I am pretty sure we could live on crackers and cheese. You may think I am trying to be funny, but I am very, very serious. And really, why would that be so bad? Everyone considers a grilled cheese sandwich to be a meal, what is the difference with cheese and crackers? The idea of making our own crackers is very appealing, especially when we consider the pricey rice crackers that our grandmother buys us when we visit. When we saw a recipe for making rice crackers, we jumped on it! Unfortunately, this experiment was filled with mistakes. At least we made our Mom laugh in the process.
Mistake Number One
This recipe called for 3 cups of rice. No problem. I measured out my 3 cups of dry rice and cooked it up.
After I let it cook completely, I tried to pour it into the food processor.
Interesting. I did not end up with 3 cups of rice.
As a general rule, 1 cup of uncooked rice will equal about 3 cups of cooked rice.
All About Cooking Rice
Well, that is good to know for future experiments.
Mistakes in Making Rice Crackers Continue
After realizing that I had about 6 cups of extra rice, I measured out my coconut oil, pinched a bit of salt in, and started pulsing the food processor. At first, it seemed as if nothing was happening.
But after giving up on the pulsing and just hitting the puree button, it did come together into what I would call a paste.
I started rolling out my small balls onto a silicone mat. I was a bit nervous about how sticky the mixture was on my fingers. How could I get it to flatten?
Trying to Flatten the Crackers
After trying my fingers, an oiled flat spatula, and the bottom of a glass without success, my Mom suggested that we use another silicone mat and press them down flat. This certainly worked the best out of all of the options.
As I was working away, my Mom came over and started sprinkling some of the crackers with everything bagel seasoning that we had left over from our homemade everything pretzels.
Concerns Grow in the Oven
I thought that the hardest part was over after I put them into the oven. They were supposed to cook for 20 minutes or until they were, “slightly browned and crispy.” When the timer rang, I checked them. They looked exactly the same. I checked them 5 minutes later. Exactly the same. I checked them 10 minutes later. Nothing. Eventually, Mom even turned up the oven to 350 degrees and turned the timer off! Nothing! What was wrong with our crackers?
After about an hour, we gave up and took the crackers out and hoped that they would get crispy as they cooled.
Well, they did harden. But I would not call them crispy. We took out some cheese and even our homemade tzatziki to dip them in for a taste test. I asked my sister what she thought.
They taste like chewy nothing.
-Non-encouraging Sister
After picking through each cracker to find any that were crispy, we reviewed the directions to check for mistakes on our end. And there it was. The directions were to warm the oven to 180 degrees CELSIUS. That pesky metric system strikes again!
Using the Other 6 Cups to Try Making Rice Crackers Again
We did all agree that few that had the everything bagel seasoning were not that bad. And some were even a bit crispy. We concluded that we did not get our crackers flat enough on our first try and thought we would try again with all of the leftovers.
We did not get very far. I mixed up a new, “paste” and put them in balls. I am not sure if it was the temperature, or the fact that the rice was not as fresh, but we could not get these flat without them completely falling apart.
Third Time Making Rice Crackers, or Are They Chips?
So, we were going to just leave this as a failed cooking experiment, but we were too tempted by the few from our first batch that almost worked. We decided to try one more time, being very careful of the temperature of the oven and the rice. It worked!
Look at how they even curled up and hardened. I am not sure I would classify these as a cracker, as they seemed much more like a chip, but we were satisfied that we got this recipe to work in the end.
Mistakes in Making Rice Crackers
We finally got these to work! We might call them a chip more than a cracker, but they are delicious and addicting!
Ingredients
- 3 Cups Cooked Rice, Room Temperature
- 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil
- 1 Teaspoon of Salt or More Depending on Preference
- 1 Tablespoon of Everything Bagel Seasoning (Optional)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into food processor and pulse until a dough forms.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking tray with baking paper or silicone mat.
- Scoop out 1/2 tablespoons of mixture, roll into a ball and place on tray. Once all balls are on tray, lay another sheet of baking paper/silicone mat over the top and flatten each ball with your fingers or rolling pin.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly golden and crispy.
- Allow to cool on tray.
Notes
Adapted from Kids Eat by Shanai