This won’t be my first DIY fail, and surely not my last. To be honest, you never hear about most of my flub-ups, but since this was such a spectacular failure, I just have to share. And I want to try again, so maybe you can help me figure out exactly what went wrong and why the crackers turned out crumbly and horrible tasting.
The recipe is guilty of no wrongdoing whatsoever. Many people have tried this vegan goldfish cracker recipe and love it, judging from the comments. I decided to make one blogger’s take on the recipe and try the gluten-free cracker, but to use butter instead of vegan margarine. I set out the ingredients, thinking the butter should soften a bit.
About an hour later, Nadja helped me make the dough in the food processor.
The vegan recipe also calls for nutritional yeast to add B vitamins. I had some brewer’s yeast mixed with salt that I use on popcorn. I figured the nuttiness of brewer’s yeast might also give the crackers a cheesy taste? I had Nadja add some.
We added turmeric to give the crackers a reddish gold color reminiscent of goldfish crackers. That’s when I noticed that the dough was looking a little too smooth. When reading the recipe again, as I suspected, it says it should be crumbly. (First bad omen?)
Before starting to roll it out, I told Nadja she could have a taste. Oh-oh. (Second bad omen.)
Then, when I tried rolling out the dough, it was way too sticky.
Matt stuck his head around the corner and advised me to add more flour. I did, a lot. You know, that’s when I probably should have chucked it and started over. But, no. I’m nothing if not stubborn. I managed to spread out enough “dough” to create a few animal shapes. The moose was a lost cause with his delicate antlers. The dough was just too crumbly to hold the shape. But the hedgehog and bear looked pretty darn cute.
Into the oven they went.
They never really got brown and somehow lost any of the golden color from the turmeric. And when I transferred them to the cooling rack, they fell apart.
I asked Ana to taste a disembodied paw. Her expression says it all, doesn’t it. Yucky!
So, what went wrong? Many things right? Do you agree that:
- I should have used cold butter.
- I should have mixed the batter just a bit until it was still coarse and crumbly.
- I should not have added brewer’s yeast. Could I have added some powdered cheddar cheese? Is there is such a thing?
- Is there a trick to using gluten-free flour successfully?
- I should have quit when the dough was overly sticky and not added more flour to compensate.
- I should have known it was a bust when Nadja recoiled at the flavor.
Like I said, I want to try again and make a successful batch of these woodland creature crackers. The cookie cutters are just so cute, but maybe I should stick to sugar cookies. Or, should I use a different cracker recipe altogether?
butter should definitely be ice-cold and refrigerated in chunks that you can just dump in and pulse in the processor. I always use unsalted then add a little kosher salt to a recipe. not sure about the rest though, brewer’s yeast has a strong flavor but I think nutritional yeast is more ‘cheezy’?
Can’t comment on the flavor (although not sure brewers and nutritional yeast are interchangeable?) but maybe you could let the dough rest in the refrigerator for a few hours next time before rolling it out? My sugar cookie dough is very soft when first made, but I pat it into a disk, wrap tightly in saran, and refrigerate overnight so it rolls out nicely. This Smitten Kitchen goldfish recipe recommends the same thing: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/03/whole-wheat-goldfish-crackers/
Thanks for the tips. Will refrigerate butter in chunks for next time and also try the smittenkitchen recipe, as well as refrig the dough.
That smitten kitchen goldfish cracker recipe is delicious, I make them with different mini cutters for various holidays and they turn out perfectly every time – the dough is definitely sticky, but they roll out easily after it’s been refrigerated. Super fast in the food processor too! They’re not vegan/gluten-free, etc., etc., etc. though.
My general philosophy with baking is to try it first exactly as written because I don’t know enough about chemistry to know when a substitution will work. I agree on the yeast. Nutritional yeast has a very distinctive flavor that is like cheese. I think that you were spot on with the butter mistake, too. Cold is what makes the dough crumbly.