One fish.
Two fish.
Red fish.
Blue fish.
Say! What a lot of fish there are.
-Dr Seuss
Quoting a beloved childhood author seemed a fitting way to begin a post about a beloved childhood snack: goldfish crackers! Or, as Pepperidge Farm says, they are “the snack that smiles back.”
I drew on the smiles.
But these homemade goldfish crackers—filled with whole grains, fiber, vitamins, and deliciousness—are surely smiling inside.
The recipe was inspired by (and heavily adapted from) an adorable cookbook called Classic Snacks Made from Scratch, by Casey Barber. Her recipes are neither vegan nor particularly healthy; but the photos are super-cute, and I love flipping through the book for ideas. Next on my “healthy makeover” list are Klondike Bars, pudding pops, and Milano Cookies. Today, we are going with the goldfish: they taste more rustic (and less “fake”) than goldfish crackers from a store, yet they are just as delicious!
Healthy White Cheddar Vegan Goldfish
- 1 cup spelt or all-purpose flour (Bob’s gluten-free will work here) (130g)
- 1 1/8 tsp salt (If you don’t like salty crackers, decrease to 3/4 tsp)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- optional: pinch turmeric for color
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp milk of choice (75g)
- 3 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil (30g)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine first five ingredients in a bowl, and stir together. Mix in remaining ingredients until evenly incorporated. Transfer to bag and smush into a ball, then roll out between two sheets of parchment paper. Cut goldfish shapes, either with a goldfish cookie cutter or with a knife. (I cut them out carefully with a knife. After the first few, I gave up with the goldfish and cut the rest out with a circle cookie cutter.) Cook on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 10-11 minutes. The yield will depend on the size of the cookie cutter you use (about 150 of the size shown in the photos). Thicker dough means puffier crackers; thinner dough yields crispier crackers.
Question of the Day:
Do you like Goldfish crackers?
Cheeze-Its, Cheez Doodles, and Goldfish were some of my sister’s favorite snacks when we were growing up. Me? I rarely ate any non-chocolate snack foods. I have a theory that my sister subconsciously developed a taste for salty, cheesy snacks as a defense mechanism when I refused to share any of the chocolate!
Link of the Day:
haha.. the fish with smiles drawn on them look adorable! I wonder how using these would go as fishing bait?
These are adorable! I can’t wait to make them! 🙂
One of my favorite snacks as a kid was Cheez-its with apple slices. I still daydream about that snack sometimes… 😉
Just made them!!! :p they are really good and cute but maybe a little too oily for me do you think it’ll turn great if I’d put lets say 2tbsp of oil instead of 3? thank you very much for all your delicious recipes
Hi,
What flour did you use? Mine were not oily at all… but you can always *try* cutting back.
Ah, Dr. Seuss. I grew up on him, and at sixteen years old he’s still one of my favorite authors.
I always hated Cheeze-Its. I’ve never had Cheez Doodles, though. But Goldfish? Love!
Whenever I ate them, I used to have them swimming at the table while I plotted their fate, which was either being eaten by sharks, or caught by fishermen.
But this sounds cool! I’ll have to try it sometime!
My dad is addicted to Cheez-its. He’s never without a box of them, and as a result, I never cared one way or another for them. My best friend in school did, so she would make sure to grab them when he was watching, just to make him squirm. 🙂 But these crackers look like a lot of fun, and I can have my 7 y/o help me cut them out. I’m working hard on getting more real food in her and this looks like an excellent way to do that. Thanks for posting this!!
My toddler absolutely loved goldfish crackers…and then we found she’s allergic to wheat and eggs (and a bunch of other stuff). I’ve been on the hunt for such a makeover of these famous kids snacks, and can’t thank you enough for this recipe! You are a star!
Be careful as spelt is like a cousin of wheat so she might still react to it. You could try millet flour or quinoa flour but you need to add something like gluten free gluten. Good luck!
These look fabulous and easy!
That is so clever! I don’t even care for gold fish that much, but I’m sure I’d LOVE these! This is soo much better to feed children. Do you think sweet white sorghum flour would work?
Hey there! These sound WONDERFUL! I’m so excited to try them. Do you think I could use freshly milled hard white or soft white flour in place of the spelt? I know they would no longer be GF but that is ok with us. 🙂
Yes you could. Spelt flour isn’t gluten free either its just a cousin of regular flour that hasn’t been modified so has less gluten. It also is much harder to mill therefore not as processed
Yes, I like goldfish, but I mostly don’t want to waste my calorie intake on high carb junk like that (my husband and I are on an eating plan and we watch what we eat carefully – most of the time). Your crackers sound wonderful. They are something I would make if I need crackers. When I was growing up we rarely were allowed snacks, so I never developed snack habits. Mostly now we eat things like higher protein energy bars, Greek yogurt, and other healthy foods.