A plate of cheese and crackers is one of the easiest appetizers (and occasional dinners) that we can imagine. We never thought twice about buying crackers at the store for this very purpose, but the proliferation of recipes for DIY crackers over the past year has made us do some rethinking. Can there be a clear winner?
The world of crackers is so vast and diverse that it's hard to pick exactly one type to use for comparison. We finally settled on Kashi's "Heart to Heart Whole Grain Crackers" and the recipe for "Cornmeal, Parmesan, and Poppyseed Crackers" from the book DIY Delicious (recipe available here). We realize they're not the exact same cracker, but we feel that they're close enough for our general purposes.
All costs were taken from Peapod Online Grocery. In the homemade cost, we don't account for the cost of salt or other typical pantry staples.
COST BREAKDOWN
• Kashi's Heart to Heart Whole Grain Crackers
TOTAL: $3.29
PER SERVING: $0.47 (for 7 crackers)
• Cornmeal, Parmesan, and Poppyseed Crackers
1 cup all-purpose flour: $0.19
1 cup cornmeal: $0.05
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (ed: estimating ~2 oz): $1.12
3 tablespoons butter: $0.45
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt: $0.00
2 tablespoons poppy seeds (ed: estimating .25 oz): $1.06
TOTAL: $2.87
PER SERVING: $0.24 (ed: estimating ~12 servings from the recipe's 14 oz yield, based on Kashi's weight/serving ratio)
TIME BREAKDOWN:
• Kashi's Heart to Heart Whole Grain Crackers: 0 minutes
• Cornmeal, Parmesan, and Poppyseed Crackers: Active time - about 6 minutes; Total time including resting and baking - one hour and six minutes
CONVENIENCE
It doesn't get much more convenient than opening a box and digging in. That said, it's surprisingly easy to make your own crackers. A quick whiz in the food processor and the dough is ready. All we have to do is roll it out, cut, and bake. The hands-on time is really minimal, and crackers can be made well ahead - even days ahead - of when we want to serve them.
TASTINESS AND HEALTHFULNESS
With such a variety of crackers available on store shelves, it's totally possible to find one that meets all your personal standards for both tastiness and healthfulness. There are fat-free crackers and ones with no preservatives. You can find super-basic water crackers or ones chock-full of seeds and grains. So it's hard to argue that homemade crackers would necessarily be more tasty or healthful in this case.
The one advantage of making your own crackers is that you can control all the ingredients from start to finish. You never have to worry if a gluten-free cracker is really gluten-free, or if all the ingredients are truly organic. You can also control the flavors going into the cracker so you get exactly what you want, every time.
MAKE OR BUY?
Personally, making our own crackers feels like a special occasion kind of thing to us. We'll make a batch for a fancy dinner or to go with a particular appetizer. But for more everyday purposes, we're perfectly content to pick up a box at the store. Even with the minimal effort involved in making them, we'd usually rather focus our time and energy on the other dishes on the table.
One big surprise from this comparison was how relatively inexpensive it is to make your own crackers verses buying them in the store. If you have a toddler or someone else in your house who regularly devours every cracker in sight, this could be good incentive to switch over to making our own more regularly.
OUR VERDICT: Buy, except for special occasions.
What do you think?
Related: Make or Buy? Cake Mix vs. Homemade
(Images: Peapod and Chronicle Books)
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I am gluten free so I often make my own crackers... there are some good ones out there but as I live in a rural area in Canada they can be really pricey!
I've made my own crackers and they were great but they did not stay crisp for more than 2 days, even sealed up. It's a shame because if I'm going to go to the trouble, I'd rather make a big batch and save some. It's not worth the effort for me for a small batch.
I make my own crackers because the only type of flour I eat is almond flour (I'm diabetic). I use all of Elana Amsterdam's recipes and it couldn't be easier.
I made the DIY rainforest crisps in December when the recipe was originally posted, and while it was good-it was no substitute for the original. I've made some yummy little cheese crackers from Ina and Martha and while good and easy to prepare, if I am prepping for a party and making other dishes, I'll just as soon open a box of Carrs. Now if I am attending a party and being asked to bring the appetizer, that is when I go the DIY route.
I am lucky enough not to have any health requirements, so for me I've never found it worth the time to make crackers. They sure taste good when you do! But I mostly eat them as a vehicle for something else, which I usually do make, or cheese.
I don't make crackers very often, but when I do, they're fantastic --- like most breads and baked goods, homemade is staggeringly better than boxed or bagged.
But as others point out above, they don't stay crisp very long. Sometimes I make a double batch, flash-freeze half of them and then freeze air-tight, so I can bake them fresh later.
But honestly, I usually settle quite cheerfully for boxed crackers, or I make homemade pita crisps or toasted slices of homemade baguette.
This weekend I made Smitten Kitchen's crisp rosemary flatbread for a cater and I thought, "I'll never buy crackers again." It was fast and easy and perfectly crispy-salty - not bad for a first-time tried recipe too.