Name: Homemade Cheez Its
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 8 ounces sharp cheddar; 3 tablespoons cold butter (cubed); 1 cup flour; 2-3 tablespoons of very cold half and half or heavy cream

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Homemade Cheez Its are the perfect way to end a salty craving without processed food. Only 4 ingredients make this cheese cracker recipe a must have. Kids love the cheesy flavor and addictive crunch while parents love that their kids are eating homemade snacks with real ingredients.

The real reason I’m passionate about helping moms of picky eaters make smarter choices for their kids isn’t because I’m a jerk and my kids love kale and haven’t met a veggie they don’t like.

It’s because I have a picky eater myself.

While Ryan has gone through his moments of picky eating, Owen has been a beast in and of himself. He loves three things: fruit, cheese, and carbs.

Homemade Cheez Its as a compromise for Picky Eaters

I continually offer him good choices, he eats a ton of hidden veggies and I expose him to as much as I can. But the truth of the matter is that Owen is picky.

In a desperate attempt to get him quiet while out and about, I offered him Cheez its months ago. WELL. Of course he enjoyed those. Cheese AND carbs in one salty, processed bite? Heck yeah.

Which lead to weeks of him asking for cheese crackers.

So I went experimenting and landed on a recipe for homemade cheez its, You see, when I was pregnant with Owen (this explains so much, guys) I too had an addiction to the salty cheese crackers. I tried a few times to recreate them, and couldn’t quite get it right. Turns out the 10000th try is a charm.

The perfect Homemade Cheese Cracker Recipe

You see, the key to making the perfect homemade Cheez Its starts with – you guessed it – cheese.

Good, flavorful cheese to be exact. My issue in recreating them had laid in the fact that I was buying the cheapest cheese possible, leaving me with a flavorless cheese cracker recipe.

In my last attempt I bought extra sharp white cheddar made my Cabot. It’s so sharp it’s almost dry and crumbly, but trust me, it does the job.

How to make the best homemade Cheez Its

Choose really sharp cheese
Blend it all up well
Roll it out thin and even
Make the hole bigger than you think.

The best part about this cheese cracker recipe besides the fact that it’s an alternative to the processed ones you can feel good about is that it’s made in a food processor.

No chopping or cutting in butter or whatever might typically be required for crackers. And because it’s so dang simple, you can easily make it with kids.

If you want to learn more about how to get kids of all ages (no, seriously, my 2 year old cooks with me) in the kitchen without destroying your kitchen or your sanity, make sure you grab my Fearless Kids Cooking guide here!

A few notes when making this cheese cracker recipe

Make sure you roll it out super even. Any edges that aren’t even, I cut up, ball up, and re-roll it out. If not, you’ll have some burned/overcooked spots.
If time allows, let them sit in the warm oven for a minute or two after cooking. Leave the door cracked to avoid overcooking.
If you want a very defined hole in the middle of the cracker, remember they will puff up a bit and close the hole, so use something a little larger than a toothpick.
To make cutting easier, use a pizza cutter.