Recipe for home-made goldfish crackers

Ingredients:

1 cup (120g) plain flour (See note 1)

8 oz (220g) sharp/cheddar sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (See notes 2 & 3)

60g unsalted butter, cold – cut into cubes

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons cold water

Steps:

1. Using a pastry blender, cut butter into the flour until it forms coarse crumbs.
2. Add salt to mix together.
3. Add shredded cheese and cut into the mixture.
4. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
5. Use hand to form dough and divide into 2 portions. Wrap them in plastic and chill for 20 minutes (or longer).
6. Preheat oven to 170°C. Line baking trays with parchment papers.
7. Take out one portion of the dough from the fridge. Work with one portion at a time. Place dough in between two sheets of wax paper or cling wrap. Roll dough out to 3mm (1/8 in) thickness. Cut out shapes with your choice of cookies cutters (note 4) and transfer to baking tray.
8. Use chopstick or toothpick to make the eye balls, and the prong of a fork (I used crab forks) to carve a curvy lip. (This step is optional) 
9. Gather all the trimmings and re-roll. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
10. Bake for approximately 15-17 minutes, until the crackers are crispy and golden around edges. Timing will vary according to size and shape of your crackers. Cool for 10 minutes on baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Notes:

1. You can substitute it with 50-100% whole wheat flour.
2. Shred the cheese finer than what is shown in the photo so that you can easily cut them into the mixture.
3. Get orange cheese if you can.
4. If you have food processor, pulse everything (except water) together until the dough resembles coarse sand. Then follow with step 4.
5. Thinner dough means crispier crackers; thicker dough means puffier, more bread-like crackers. But, the dough must not be too thin or else the crackers will be difficult to handle.
6. If you don’t have cookie cutter, you can use a pizza cutter or knife to score the desired shapes. Refer to THIS POST.
7. Crackers will turn soft pretty fast even they are kept inside an airtight container. Best to be eaten immediately or within a day or two. To extend them for a week or so, I keep them in the fridge. Lightly warm them up in the toaster oven when I want to eat them.

Recipe, pictures and notes are courtesy of Low Lai Kuan (https://food-4tots.com/)