By Erica
My kids are very typical with their love of snack foods. Ok, let's be honest, I love the snack foods, too. Four of the staples we almost always have in the house are graham crackers, goldfish, vanilla wafers and fig newtons. Because who doesn't love those things? People without taste buds, that's who. In an effort to make more healthful choices, I've learned to make all of these favorites. There are tons of versions of these recipes out there on the internets, so here are the recipes that I like the most.
Alton Brown from Good Eats on the Food Network has two of the recipes on my list; graham crackers and vanilla wafers. He doesn't try to reinvent them, just improve the flavor and nutritional content over the processed versions. And these both taste MUCH better than the boxed versions and are surprisingly easy to make. Not as easy as throwing a box in your cart, but come on. You're going to have to expend a little bit of effort.
Food.com has my favorite recipe for fig newtons. To be fair, I must tell you that I've only ever made these with fresh figs, but I'm sure dried is what the commercial version uses, so don't feel bad about using them. This recipe gets some comments from users about the difficulty of working with the dough, but I didn't have any problems.
Finally, there's goldfish. I adore Smitten Kitchen and her recipes and this one does not disappoint. I don't own a goldfish cookie cutter, but approximating the shape with a sharp paring knife really isn't that hard. When my kids are older and the shape isn't so integral to their enjoyment of the snack, I'll probably just make squares with a ravioli cutter wheel.
So, what are some of the favorite snack foods in your house? Have you ever thought of or tried making them yourself? Do share, please!
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