FP – Crackers

             I’ve had some goat’s cheese hanging around my fridge since the last time I made lasagna and had been wondering what to do with it before it went off.  Some ended up on salads but I really enjoy eating it with crackers and thai hot sauce (may sound strange but trust me, it’s to die for!)  Problem is I really didn’t want to have to go out and buy crackers (way too expensive for a box that is really only half full) so I started wondering how hard they would be to make. 

            Turns out they’re pretty easy.  After surfing recipe site for a while I found a good recipe on Mother Nature Network.  So simple to do it took me all of 5 min to put together, and the crackers themselves are quite tasty.  That said who eats crackers plain?  The whole point of a cracker is to eat the stuff on top of it without getting your hands dirty. 

            I did make a couple of alterations to the recipe.  For my first batch the dough was quite crumbly and the crackers disintegrated when I tried to take them out of the pan.  So I added more water to the second until all the dough stuck together in a ball.  Second the thinner they are the better they bake.  I would recommend a rolling pin. 

The crackers that broke made their way into
my soup.  Yumm!

            So I decide to price out the cost of my homemade cracker. 

2 cups (280 grams) whole wheat flour – $0.15 per 100 g = $0.42 for 280 g

1 teaspoon (5 ml) of salt – $0.01 (Ok, I rounded up for simplicity’s sake.) 

2/3 cup (166 ml) of warm water – FREE (Yes I pay for my water with utilities, but no not even for you am I going to try and figure out how much 166 ml of water costs)

1/3 cup (83 ml) olive oil – $0.50 per 100 ml = $0.41 for 83 ml

Total = $0.84 (for about the same amount as a store bought box)

Cost for bought crackers = $2.67

Amount saved = $1.83 or 69% off

            With a little more salt the crackers would also make pretty good nacho chips.  Over all I pretty sure that this recipe will trim almost $33 a year off my grocery spending.  That’s almost a weeks worth of groceries.  Add to that the fact that these crackers have no food colouring or preservatives and that there was no packaging that needed to be thrown out.  I’d say this recipe is definitely a keeper! 

            Now I just need to find a cheap yet tasty topping for my crackers.  Suggestions any one?