If one thing has exploded in popularity in the past few months it is Pinterest. Have you heard of it? If not, beware… it can be addictive. It’s a “virtual pin board” where people can post (and save to their “pin boards”) pictures and links that they like. In addition to all the ideas, crafts and decor, there are a lot of recipes on this site.
One I saw was for homemade gold fish crackers.
Oh those little orange fish that are the bane of every dairy allergy mother’s existence, as they are so often unveiled and scattered around playgrounds and crushed at public play areas with abandon.
Still, I want my SweetPea to have fun cheesy crackers too. Since SweetPea can’t eat dairy – and because I want to promote vegan living- I clicked the link wondering if I could VEGANIZE it. The author even shows you how to make mini fish “cookie” cutters out of a used soda can. Clever!
I chose to reduce the salt, and I have several other nutritional tweaks I’d like to experiment with but I’ve found it risky to change too many things in a recipe that is already experimental.
My experience making this recipe vegan is as follows. It is based largely on this non-vegan recipe.
Ingredients
- One 8 ounce package of Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds
- 4 Tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan Butter, Cubed
- 1 cup Unbleached or Wheat Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt or salt free seasoning
- 2 Tablespoons Cold Water
I followed the same steps as the original recipe. But, I took my photos with my cell phone. Not with my DSLR set to a nice low f-stop. Oh well.
First, I made my fish cutter. In pursuit of perfection, I broke the first one. The aluminum snapped from too many attempts to bend the tail area just so.
I assembled all my ingredients. Not much to these crackers. Should be easy peasy.
I placed everything except the water in the food processor and ran it until it was chopped into tiny bits and blended.
I slowly added water ran it until everything was just combined.
I took the dough from the food processor and used my hands to shape it into a nice consolidated shape.
And then wrapped it in plastic wrap.
It was then time to chill the dough and I found it best to chill mine in the freezer for 20 min. I then rolled it out with a rolling pin, dusting it with flour.
I had to work fast and with plenty of dusting flour, since the gooey nature of this dough caused it to come apart too easily when I lifted the fish.
This pic does not capture the color of this dough!
I lined my cookie sheet with parchment and laid the fish directly on it, no need to grease the sheet. I figured since I was already invested this far I would draw eyes and smiles on each fish with a toothpick.
Though the original recipe said to cook them for 20 minutes, I found these ingredients needed a little longer to get crunchy. But depending on your oven – and how soft you want them, I recommend that you check them close to 20 minutes and keep checking every 2 minutes. Mine took closer to 26 minutes to get to the desired texture. Just don’t let them start to brown.
They came out tasting super cheesy, a tad too salty for us so I will probably cut the salt all together next time, and they had a perfect crunch.
I couldn’t wait for SweetPea to try them… and when she did, she LOVED them! I’m so thrilled that she can enjoy a fun and “cheesy” snack with her friends.
Goldfish, you’ve been veganized!
