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:
These look delicious! Do you know where I could get a small enough cookie cutter? lol
I use a similar recipe to make homemade dog treats for my puppy. Good to know they make tasty human treats too!
Can anyone suggest a brand of nutritional yeast that is not processed in a place that also produces tree nuts and peanuts (bobs red mill is) thanks. My son has allergies and would love to make these for him. Thanks!
Maybe Red Star?
My son HATED these, but has spent the past half hour playing with dough scraps, so I guess that’s a win. I’m currently risking eating all of these, and think they’d be great with soup.
Correction, he’s decided he likes the crackers, but they taste a little yuck when hot. Also, he liked squeezing the bag. I guess the moral of the story is that four-year-olds make crappy food critics.
I was just thinking today that I would love to bake cheeze-its! I love them but I try not to buy them because of the stuff they put in them. I also have an addiction to gold fish…who doesn’t?! 🙂
How are these vegan if they are made with milk?
It says “milk of choice”. That can mean non-dairy milk
Thank you Katie! I love your blog! Our brains must have been on the same wavelength recently. I recently made these sourdough crackers at http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2010/03/sourdough-crackers.html and they taste JUST LIKE goldfish crackers/ cheezits even though they do not contain any cheese! Of course they require that you have some sourdough starter. 🙂 The recipe can be made vegan by substituting Earth Balance or something similar for the butter. I also came across this book that has recipes for favorite childhood snacks like goldfish crackers, Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Doritos, etc. All the recipes have vegan and gluten-free options. http://www.amazon.com/Real-Snacks-Favorite-Childhood-Without/dp/1570617880 Maybe you’ve already heard of it; I don’t know. 🙂
Thanks for all of your inspiring recipes! <3
LOVE Lara Ferroni! She is a sweetheart. I haven’t checked out that book yet, but I will look for it.
Just made these for my 2 year old! Delicious, but next time I’ll add less salt. Now he can finally have ‘fish’ with all his buddies… Even though his are lion shaped 🙂
Hi! Do you think these could be colored in different colors, like purple? If so, would it just be a matter of adding food coloring??
Thanks so much, these would be perfect for my kids!
I don’t see why not, but I haven’t tried!
I made these, but used the all-purpose whole wheat flour I had on hand. I like the taste, but I think all the gluten made the texture too tough. Yours look so flaky/grainy in the picture! I guess I’ll be picking up some gluten-free flour and trying again!
Hi Stacy,
Yes, definitely try it with a different flour. I tend to stay away from baking with regular ww flour because it yields a dense/tough result.
3 tbsp of oil is 45 ml, is not it? 🙂
*Technically* it should be. It gets tricky, though: if you actually use a measuring spoon and pour onto a scale from the spoon, some of the liquid stays on the spoon and you end up with only 10-12g (depending on the measuring spoon – not all are accurate) in the food. So for the sake of having everyone measure the same thing, I list the gram measurement as less. In a perfect world, everyone would use a food scale and I’d get rid of the cup measures in my recipes, as I just don’t believe they provide consistent results.
I know this is an older post (sorry!) but when you say the thicker-rolled dough yields “puffier” crackers, do you mean that they puff up and are hollow inside like “real” goldfish?
I just made these today, and I think they are outstanding! I have not been able to eat cheddar crackers in years due to allergies, so I am overjoyed to have this recipe! Thank you Katie! 😀
We do not have yeast, but we just realized my family member’s reaction to goldfish is due to the coloring agents in them.
However, I do not have any yeast to make these.
Can i use cheese/any substitutions for the yeast? how much? Thanks.
After making these twice, I wanted to pass on how SO much better they are with spelt flour than all purpose flour. The texture was so much more crisp with a crumbly mouth feel.
I just made these and they were super quick and easy. I didn’t bother to make them into goldfish shapes but rather just rolled them out then used my pizza wheel to basically cut them into squares (it was rough and I didn’t trim the edges). Then I used skewer to poke a dent in the center of each one. They vaguely look like pale cheez-its but they’re so much better. BTW, I didn’t even have to transfer them once I cut them – they don’t spread so I just cut and tossed them straight in the oven on the parchment paper I rolled them onto (a baking sheet).