Homemade Animal Crackers | Kids #1 Cracker Today

Not only is it gratifying to see something you made that you usually see made on an assembly line, but you can also customize them to be healthier, a different shape, a different color, a different flavor, you name it.

With a Holiday always approaching, you could even make these in many different shapes to celebrate. Turn your Homemade Animal Cracker into the ultimate Homemade Holiday Cracker!

From heart-shaped and dip them in pink, white, and red confectioner’s coating and sprinkle them with plain white nonpareils.  You could do chicks and bunnies and dip them in pastel colored coatings for Easter.  The customizations are endless.

I dipped these in our white vanilla drops for the white ones and for the pink ones, I just added some pink powdered food coloring to the white.  Be sure to use powdered food coloring because gels, pastes, or liquids will cause the coating to stiffen and you definitely can’t work with that.

They’re fun and easy.  Have fun making them!
Homemade Animal Crackers

1 1/4 cups flour*
1/2 tsp baking powder*
1/2 tsp salt*
1/4 tsp cinnamon*
dash nutmeg*
6 T butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar*
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract*
white vanilla drops*
pink powdered food coloring
nonpareils

*These items can be found in our store.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, stopping the mixer once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Stop the mixer and add half of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until most of the flour has been absorbed. Add the remaining flour and beat until all of the flour has been absorbed and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Let the dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. (If the dough cracks while rolling, let it stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes more.) Remove the plastic wrap and place the dough on a floured work surface. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour.

Preheat an oven to 350°F.

Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut animal shapes (or whatever shape you want) with small cookie cutters.  Place cut out shapes on a baking sheet. Gather up the scraps, re-roll and cut out more cookies.

Bake the cookies until very light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and let the cookies cool to room temperature.

Prepare the dipping station while the cookies are cooling. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set out a tiny bowl of nonpareils. In a heatproof bowl melt the white vanilla drops in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each interval until smooth.

Dip half of the cooled cookies, one at a time, in the melted white coating. Transfer to parchment paper and top with sprinkles. Add powdered pink food coloring to the remaining white vanilla drops and repeat the process with the remaining cookies.

Let the dipped cookies stand for a hour or two until the coating has firmed up. BOOM! Homemade Animal Crackers

*Adapted from Williams Sanoma

What do you think of our Homemade Animal Crackers? Check out other amazing recipes that we have on our blog! Share with us in the comments how yours came out! We love to hear about your amazing creations.