How To Make Homemade Cheesy Animal Crackers

Free from sneaky ingredients like added sugars.

There is no denying that kids love crackers, they literally love them. Unfortunately store-bought crackers can be full of sneaky ingredients like extra salt and sugar in them that kids just don’t need. These homemade Cheesy Animal Crackers are achievable, edible and kid-approved!

Cheesy Animal Crackers:
Makes around 20 crackers
- 150g good quality white cheddar cheese, grated
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 150g plain flour

Tool: animal shaped cookie cutters

Method:
1. Place the butter, cheese and salt in a bowl and mix with a hand-held beater on medium speed for a few minutes until the butter is creamy and the cheese gets mixed in with the butter.
2. Add the flour, and mix on low speed until the flour forms wet clumps (and there are no dry spots in the dough).
3. Bring the dough together to form a dough ball. Knead it a little if needed (to bring it together) but don't knead too much.
4. Cover and refrigerate until the dough has chilled – about 30 mins to an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
6. Dust a clean surface with flour and roll dough out into a thin layer – this can be as thin or thick as you like your crackers. Use the cookie cutters to press shapes into the dough. Transfer to the lined baking parchment, with about an inch of space between each cracker.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, and remove the crackers from the oven when the bottom edges are starting to colour. If you like them crispy, bake for another 3-5 minutes or until the cracker starts to turn golden on top.
8. Repeat with remaining crackers.
9. Remove the crackers from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack and letting them cool completely.

The cooled crackers can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.