I have actually only ever met one person who hates a cheez-it (I’m looking at you Dustin.) Its baffling to me, honestly. I think 20% of my diet in high school may have been cheez-its.
My kids also loved them before we went vegan, and my 13 year old daughter suggested we try and make a vegan version. Done and done, kid. This recipe could not be easier. The hardest part is trying to evenly cut the crackers, which I 100% failed at doing. My personality is pretty haphazard so who cares about evenly cut crackers, just put them in my mouth. My sincerest apologies to all of y’all that need each cracker to be the exact same size. Hats off to ya, and the precision you bring to the world, you are needed!
We actually used Follow You Heart brand cheddar in this recipe because I had a bag on hand and it made it fast and easy. But if you are feeling especially extra, you can whip up a batch of your own vegan cheddar and use that. We linked are few of our cheddar recipes at bottom of this page!
Make sure to get the dough rolled out thin enough or these crackers will stay on the chewy side. If you get the dough thin, they come out nice and crispy and just as good as an original, if not better because these are vegan! Even Dustin ate a handful, and thats saying something!
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup all purpose flour
8 ounces of vegan cheddar shreds, store bought or homemade
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons ice water
1/4 cup cold vegan butter
1-2 teaspoons of salt ( to sprinkle on the crackers)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees (when ready to bake)
Add the cheese, flour, butter, and nutritional yeast to a food processor. Pulse until the cheese is nice and minced up. Add in the ice water and process until a ball of dough forms. If you want to make these without a food processor, place cheese in a blender to get it good and chopped up. Add the cheese with the flour, nutritional yeast, and butter to a bowl. Using your hands mix in the butter. Once butter is incorporated, add in the ice water. Dump out on to a clean floured surface and knead just until you have a ball of dough. Do not over knead because it will cause the dough to be tough.
Wrap up the dough in some plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for about an hour.
Lightly flour a clean surface. Divide dough in half. Pop the half you are not using back in the fridge. Roll out one half of the dough into a about a 10x12 inch rectangle that is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Any thicker and it is hard to get them crispy. Wrap up any scrap dough and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.
Using a pastry cutter or pizza cutter, cut small squares, about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with a little salt if you like. If you want to make a classic cheez-it hole in the middle of each cracker you can use the small end of a chopstick or a skewer. Bake for 18-22 minutes on the middle oven rack. Watch the first batch of crackers closely. You want to leave them in until they are nice and crispy but you don’t want them to brown to much. You will know how long to bake the remaining batches for after the first batch.
Repeat with remaining dough. Store crackers in an airtight container. You can also store leftover dough for a few days in the fridge and bake later.
If you like this recipe, try these:
