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!
these look amazing…. can’t wait to try them. I just got a fabulous cutting board that was handmade by a friend that i was already planning to use for a cheese board (no cutting on this board – don’t want to mar the finish). I was planning on buying this type of cracker from a local restaurant that makes them, but now i can make my own for a much better price!
Thank you!
Hope you love it Kathleen! Fitting for a handmade board 🙂 N x
Thank you so much for the recipe Nagi. Do you think if I omit the cranberries and sunflower seeds to replace with cashews it would be similar enough to the cashew and rosemary version of the same brand of crackers? I want to make both versions
Oh – also, I would use raw cashews, They still slice easier because they are softer so you’ll get lovely cashew imprints on the crackers 🙂
Hi Katie!! I haven’t tried that one yet but based on the photos I’ve seen online, I think it will be! So only use rosemary, no thyme, I would probably reduce the tumeric by half. Still use the oats though. Hope you love them!
Hi Nagi! I’m so glad I discovered your blog! I can’t wait to try this recipe! Do you think I can substitute soy milk and soy yogurt so I can make a batch for my vegan sister? I’d appreciate any advice. Thanks!
I’m very confident you can Joanna! It’s actually a pretty forgiving recipe 🙂
Oh, how do you know that I love to see Dozer first and then jump back to your article/recipes. I love Dozer and definitively I´m going to try this crackers.
😂
We have very similar crackers here in Canada and funny for about the same price. I’ve been eyeing them every time when I go to the store, but i just can’t bring myself to buy them. I knew I could make them and now I know how. Thank you for the recipe, and gorgeous photographs.
I’m so glad to hear it’s not just AUSTRALIA that has overpriced gourmet crackers!!! 😂
Nagi – I love the Dozer button. I immediately clicked on it to see how the guy was doing then scrolled back to the top to read the post. What about having a “back to top” or “post” button from the Dozer stop???
I really liked this recipe, with Christmas coming these will surely be on our Julbord.
Thanks so much for the tip Ron! I’m definitely looking into it 🙂 N x
Nagi, I can’t believe how much these look exactly like the ones in the store!
Shape aside… 😂 But THANKS Becky!!! N xx
I LOVE crackers like this! So happy to have a make-at-home recipe. Gorgeous photos!
Thank you Lori! N xx
Thank you, thank you! I LOVE the store bought version but agree the price certainly puts me off buying them often 🙁 I can’t wait to try these!!
Hope you love them Kate!! N xx
I would like to know how to make these substituting the wheat flours (using almond flour, buckwheat flour, flaxmeal or similar) and the sugar (prefer to have my crackers savoury rather than sweet. Hope you can help. Wendy
Hi Wendy! I am sure you can sub with other wheat flours but I’m afraid I don’t know about other flours. Sorry!
Lol, you have me hyperventilating, classy crackers and a Dozer button all in one post! I’ve been eyeing these super expensive crackers in Woolies for ages and thinking, no way $6 just no! I’ll be trying your recipe soon, even though our summer humidity has arrived very early here in Sawtell and with it comes reluctance to turn on the oven. I’m familiar with biscotti and found them dead easy so feeling confident. Thanks for the great post.
I hear you Debbie!!! It’s just as stinking humid down here 🙂 I HATE humidity!!!
Oh man!!!!
I have stood at the deli counter many times, picked up a packets of those crackers and put them down again.
I cannot wait to give these a go!! (If I ever get home!!!! Still stuck in Bali)
I’m sorry to hear that!! But…. worse places to be stuck, no? 🍸🍹
Thank you for this fantastic recipe. Can’t wait to make them for Christmas.
Hope you do Helen!! They are truly so delicious! N xx
I love that you have a Dozer button – so fun! And I’m definitely adding these to some of my upcoming cheeseboards. They look delicious and so easy!
So USEFUL!! 😂 I find myself using it on my older posts!!!! 🐶
Nut-loaf cans from the 50s and 60s are still around in op shops- that are cylinders with a press-on lid each end, and some of them are “openable”- the side seam separates. They would be the go for round crackers, I reckon.
I WANT I WANT!!! 😂
Haha! That reminds me of one of my boo-boos years ago. I made a date loaf in one of those tins but I put both ends on and of course it exploded in the oven….what a mess!! Good idea, but don’t you think they would be a little bit big?
🙈 😂
I have two of these that were my Nannas’ – I was thinking of the same thing!
I WANT ONE!!! 😂
It is said that curiosity killed the cat 🙂 ! Well, I have never made crackers and have but rarely bought them!! But I love the look of these and can more than live with the ingredients and like the spicing: turmeric is a definite ‘yes’ for me and cinnamon and nutmeg belong together in my book also . . . . an extra for the December holidays whichever of the many you celebrate!!
Glad you like the spicing combo in this Eha!!! N xx
Did you use roasted or raw sunflower seeds?
I know this sounds odd but I honestly don’t know! It doesn’t say on the packet. But I don’t roast them even if they are raw, I just use them as is 🙂
How clever! Love this recipe. I have mini loaf pans that would give a perfect size cracker so will try them soon. And now you must make biscotti! I make cranberry pistachio biscotti with orange zest an dsometimes add mini chocolate chips. One of these days I’ll post the recipe, though there are plenty similar ones out there.
YES! I know I have mini loaf pans somewhere I just can’t find them!! N x
You got to excited writing about this recipe you forgot to post nutrition facts. Nutrition Facts Please!
Doing it now!!! 🙂 N x
Do you think these would these work with gluten free flour? I drool over the ones my friends buy and eat and as a coeliac I would love to make my own! Thanks. Love your recipes!!
I’m afraid I don’t know Wendy, but gosh I would love it if it worked with GF flour! N x
It worked perfectly with gluten free flour! My new favourite recipe. Thank you so much! ❤️
My whole family has Coeliac Disease. I always substitute with gluten free flour. If it works I keep the recipe if not I either fiddle with the recipe or throw it out.