Saltines From Scratch are a fun, easier than you think, and tastier than store bought cracker to make at home!
Oh man I wish I had figured this recipe for Saltines From Scratch out about 7 months ago! Although I have to say that I've been really lucky with how easy this pregnancy has been (knock on wood), there were definitely a couple of days in the 1st trimester that Saltines and Ginger Ale were my best friend and these homemade guys would have been amaazzinngg.
Ingredients Needed:
- Semonlina or Cake Flour (whichever you have / find)
- Butter
- Vegetable oil
- Instant yeast
- Sugar
- Baking soda
- Cream of Tatar
- Salt
Pretty simple, right?
How to Make Saltines From Scratch:
I will admit, they take a little bit of work. They're not quite as easy as Ritz Crackers From Scratch, Spelt Crackers, or Graham Crackers, but they are sooooooo good. And totally worth the effort. They're pretty simple ingredients.
The dough itself isn't difficult to make, it's the whole make it the night before you want to bake the crackers thing that's the hardest part. It does need to chill in the fridge for 12-18 hours before it's ready to roll.
Do you need a pasta roller?
Short answer, yes. Ok, it's not 100% required, but you want to get your dough really thin. The the thinner the cracker, the better, for sure. And the dough rolls in the pasta roller really well. Just like with homemade pasta, start thick and work your way thin, slowly as to not tear the dough. Then, back onto your floured surface and I even gave it another roll with the pin before cutting them with the pasta wheel cutter. Just to ensure they were uber thin.
Then just some pricks with a fork and onto a parchment lined baking sheet and a brush with a touch of water and a sprinkle of sea salt. They can be right up next to each other on the sheet, they wont expand at all. They'll actually shrink a little. 
Baked at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes (be sure to check them, they'll brown quickly!), and you have your very own Saltine soda crackers! 
When I tried the first one, I'm not going to lie, I did a little dance then texted my husband, "OMG I made Saltines that taste like Saltines!" Even with the added effort, we will definitely be adding these guys to our regular rotation of crackers. I wanted to have them with some homemade soup, but they definitely didn't last long enough. Oh well, just an excuse to make more!
Enjoy, friends! Don't forget to let me know on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Saltines From Scratch
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour
- 6 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons softened butter
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tatar
- 1/2- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt or Herb Salts for topping
Instructions
- Add flour, yeast, baking soda, cream of tatar, and sugar to a medium sized bowl. Whisk together.
- In a small sauce pan, add butter, oil and water and heat gently until butter is melted. Let cool to 120 degrees, or where it's still hot, but doesn't burn to the touch.
- Make a well in the whisked together dry ingredients and then pour in the butter. With an electric mixer, beat well on medium then on high until all the butter is incorporated and a dough begins to form.
- With your hands, knead together the dough into a ball. If the dough is too sticky, add a touch more flour at a time. If it's too dry, add a tiny bit of water at a time. It should be a nice soft ball of dough.
- Lightly grease the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap and let rest in fridge for at least 12 hours and up to 18 hours.
- When you're ready to use, take the bowl out of the fridge and let the dough come up to room temperature, about 15 minutes.
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and line large baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease them.
- Remove dough from bowl and knead it for a couple of minutes until it is smooth and clay like.
- Divide it into 4 pieces and roll each piece out at a time. Use a pasta roller to get the dough as thin as possible - this will make for a much better, crunchy cracker.
- With a rolling pizza wheel or pasta cutter, cut out 2X2 squares. Transfer squares to the baking sheets. The squares can be right next to each other, squeeze as many as you can in, they will actually shrink in size as they bake. Do this with all of the remaining dough.
- With a fork, prick each cracker to get the classic "Saltines" perforations. Brush each cracker with a little bit of water and then sprinkle with salt / herb salt.
- Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, checking at 8 to ensure they're don't brown too much (unless you like a super crispy cracker like my husband does!)
- Remove from oven and let cool on tray.
- Store in an airtight container for up to a week - if you can hold back from eating them all that long!
Can you make these with gluten free AP flour?
Hi Miranda, I have not tried it with gluten free all purpose flour. I would suggest for a gluten free option to try gluten free cake flour, first because that flour will have a similar consistency to the flour use for this recipe.
I made this recipe the other day, they smell like saltine crackers but the taste and texture is different, I used A.P flour but other than that no change of ingredients, I learned from school that baking is an exact science so I think there is something amiss with the ingredients
Hi! You are correct, it is an exact science and although it may not seem like there's much of a difference, there is between AP flour and cake flour. Using AP Flour is what made your texture off. If you can get it, cake flour will give you more of that classic saltine texture 🙂
I don’t have a pasta roll machine. But would definitely like to try this anyway. What are the issues with hand rolling these out? I’m guessing I’ll need a floured surface, or should I use an oiled surface? Hmmm...
Hi Kathleen! You can definitely roll by hand on a floured surface. The only issue is making sure that they're nice and thin - the thinner the cracker the crispier it'll be!
These actually taste just like saltine crackers! I'm super impressed! I had to substitute cornstarch for some of the flour as I only had AP, not cake flour. I also found that #7 on my pasta roller (the thinnest) was too thin, so I did #6. I only cooked them about 4-5 minutes, but my oven is a bit hot. I wondered some of the same things as Jeff above when I read the recipe, but they taste like the real thing, so who cares! Next time I'll try a herb & garlic or something. Do you think water would still work for adding the seasoning on top or should I use olive oil?
Oh thank you so much for sharing, Adria! I'm go glad you enjoyed them and great idea for substituting the cornstarch. Oh my gosh herb and garlic sound AMAZING. I'd guess water would work, but olive oil would add more flavor! Let me know how they turn out!
A note here: According to the Joy of Cooking, you can make an approximation of cake flour by substituting 1 cup sifted minus 2 Tb. flour for 1 cup all-purpose. I have also heard you can substitute cornstarch for some of the AP flour, but I'm unsure of the proportions or ratio. Cake flour has the least gluten, AP has a middling quantity, and bread flour has the most. You mention semolina (note correct spelling) in the opening comments but you don't use it in the recipe. Was it omitted or what? Last, I haven't made this recipe; I was looking for a good cracker recipe online and haven't found one yet. But I'm a bit put off by all the leavening ingredients—why so many? I wanted a plain cracker for cheese, not a cheese-flavored cracker, so yours seem like good candidates, but I'm puzzled. And BTW, I was a cookbook copy editor and proofreader for about 40 years, for New York publishers. These are the kinds of questions I would have asked a cookbook author. I only checked one star because it would not be fair for me to rate the recipe without trying it. Other cracker recipes I found used the very least amount of leavening—like 1/4 tsp. baking powder per 1 1/2 cups flour. Just as a for instance.
Hi Saralyn,
Thanks so much for all of those notes- all great and I’m sure that you’ve seen a lot and have a lot of great knowledge as a cookbook editor. However, I would like to point out that your logic about not leaving a review because you didn’t try it (I totally agree with), but by leaving ONE star, that IS reviewing it, isn’t it? It’s leaving a very poor one star review for a recipe that you didn’t try.
Was scratching my head while making these. Have to say I did not like the results and, in retrospect, it should have been no surprise. Aside from spelling Cream of Tarter as Tater several times there are more obvious baking errors. Why is there yeast? And if there is, what good is it going to do sitting in a fridge overnight-- especially in low gluten cake flour?!? The leavening agent could be the Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) but it needs to have water and an acid to activate it -- unlike baking powder which includes an acid. No acid in the recipe. So yeah-- retarded yeast in low protein flour, with unactivated baking soda is gonna result is a flat biscuit like cake with minimal crispiness.
Good points, Jeff! Thanks for pointing them out and I'm going to take those things into account and revisit the recipe.
...and you could be kind enough to say that in a much nicer way!!
Imagine being so rude when you don’t even know what you are talking about. People like you who think they are experts when in reality they have no idea what they are talking about (and unnecessarily rude while doing so) are the the problem in the world. As someone else said, cream of tartar is an acid. Yeast is still active in the refrigerator, especially if youre leaving it in for 12-18 hours. When I make sourdough, I let it rise in the fridge overnight. True, you won’t get a huge rise with cake flour, but it will still contribute to small bubbles in the dough that will expand and contribute to a crunchy and flaky texture as they are baked. A high protein flour would lead to tougher crackers that don’t have the same snap that would be expected from saltines. Also who cares about typos if you can still understand the recipe. Thanks for the recipe Tracy, can’t wait to try it.
Jeff, cream of tartar is an acid -- it's also known as tartaric acid -- so it will react with the baking soda.
Not sure if my previous comment was published. Imagine being this rude when you have no idea what you are talking about? People like you who have no idea what they are talking about and talk down to others even when they are wrong is a huge reason the world sucks. As previously discussed, cream of tartar is an acid. Yeast is still active in the refrigerator. When I make sourdough, I leave it in the fridge overnight to rise. True, you won't get a huge rise with cake flour, but the yeast will still contribute to small bubbles in the dough that will expand and help provide a flaky and crisp texture as they are baked. Using a flour with higher protein would make the crackers chewy and not at all like saltines. Looking forward to trying this recipe, thank you Tracy. Apologies on behalf of Jeff.
I assume you mean cream of tartar, not tater. Don’t have cake flour ( back ordered in a pandemic) but will try it with pastry flour and keep fingers crossed it will work
we made these (yum!) and then used them as a base for saltine toffee bars (double yum!)
Omg that sounds amazing!!!
is there any substitute for cream of tartar Can't buy that one quarantine
Hi! Yes - you can substitute every 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar in the recipe for 1 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar for some recipes. I haven't tried it in THIS recipe though. The main purpose in it for this recipe is to give the cracker a little rise. I'd try it without it before subbing lemon juice and vinegar though.
Made the dough yesterday. Was it supposed to "rise" at all in the refrigerator?
Hi Susan, yes that will happen a little because of the yeast, but it shouldn't have doubled in size or anything like that.
I just did a happy dance too! These are great. I see why you should use the pasta roller. You cannot roll them thin enough by hand. Thanks for a great recipe!
Happy dancing together! So glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Tracy,
If you were to find the Italian flour, would you just use the same amount as your recipe calls for of the cake flour? Or might you recommend a combination of both; and if that be the case, what would the amounts for both be?
I really want to try making these, they look awesome!
Hi Chris! Yes - same amount! A combo would still work, 50/50 probably - but any combo would probably work!
I can’t wait to try this. I am sick with a stomach virus and did not want to have to order from Instacart just because I wanted saltines. But, due to the time involved wil need to.😞Definitely something to try on the weekend. One question-what is the yield for the recipe?
Oh no Brandy, I'm so sorry! I wish I could ship you some homemade saltines - but alas you'll get them from Instacart faster... Feel better soon! I hope you enjoy them - you'll get about 40 -45 crackers from this - maybe a few more if you get 'em reallllyyy thin (and crispy!). Let me know how they turn out!
This seems to be a long recipe. Do they
taste just like the saltine cracker that you
would buy from Walmart?
Tracy, it looks perfect and tasty! Can’t wait to have this anytime of the day, love it!
Just when I was out of recipes for my tea party, these crackers are a life saver. With a taste, everyone would surely love.
I love saltines! Never tried making them from scratch but it sure does look and sound easy and delicious!
Interesting your negative comments are not published
Hi Linda,
All comments are moderated for spam, as many come in, which is why there is a delay in them being published. Do you have a comment about the recipe that you'd like to share?
These look great for dipping! I might have a go at these for our New Years Eve party.
They're great for dipping and as a base for a lot of fun appetizers!
Love the idea of making crackers from scratch and it's great that it is all store cupboard ingredients too!
Yes! They're fun to make with kids, too!
I've never made homemade crackers. This is so cool. I love Saltines with a warm bowl of soup this time of year.
Definitely, Valentina!
These are really good. They have a sourdough taste, probably from some fermentation happening while it sits in the fridge. However, my dough was way to soft to use the pasta roller even after kneading in more flour. I ended up using the rolling pin and switched over to all purpose flour to dust. Both my husband and I were impressed with these. My first successful cracker after numerous utter failures.
That's great to hear, Cathy! Sorry the pasta roller didn't work but sounds like you guys made it work. Hooray for homemade crackers!!
If you don't have a pasta roller, could a rolling pin be used?
Definitely! Just remember the thinner the better!
What kind of yeast did you use? Active dry used for breads? Or is it nutritional yeast?
This recipe calls for quick rise dry yeast. Nutritional yeast will give you a cheesy flavor 🙂
Hi, I am a cooking student in Venezuela at the Caracas Culinary Institute. I have only one doubt about the recipe. In the ingredients there are 2 tblsp of oil. You dont mention in the instructions were they go, if its in the dough or are they for greasing the bowl ?
Thank you very much in advance for your answer.
Reards
Jorge Palacios G.
Hi Jorge! Thanks so much for visiting and for pointing out my typo! The oil is melted with the butter and water. Thanks again for stopping by!
These crackers look perfect, and I can think of so many ways to flavor them too.
You're so right, Julie! You can totally jazz them up with different flavors and even different shapes for kids!
They look perfect!
Thanks, Sylvie!
I have to try this! I had no idea you could make these at home!
Who knew? Homemade saltines...Brilliant! These looks so fun to make!
This looks like a fun cooking project. I've never made crackers, but this has inspired me. 🙂
It's so fun! And worth the work! 😀
Why are there so many 5 star ratings from people who admitted they had NOT tried the recipe? Only said that it looked 'fun'. Are they your friends?
No, the comments with ratings are not my friends and if you feel those do not answer any of your questions about the recipe, there are other (rated and unrated) comments. Do you have a particular question about the recipe?