Note: Thankful Thursdays is a no-go this week as I joined the Holiday Recipe Club and the posting date for Easter is today. I’ll be back with more thanksgivings next week!
I ran across this adorable idea for a non-sugary Easter-basket treat on Pinterest and went nuts:
Source: saraspartyperfect.com via Veronica on Pinterest
Cheetos in cone shaped bags with green curly ribbon to look like carrots! Come on, now. Is that not adorable? While this certainly isn’t a healthy treat, I thought it would be a nice balance to all the sugar that usually fills an Easter basket, and I knew I was going to make these for our family get-together this year.
Then I signed up for a new club on Eliot’s recommendation: the Holiday Recipe Club. For Easter, the recipe ingredients Erin gave us to choose from (we have to use at least one in our recipe) were spinach, eggs, and carrots. I considered making a recipe with just one of the ingredients, but ultimately, the idea of using all three won me over.
Remembering those “carrot” treats I saw on Pinterest, I decided to incorporate a homemade recipe into it and made Cheddar-Carrot crackers to make up the “carrot,” topped with some Parmesan-Spinach Crackers to make the “stem,” and made sure my recipes included eggs.
OK, confession time. Honestly, my recipes are not absolutely perfect. They look and taste great. The Cheddar-Carrot crackers are really close to Cheez-Its in flavor, with just a subtle spiciness, and I was able to get a really nice orange color for them using only natural ingredients. The Parmesan-Spinach ones taste a lot like the Cheddar Bay biscuits you get at Red Lobster, which is totally weird because those biscuits do not contain spinach or Parmesan, but what can I tell you? They just do! Something about them really makes me want to dunk them in crab dip, too. You will have some leftover since you use less of them in the treat bags, and I think that’s what I’m going to do with mine.
Anyway, I was trying to tell you these aren’t perfect and got caught up in proclaiming all their good qualities. Despite the flavor and appearance, I couldn’t achieve the level of crispiness I wanted. The ones that are more brown are almost perfect, but even those aren’t quite as crisp as I’d like. I was afraid of browning them too much since the color was pretty important to the look of the treat bags, but I think the recipe must be flawed if I’d have to over-brown them to get them crispy-crunchy. Perhaps it was the fault of the vegetable additions (excess moisture and not enough flour to compensate). In any case, the crackers are delicious, but if you want them to have a crispy texture, you’re going to have to get them fairly brown. I just wanted to warn you in case you make these, and if you tinker with the recipes and do get a perfectly crispy cracker, let me know what you did so I can try it!
Word to the lazy wise: fill your cone-shaped bags with Cheetos, Goldfish, or Cheez-Its, and forget making your own crackers!! This was such a huge pain in the tookus! But here’s the recipe, if you insist.
Carrot Cracker Treats
Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
Cheddar-Carrot Crackers
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz. sharp cheddar, shredded (3 cups)
1 medium-large carrot, peeled and finely shredded
1 large egg
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
¾ teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
Parmesan-Spinach Crackers
2 cups lightly packed baby spinach
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
Make the cheddar-carrot crackers: In a food processor, pulse together butter, cheese, carrot, egg, mustard, salt, , paprika, turmeric, and red-pepper flakes if using, until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour and pulse until combined. Shape dough into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 30 minutes-1 hour.
While cheddar-carrot dough is chilling, wash out the food processor & blade (you don’t want the orange color interfering with your green color), and prepare the parmesan-spinach dough: place the spinach in the food processor and pulse until finely minced, about 5-10 times. Add the butter, Parmesan, egg, garlic powder, and salt. Pulse to combine, scraping down bowl as needed. Add the flour and pulse to combine. Shape dough into two discs and refrigerate for 30 minutes-1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350F, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Once the first batch of dough is chilled, divide each disc in two and place each quarter, one at a time, on a floured surface and roll out until thin, about 1/8” thick or less. Using a pastry wheel or pizza cutter, cut dough into ½” squares, and arrange squares on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until edges are golden, about 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on racks.
Prepare the Parmesan-Spinach crackers the same way and cool completely.
To make the “carrots,” Fill cone-shaped cellophane bags half full with cheddar-carrot crackers, then top with an inch of Parmesan-spinach crackers. Tie bags with green curling ribbon and curl with scissors.
Makes 8-10 carrot treat bags, with leftover spinach crackers for crab dip-dipping. :)
Recipe source: Cracker recipes adapted from Everyday Food’s “Cheese Crackers,” November 2011
*Note: I bought my cone-shaped cello bags on eBay (this seller is super-fast–I got them within two days of ordering!), but you should also be able to find them at cake/candy supply stores and hobby stores.
Be sure to click Mr. Linky below to see the other Easter recipes!
Veronica's Cornucopia 
oh my… these look so cute and sound so healthy! I so know I will not have the patience to make them soon, but I would eat them all if you would give me the chance to come close to those little crunchy wonders :) well-done!
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Oh, these are adorable!!! And your crackers sound amazing, too (I actually like salty treats better than sweet :)). So glad you’ve joined the HRC!!
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These carrot crackers are the cutest things ever :D
Too awesome!
Happy Easter!
Choc Chip Uru
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How majorly cute are these!! Insanely so. And I love that you have homemade veggie-full crackers stuffed inside. I’d choose those over cheez-its any day.
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Wow they look fantastic!
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I LOVE THESE! What a fantastic idea! I want to make these crackers right now! Thanks for the fantastic idea! Happy Easter! (BTW – I *just* joined your FB page – I am so sorry it took me so long to find it!)
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these are adorable and I love that you incorproated veg into the crackers…I think my daughter would love the carrot cheddar ones! Wonder if I juiced some carrots and then used the carrot pulp in the crackers it would help with the moisture? Hmmmmm…..
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What a great idea to incorporate veggies into crackers. They look super cute!
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Those are adorable! I would like both kinds but especially the parmesan spinach if they taste like R.L. biscuits!! Happy Easter :)
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These are adorable! I’ve seen those carrot cracker bags on pinterest too… but I love your version! I love that you made your own homemade crackers, and added the green parts to the carrots, AND used all 3 ingredients! I’m participating too… just gotta get my post finished up. Great recipe!
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Crispy or not, they look like winners!.
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What a fabulous idea. I made my own crackers…once, only once. I decided that they weren’t worth the effort! This is my first month participating, based on Eliot’s recommendation. But grrr, I am out of the loop…I couldn’t figure out how to get the blog hop code *sigh*
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Hahaha, after making these, I totally understand! I just emailed you the code.
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Such a cute idea
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My sister loves to do fun crafty things like this for her kids, I will definitely share this with her. What a neat idea :)
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These are so incredibly cute, and innovative. Before I got into cooking, I was a very crafty person – I knitted (knatted?) and scrapbooked – but I just don’t have the time for it anymore. But seeing these cute little treats makes me want to go back to it again :)
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Very cute and they sound tasty. Great idea!
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This is the cutest idea! You should not be apologizing for your crackers – I think they look delicious!
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Excellent post! I think this is the neatest idea. I have got to get on the Pinterest band wagon (but then i would have to get on the FB bandwagon too—just not ready for that yet). Really, I think this idea is genius and I love the food combinations—cheddar carrot and spinach parm.
Happy holidays, my friend!
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These are so cute! I bet my little guy would love the crackers, too.
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Despite the pains they look amazing! And well done on including all 3 ingredients! I haven’t made my own crackers but now I’m intrigued. And cheese it’s are my sister’s favorites so I may just have to surprise her one day :) I’m glad you were able to join us!
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Sorry you didn’t get the full results you wanted – but they look so fricken cute! Never would have thought of that in a million years.
Hope you have a wonderful Easter V!
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I love your carrot treats.I always have my eyes open for something a little unusual to make for my family and friends. I think I found a contender here. I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Blessings…Mary
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Too cute!!!! And carrot crackers? Spinach crackers? That sounds so so so so soooo good!!! I’d take them over Easter chocolate eggs any day!
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Hi there! I am making these as we speak for my 14 month old. Do you know the best way to store them and how long they will last/hold for?
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In an airtight container or ziploc bag. I honestly don’t know how long they’ll last at room temperature, but I was able to store them for over a month in the freezer and they’d probably last even longer frozen. If worried, you could put individual portions in baggies and freeze them in a tub and just remove them daily to thaw out and let your kiddo enjoy.
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This is so cute! I love the green and orange layers to make the carrot and tops! You probably know this already, since this post is so old, but the way to get crisp un-brown crackers is to cool them completely after baking and then to put them BACK in the oven at a very low temp (lower than 200F) for awhile… anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending how much moisture is still left in them. You might want to crack the oven door open to let moisture out faster too.
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No I didn’t know that! Well I guess I knew that would work b/c I do it with dog biscuits, but never thought to try it with crackers. DUH! That was my problem here, I bet. Thanks!
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