Homemade Wheat Thins Style Crackers

Homemade Wheat Thins Style Crackers

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Homemade Wheat Thins Style Crackers

Description:

Easy homemade whole wheat crackers that taste remarkably similar to Wheat Thins! Thin, crunchy, and salty -- you will love these crackers!

Yield:

About 8 ounces of crackers

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold butter, sliced
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Salt, for topping

Instructions:

1. Combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, sugar, and paprika in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry blender, until small crumbs form. Or, combine the dry ingredients and butter in a food processor bowl and pulse until crumbly.

2. Make a well in the center, and add the water and vanilla. Stir to mix, then use clean hands to knead a few times, just enough to form a ball of dough. (Add just a tad more water, only if needed.) Divide dough into two pieces and cover with a clean towel.

3. Lightly grease two 11x15-inch baking sheets* and sprinkle lightly with salt. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4. On a lightly floured counter, roll each piece of dough into a thin rectangle approximately 11x15 inches. (Be sure to lightly flour the dough as you roll, so it doesn't stick to the counter!)

5. Transfer the sheet of dough to the baking sheet. Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut dough into squares. Trim edges if desired. Sprinkle tops with salt.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes, until crisp and lightly browned. Crackers will become more crispy as they cool, so don't over-bake! (Remove edge crackers that are getting too dark if the middle crackers aren't quite done yet, and continue baking.)

7. Remove baked crackers from sheets and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cool, plain or with dips or and store leftover crackers in a sealed bag or container.

Roll out the dough to fit your baking sheet, place on the sheet, and then cut with a pizza cutter into squares

Additional Notes:

*I used stainless steel, but you can use whatever you have. Other options include lining the sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, or using a baking stone (increase baking time if using a baking stone).

Original recipe ingredients from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cook book. Instructions and photos are my own.

I don't trim the edges before baking, so we snack on these first! :)

Preparation Time:

15-20 minutes

Cooking Time:

5-10 minutes

Tammy's Review:

These crackers are very good! They taste quite similar to Wheat Thins.

I think these crackers are fairly easy to make. When you consider the high price of a box of "real" Wheat Thins, these crackers are well worth the time!

Yes, it's a small chunk of time. I estimate 15-20 minutes to make the crackers, and then 5-10 minutes to bake. And then there's the clean-up. But the kids can help make these, and have a great deal of fun with it, too!

And, the amount of work involved can be reduced if you use a food processor to blend the butter into the flour.

Mini Taco Bowls

What You Need

8 flour tortillas (6 inch)

1 lb. extra-lean ground beef

1 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1/2 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Cheddar Cheese

2 cups chopped lettuce

1 tomato, chopped

1/4 cup KRAFT Ranch Dressing

Make It

HEAT oven to 350°F.

MICROWAVE tortillas on HIGH 30 sec. Line each of 8 muffin cups with 1 tortilla. Carefully fold back edges of tortillas, leaving opening in centers for filling.

BAKE 10 min. Meanwhile, brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in salsa; bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat 10 min.

SPOON meat mixture into tortilla bowls; top with remaining ingredients.

Tidbit Treats

We were invited to a snack-o-licious New Year's Eve party and I brought these Tidbit Treats for my sharable snackie.

Ingredients: 1 package of Little Smokies, I can of pineapple (reserve the juice) and half a cup of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.

Begin by slicing each Little Smokie in half. Slicing these in half allows you to make 80 bite sized treats.

Next, open your can of pineapple, make sure to set aside about 1/2 a cup of the juice. (Swig the rest if you'd like!)

I normally slice 3-4 rings at a time, making 10 sections per ring. Cans of pineapple typically contain 10 rings- so a) you can nibble a couple of rings if you are hungry, or b) you will have extras in case you have a slicing malfunction!

First add a piece of pineapple to a toothpick- wider side towards the top. Then add half of a Little Smokie to cover the tip of the toothpick. SO CUTE!

Keep up the great work with the rest of the pineapples and Smokies...

Then layer the Tidbit Treats into a small crock pot (mine is a 1.6 quart). I needed to make double- decker layers in my little crock pot.

Lastly, add 1/2 a cup of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and 1/2 a cup of the pineapple juice and turn the crock pot on low. Allow the Smokies to warm and then serve!

Alfredo Lasagna

Ingredients for Sauce (Tutorial)
1/2 C. Butter (aka: 1 stick)
2 Cloves Garlic (I use about 8)
2 C. Heavy Cream (16 ounces)
1/4 t. Pepper
1/2 C. Parmesan Cheese
3/4 C. Mozzarella Cheese (I use the fine shred variety for quicker melting!)

To Prepare:
Melt butter on medium heat. Add garlic, cream and pepper- simmer (5 min.). Stir often. Add Parmesan cheese and simmer 10 minutes. When sauce seems thick, slowly add Mozzarella cheese and stir until smooth.

Ingredients for the lasagna:
3-4 chicken breasts worth of shredded chicken
1 (16 oz) container of cottage cheese
1 (2c.) package of shredded mozzarella
9 cooked lasagna noodles
1 small package of fresh spinach leaves
1 batch of homemade Alfredo sauce (I actually use 1/2 a batch).

For the layering:
I spread a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan, then I layer lasagna noodles (cooked), then I mix 1/3 of the Alfredo sauce with 1/3 the container of cottage cheese, and I spread that over the noodles.

Next I spread a layer of shredded chicken across the Alfredo/cottage cheese mix. Then I place a thin layer of fresh spinach leaves on top of the chicken.

I finish out the layer but sprinkling 1/3 of the package of mozzarella cheese. Triple the layers and add Italian bread crumbs on top of the final layer.

Bake at 350* for 45 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting and serving! Enjoy!

Cheesy Potatoes

Simple ingredients, yummy outcome... every time!

Seriously, shredded potatoes, chips, cream of chicken soup, sour cream and cheese- what's NOT to love?

Yes, I could have shredded my own potatoes, but this is an EASY recipe, so I began with a nice bag of Ore Ida's!

Kelly told me that it is better to have the potato shreds loose and not a big potatoey ice cube- so she will allow the bag to sit on her counter for about an hour before she begins making the dish. I however, chose to remove my shreds from the freezer the night before, and had them to defrost in the refrigerator over night.

Place your shredded potatoes in a large bowl, and add the tub of sour cream and the can of cream of chicken soup. Mix thoroughly!

Mix in the shredded cheese a little bit at a time, until the ingredients are thoroughly combined!

Note: I shredded cheese from a block. I have found that shredding my own cheese really does taste MUCH better than purchasing pre-shreds, plus... I am always able to shred 3-4 cups worth of cheese from a single 8oz block... an 8oz bag of pre-shredded cheese is only 2 cups!

Lightly spray the inside of a 9 x 13 pan, and evenly spread the mixture inside.

Next, take a couple of handfuls of chips, and crush them to smithereens!

Note: Can you tell that I used the Ore Ida bag to crush my chips in? Ziploc's often tear open when crushing items that will have sharp-ish edges. Some "Green" people will even save the thick plastic bags that cereal is kept in inside the boxes to use for future crushing!

Apply a thin layer of chip crumbs over the entire top to the mixture.

Bake at 350* for an hour, and enjoy!

What I love about this dish is that you bake it at home, and you can easily travel without fear of spilling the contents! Cheesy Potatoes are yummy hot and even once they have cooled to room temperature too! Maybe this dish could be passed at one of your next holiday gatherings!

Recipe Recap:

1 large bag of frozen shredded potatoes

2 cups of shredded cheese

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 tub (16 oz.) of sour cream

Potato chip crumbs (at least 1 cup)

Cranberry Relish

This easy and delicious recipe takes about 10 minutes start to finish, but the best results (tastily speaking) are when these ingredients have been combined at least 12 hours before serving!

Ingredients: fresh cranberries, orangy- citrus fruit and sugar.

Begin by rinsing your berries.

While you are rinsing your berries, look for odd-ball squishable (past their prime) cranberries and toss them aside. Berries that are wrinkly, yet firm are still good to use, but the smushy ones need to go!

Fill your food chopper with berries.

NOTE: Do not fill to capacity, the berries need room to move around to get thoroughly chopped.

Just for the record... I LOVE the smell of cranberries! This step is heavily scented!

The two bags that I had purchased yielded about 8 cups of chopped cranberries.

One cup of sugar needs to be added to each bag of chopped berries.Here are my two cups!

NOTE: This is a once a year side dish... live it up and ENJOY the sugary goodness!

Next it is time to prepare the citrus fruit. This year I am using twoclementines (we're totally addicted!) instead of the typical single orange. You may choose your own preference!

I warmed my clementines in the microwave (20 seconds) to provoke their juiciness!

Then, while the fruit is still warm, roll it between the palm of your hand and the counter to really get the juices flowing!

The original recipe calls for zesting of the citrus peel. I have zested and lacked in zest over the years- and have found that this step isn't essential.

Clementines, in fact, cannot be zested... FYI!

NOTE: I have even substituted straight up orange juice when I have forgotten to bring an orange home from the grocery store... don't worry, this recipe is very forgiving!!!

Slice your fruit in half...

And squeeze all of the juiciness out!

Its OK if a few plump pieces of pulp fall into your dish... they'll be yummy!

Next add your sugar and mix thoroughly! (It *could* be tempting to lick the spoon post stirring, but I wouldn't advise it! Allow your ingredients to meld for a while before sampling to allow the bitter berries to absorb the sweetness!)

Keep in mind that your recipe will shrink due to the sugar added. Just after mixing, my 8 cups of cranberries + 2 cups of sugar are equalling about 6 cups of relish. When the relish is done combining, I will most likely have between 3 & 4 cups of cranberry relish!

Recipe Recap:

2 bags of fresh cranberries

2 cups of sugar

1 large or 2 small citrus-y fruits

Personal NOTE: I don't care for gravy so I have always slathered my turkey with this cranberry relish- try a bite in my honor... you'll thank me!!!

Apple Crisp

I decided to bring Apple Crisp to our weekly Life Group meeting, and a single batch (serves 6) would NEVER be enough... so I doubled the recipe.

I washed, peeled, quartered and sliced 16 medium sized apples.

I placed all of my apple slices in a lightly sprayed 9 x 13.

Since I had only planned to make a single batch, I had only set one stick of butter out on the counter to come to room temperature. I pulled a second stick from the freezer and I microwaved it on defrost(watching carefully for a puddle to start forming from the inside) until the butter nearly became room temperature. (tricky, tricky!)

I then measured 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar (3/4 cup per batch)- but my brown sugar had a few lumps. So I put my brown sugar in the microwave for 30 seconds and I was easily able to smush my lumps into the standard brown sugar consistency. (More tricky-ness!!!)

Next, I added my two sticks of butter, 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup of quick-cooking oats, cinnamon and vanilla to taste!

Apple Crisp is not a beautiful dessert, especially pre-baked in this picture! But all 12 servings were consumed before I could snap a final picture! Hmmm, maybe I'll have to bake this again later this week, especially while apples are inexpensive and in season!!!

Recipe Recap: (single recipe version, serves 6)

4-6 Apples. Core, skin, quarter and slice.

3/4 Cup all-purpose flour.

1/2 Cup quick oats.

3/4 Cup brown sugar.

1 Stick of butter.

1 Teaspoon cinnamon

1 Teaspoon vanilla

*Layer as instructed above. Bake at 375* for 30 minutes.

Cream Cheese Chili Dip

Cream Cheese Chili Dip

1. Soften the brick of cream cheese on an oven safe/microwave safe shallow dish (2 inches is all that is necessary).

2. Pour the chili over the cream cheese and lightly sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese (too much shredded cheese makes it hard to scoop with a chip!!!).

3. Bake for 10 minutes at 350*, or until it is bubbly and soft, or microwave for 90-ish seconds.

4. Enjoy with tortilla chips!

WARNING: You'd better make two... this dip gets eaten quickly!!!

Arnold Palmer

Webber/Cronenwett family parties seem to consistently be serving Arnold Palmer's as the beverage of choice (half lemonade, half iced tea on the rocks!), and so these tea bags will come in handy all summer long!

Making iced tea is fairly standard, but I have a super yummy homemade lemonade recipe.

LEMONADE:
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of lemon juice
6-8 cups of cold water + ice

I have a secret about making this recipe. I mix the sugar and the lemon juice at least 24 hours in advance, this allows the lemon juice to "soften" in taste. keep in mind that not all of the sugar will dissolve in only the lemon juice.

You could get a little crazy and puree either strawberries or raspberries into the lemonade for a pink and extra delightful drink!

Enjoy!