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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!
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
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!
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.
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!!!