Cheese Cracker Recipe (Like Goldfish Crackers or Cheez-It

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

This chese cracker recipe is made with real cheddar cheese, and is full of amazing flavor and all natural ingredients.  Make into homemade goldfish crackers or homemade cheese crackers just by changing the shape. 

Homemade goldfish crackers on a black chalkboard background with a drawing of a boat and ocean waves.

What better treat for a children's nautical Rain Gutter Regatta birthday party than goldfish crackers?  

Nothing.  Goldfish crackers are awesome.  Especially when they're homemade and bursting with amazing cheese flavor.  

Homemade cheese crackers cut into tiny squares on a turquoise wooden background.

And yes, this is same thing as making amazing homemade Cheez-It crackers, just in a different shape. 


Cheddar cheese shredded for cheese crackers recipe.

Cheese Cracker Recipe:

  •  1 1/2 cups grated cheese (I used sharp cheddar and asiago)
  • 3/4 cups flour
  • 4 T butter, softened
  • 1/4 t salt

Pretty simple, right?  Just four basic ingredients.  You can make it even more wholesome by using whole wheat flour.


Block of cheese partially shredded on a wooden cutting board for making Cheese crackers.

Why Grate Your Own Cheese?

  •  First, I don't want any extra filler and cornstarch and whatever they add to keep the cheese from sticking.  
  • And second, even the allegedly "sharp" cheddar cheese in the pre-grated bags is nowhere near sharp and flavorful enough for me.  We like cheese with big, intense flavors in my family.

If you have a food processor, shredding cheese only takes a couple minutes.  If I had to do it by hand, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be so picky about the cheese I use.  I hate hand shredders!  


Ingredients for cheese cracker recipe on a wooden cutting board.

Dump all your ingredients into a food processor (hey, it's already dirty from the cheese grating, anyway!) or a stand mixer.  You need some serious mixing power for this recipe to get everything to blend together, so I'm afraid it wouldn't turn out at all if you tried it by hand.  You really need a machine's help to make these cheese crackers.


Homemade Cheese Cracker ingredients being mixed in a Kitchenaid mixer to form the dough.

Mix until the ingredients come together in a dough ball.  It'll look all crumbly like this for a while, and then, like magic, it'll turn into a ball of dough.


Two balls of homemade cheese cracker dough on a wooden surface.

That's a ball of the dough made with extra sharp cheddar on the left, and Asiago cheese on the right.  The softer the cheese you use, the more quickly the dough will come together.  I wouldn't try this recipe with a really dry, hard cheese.  The Asiago I used definitely took more time to turn into a dough, and because of the extra mixing, those crackers weren't quite as tender.  Still delicious, but just a little bit tougher.

Homemade goldfish crackers being cut out of the cheese cracker dough with fish shaped cookie cutters.

To roll out and cut the goldfish crackers, I used the same technique I use for making my gingerbread houses: A silpat on the counter (to keep the parchment from slipping), a piece of parchment paper on top, and the dough rolled directly on the parchment.  Read the gingerbread link for all the details.  It's the best way to make sugar cookies, too.

Roll out the dough on the parchment paper, use fish shaped cookie cutters to cut out the shapes, and remove excess dough.


Unbaked homemade goldfish crackers being docked with a fork.

Before baking, you need to dock the crackers (poke little holes in them so they don't develop big air bubbles while in the oven).  I used a fork to make a pattern of scales on the bigger fish, and a chopstick to make slightly larger holes for the eyes.  It's cute and functional!


Homemade goldfish crackers baked on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes.  Watch for the edges to start to turn golden.


Square shaped Cheese crackers cut on a sheet of parchment paper.

It's even faster and easier to make homemade Cheez-It crackers.  Roll out your dough, cut into a bunch of small squares, dock the center of each square, spread the squares apart, and bake.


Homemade cheese crackers baked on a cookie sheet.

The fish shapes are fun, but the squares are definitely much easier. 


Homemade cheese crackers in a bowl on an aqua wooden background.

The nautical party got the fun fish, but the lunch boxes will just get the squares.


Homemade goldfish crackers in a net bag on a black chalkboard drawn with a boat and ocean waves.

Happy snacking!

Printable, One Page Cheese Cracker Recipe:

Navigational image leading reader to PDF one page, printable cheese cracker recipe.

Navigational image leading reader to rosemary sea salt crackers recipe

Navigational image leading reader to pesto savory shortbread crackers recipe

Nicole Wills, creator of Tikkido

Links on this page may be affiliate links. We may receive a small commission for something you buy through those links, at no additional cost to you.