homemade "goldfish"

Callan loves his goldfish crackers.  Who can blame him.  I sneak a few when he's not looking.  But the bottom of the bag always seems to come so soon.  

So, I figured I'd try whipping up a batch of homemade "goldfish" using a recipe I found on Pinterest.  Shocker, right?  It's $1.99 for a 6.6 ounce bag from Walmart, where as I already had all of the ingredients already on hand so, essentially, this batch was free, in a way.  I didn't have anything to lose.  Plus, check out all of the ingredients that go into the store bought crackers.  

Here's the ingredient list of the crackers I made:  flour, cheddar cheese, butter, salt, pepper, and water.

So, I didn't have a cute little goldfish cookie cutter laying around, but I do have a teeny bunny cookie cutter I picked for Easter cookies last month.  It's a little bigger than a goldfish, but it worked.  They are 2 bite snack (for a little mouth), compared to the pop-able store bought snacks.

I made the dough in the food processor (it doesn't get any easier than that), popped it in the fridge for about 30 minutes, then got to rolling out and cutting my dough.  Phineas and Ferb kept Callan company while I worked.  

Once in the oven, I checked on the crackers after 10 minutes, decided they needed to stay in for about 15, but I do believe that was just a bit too long.  12 minutes seemed just right, although 13 might have been better.  You can make your own call, though.

You can totally see the bake time difference between the batches.

Now, if you think these are going to be just like store-bought goldfish crackers, you're way off.  These remind me more of a cheesy puff-pastry treat, just a little more dense.  They are light and cheesy and really delicious.  They don't have a cracker-like crunch, but they definitely aren't soft like a muffin.  They're somewhere in between.  And they almost seem a bit too sophisticated to give to my 17 month old.  That might just be an excuse for me to keep them to myself, but I made them for him, so I'll just sneak 1 or 2 when he's not looking.  

Check out my little taste tester below trying to reach up and steal a nibble.

Both Callan and I really like these, but they just aren't the same as Pepperidge Farm's goldfish.  So, I'm still on the hunt for a recipe that comes as close to those crunchy, little fishies as possible. That's not saying I won't make these again, though, because they are delicious!