Thin, crispy, lightly salted crackers made from whole wheat flour are perfect for dipping or just eating the Toasted Whole Grain Crunch one right after the other.
Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers! My daughter’s favorite crackers are Wheat Thins so for this Crunch is Calling challenge I made homemade Wheat Thins.
Tracy posted the recipe for Wheat Thins from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Cookbook on Tracy’s Culinary Adventures. She said the flavor was spot on and she was right. My daughter said this is what Wheat Thins must taste like at the factory right after they’ve been made.
I served my homemade Wheat Thin crackers with some piping hot Spinach Artichoke Dip that I “baked” in the Pressure Cooker.
The changes I made to the recipe were to make the crackers even easier to whip up. I made the dough in the food processor and then used my KitchenAid pasta attachment to roll the dough thinly. The dough is a bit crumbly, so I found if I rolled out the dough into a ¼ inch rectangle before feeding it through the pasta maker, it worked much better. The pasta maker did a great job of creating a perfectly even thin cracker.
Homemade Wheat Thin Crackers
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups 5 oz whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt plus extra for topping
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 4 tablespoons ½ stick unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup water
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine flour, sugar, salt and paprika in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, Combine the water and vanilla in a small measuring cup. Add to the butter/flour mixture and pulse until a smooth dough forms.
- Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Work with one piece at a time, keeping the others covered with a towel so they don't dry out. Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll the dough into a rectangle 3 inches wide and ¼ inch thick. Set the pasta machine to its widest setting. Sprinkle with flour and feed it into the pasta roller.
- Turn the pasta roller down one notch. Sprinkle the dough with flour and roll it again. Repeat this process until the crackers are as thin as you want. (I thought the #3 setting was the thickness of a Wheat Thin.) If you want all of your crackers to be perfect, trim the edges of the dough so you have a rectangle with even sides.
- Use a pizza cutter to cut the rectangle into squares about 1 to 1 ½ inches wide. Transfer the dough squares to the prepared baking sheets. You don't need to leave much space in between the crackers - they don't spread at all in the oven. Sprinkle the squares lightly with salt. Repeat with remaining dough pieces.
- Bake the crackers, one sheet at a time, until crisp and browned, about 5-10 minutes. Check the crackers at 5 minutes, and if some of the thinner ones are browning too quickly, remove them to a plate and return the remaining crackers to the oven to finish baking. The crackers can burn quickly so you want to keep a close eye on them. Once brown and crisp, transfer to a plate to cool. Store the crackers in an airtight container.
Jenni
Delicious! Wheat thins are such a great cracker, and how fun to make them yourself! They look perfect! It must have been a really long time since I have been here last, but I am loving the new blog look!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Jenni! Glad you stopped by.
Cookin Canuck
What a fun recipe, Barbara! We always have wheat thins on hand, but I would love to make my own version.
Julia | JuliasAlbum.com
I’ve never made home-made crackers, but it’s probably so worth the effort!
JG
Wheat Thins are our favorite! These look delicious.
~Judy
Jersey Girl Cooks
The heat thins are my daughters favorite. I will hav eto try these. They must be so much better than store bought.
Katrina
Favorite cracker at our house. Will have to try to make these! And I would love that dip and even more, I want a pressure cooker!
Chaya
Yours are more professional looking than the professionals.
teresa
wheat thins (i almost typed thin mints, apparently i have cookies on the brain, haha!) are definitely my favorite cracker, as well as my kids’! i have to try these, i’m all about anything being homemade!
Angie@Angie's Recipes
These look really thin and crisp!
natalie@thesweetslife
ever since I saw these on Tracy’s blog I’ve been meaning to make them! I’m guilty of eating the store bought today–time to try this instead 🙂
Terri Betz
Very clever! We were looking for cracker recipes! Thanks, making these tomorrow! 🙂
Claire @ Claire K Creations
These look wonderfully crisp Barbara! I can’t believe I’ve never thought to use my pasta roller for something like this before. So clever!
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc
great idea!! Miss you Barbara
patsy
I was just nibbling on wheat thins for a snack a little while ago! Now, I’m wanting to give making them a try after seeing this recipe!
Averie @ Averie Cooks
Ive had Wheat Thins and Graham Crackers on my bucket list for awhile and actually bought graham flour…but so far, havent made them. The Wheat Thins may have just shot up the chain of command. I have all seen the K.A. recipe & that’s the one I’d use, too. Great job on these!
Rachel @ Baked by Rachel
I will absolutely be trying this sometime since we love wheat thins!
sue {munchkin munchies}
They look just like the original, but I bet they taste even BETTER! The pasta attachment sounds like fun:)
Erin @ Texanerin Baking
I’ve made Wheat Thins before but they weren’t nearly as good as the real deal. I’ll have to try this recipe! KAF recipes are always perfect… I don’t know why I didn’t just use theirs the first time. Yours look absolutely amazing. So… square. 🙂
Melissa @ Bless this Mess
It’s crazy how much they even LOOK like the real deal. I’m so impressed 🙂
Rosa
They look perfect and really scrumptious!
Cheers,
Rosa