– walnut and rosemary? 😊).
Thank you so much!!!
Becca
P.S. You are going to make me a rockstar with my family, because we all LOVE these things and need a good 6 boxes for the 8 of us. 😉
Hi Becca, sounds exactly like what we have here, I flat out refuse to pay for them (when half are broken when I open up the pack anyway).
This recipe is so versatile, add raisins, blueberries, anything you fancy! You can also adjust the nuts/seeds/herbs as well!
Awesome, thanks! I’m so excited to make these this weekend! Speaking of which, I hope you have a great one. 🙂
Cheers,
Becca
I made 2 batches of these delicious crackers for a large cheese platter on the weekend. Not only did they taste great (everyone loved them and kept trying to “pick the spice”) but they were very pleasing on the eye too. I wont be buying commercial ones again. I’ve been asked to make more so this time I am jiggling the ingredients a little for one batch to make them vegan friendly. Thanks for the recipe!
Wahoo, you’re converted Athalie!
OMG here I am sitting eating the store bought version and I had a 💡 moment, and here you are. No guessing what I’ll be doing this weekend. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 😊
I hope you love them Dominique!
These are amazing! They are still the oven but I snuck one!
Wahoo, I’m surprised you stopped at one – I clearly don’t have any self control! 😂
Do you think these would work in a dehydrator? I want to make big batches and it takes a long time in the oven…
Hi Denae, I haven’t tried but I wouldn’t think so as you need to actually cook them to crisp them up. – N x
Hi Nagi, these were so easy to make and delicious!! So much better than buying the expensive ones from the supermarket.
One question though, do you have any tips on keeping them flat when being baked? Some of mine curled up around the edges… Still delicious I know but not so great for presentation on a platter…
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I made it yesterday as written for a dinner party and was well received by my friends who have very discerning tastes. Your website inspires as well as encourages me. Please keep up the good work.
That’s awesome!! Thanks so much for the feedback!
Can I add chia seeds to this (trying to find ways of using up the HUGE packet I have – which is hard to do when recipes usually only call for a tablespoon!), or will they make the crackers soggy?
Love your site
Hi Nagi, I made these over the weekend for some friends coming over for drinks. We all loved them with cheese and homemade pickled cucumbers. I will be making these again for unexpected visitors. Thanks
That’s great to hear Marlene!
I have made these before with dates and walnuts and they are amazing!
Today I did the cranberries and sunflower seeds and the seeds have turned green during baking! Apparently normal and still edible but might stick with date and walnut next time.
Have also had success making these vegan – were a great gift idea! Thanks for sharing 😊
That’s great to hear Cherie and yes they make an awesome gift!
Nagi thank you so much for this recipe. I make these all the time now. Great for a snack after dinner when you have the nibbles going on.
You’ll never have store bought again Anita!
Nagi, another hit! Everyone loved them. Certainly worth the effort. Thankyou!
Awesome Beth!!