Sourdough Goldfish Crackers [Sourdough Cheese Crackers]

​Let's make sourdough goldfish crackers! These crispy crackers are going to be your family's new favorite snacks! Crunchy, flaky, cheesy, these sourdough goldfish crackers deliver it all.

I love making a big batch of these for movie nights, they're so much fun to make and my kids love eating something they've helped to create. It really does make them taste so much better! They're also perfect for school lunches, especially because you'll know what's in them.

If you love making sourdough discard crackers, then check out this collection of sourdough cracker recipes, especially these sourdough jalapeno cheddar crackers (they're like an adult version of these mini sourdough cheese crackers).

Why You'll Love This Recipe

You Know What's In These Goldfish - making sourdough goldfish crackers from scratch means you know what ingredients your kids are eating (or you, cos believe me you're going to LOVE these too).

Get The Kids In The Kitchen - this is a great way to get the kids on the sourdough bandwagon with you! They'll love making their favorite snack from scratch and you might be surprised by what they'll want to bake next! You'll find lots of other ideas for getting kids involved in sourdough baking here. My kids also love making these spread and bake sourdough crackers.

Use 100g of Sourdough Starter - this recipe uses a hefty 100g of sourdough starter or sourdough discard and allows the cracker dough to ferment in the fridge before you bake it, bringing all the sourdough goodness to your table! And if you love using lots of discard, check out this list of recipes to empty your discard jar!

How To Make Sourdough Goldfish Crackers

You're going to love just how easy these homemade goldfish crackers are to make! I think the hardest thing is actually cutting them out (all of those little shapes can be a bit tedious) but you can get goldfish cookie cutters that make it easier to cut multiple shapes out at once, which is a real time saver.

If you want to up the flavor on these, try adding a teaspoon onion powder or a teaspoon garlic powder to the mix. I've used sharp cheddar cheese to create these tasty crackers, but you can use any type of cheese you prefer. Hard cheeses do work better than soft cheeses though.

You can easily use active sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard for these homemade sourdough crackers. If you love using large amounts of discard, check out this collection of recipes that use lots of discard.

Add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and blitz until it forms a dough. You can add a splash of iced water if it's not forming a dough, but it should be wet enough without the water due to the sourdough starter. I like using a food processor as it chops the cheese as it mixes the dough (I'm using a Thermomix processor in these photos).

If you are going to use a stand mixer, you will need to shred the cheese first as the stand mixer will not chop the cheese up like a food processor will.

Tip the dough out onto the counter and bring together into a disc. Flatten it out on some parchment paper and wrap it up and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours (you can leave it there for up to 48 hours if you like). Plastic wrap is also fine here, but I prefer using parchment paper as it's easier to unwrap the dough when you're ready to use it.

When you're ready to bake the sourdough goldfish crackers, preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and grab a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Take the cracker dough out of the fridge and allow it to sit for around 20 minutes. Roll the dough out to around ⅛" thick using a rolling pin. (I don't use any flour as the dough isn't sticky, but if you want to dust your counter tops you certainly can).

Take a small cookie cutter and cut out as many crackers as can from the dough and place them on the lined baking sheet.

Repeat this process with the remaining dough until you have no dough left. Try not to leave these out at room temp for long once they're cut as you want the butter to be cold to get the flaky texture. If you need to delay baking them, or you can only bake one tray at a time, place the tray in the fridge.

A little tip - I found this easiest to do with a small round cookie cutter. The heart cutter that I tested was time consuming as I had to use a skewer to get the dough out of the heart for each cracker whereas I could just use my finger for the round cutter).

Bake the sourdough goldfish crackers for 12 minutes or until golden brown and just crisp. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt when you remove them from the oven.

Ingredient Notes

Butter - I've used salted butter, but you can use unsalted if you prefer, it really doesn't make a lot of difference to crackers.

All Purpose Flour - You can swap the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour or use a blend of both.

Sourdough Starter - Active sourdough starter or sourdough discard work in these crackers. Don't use sourdough discard that's too old because it will impart a sour, unpleasant flavor. This is particularly important when making food for kids, as they tend to notice it more. I usually use fresh discard or active starter when making these.

Cheddar Cheese - I've used sharp cheddar cheese, but any hard cheese is fine. Avoid using pre shredded cheese that you buy in a bag as it contains anti caking agents. Shred the cheese fresh, or you can see in the ingredient photo that my cheese is just in small blocks. I've put it like that in my food processor and it works just fine, so it saves shredding it (less work!).

If you want to increase the flavor of these crackers, you can add any type of herbs or spices you like. Fresh rosemary leaves work really well (dried is ok too). Onion powder, garlic powder and paprika are also lovely additions.

Which Cookie Cutter To Use?

You don't necessarily need a goldfish cookie cutter to make these homemade sourdough goldfish crackers. I don't have a goldfish cookie cutter, but I chose the smallest cookie cutters I had on hand. I've used the circle and heart out of this mini cookie cutter set.

The heart that I used really was tiny and probably closest to the size of real goldfish crackers. I preferred using the small, round cookie cutter as it was easier to get the dough out of the cutter and onto the parchment paper.

If you don't have a small cookie cutter, you could just use something else like a small glass, a tube or even just cut the dough into small pieces using a pizza cutter or sharp knife. The crackers will still work, no matter how you cut them. 

Remember, you can just make these into standard size sourdough cheddar crackers too, they don't have to be mini!

How To Store + Freeze

These sourdough goldfish crackers last around a week before they start to go soft. The trick to ensuring they last this long is to bake them until they're golden, you don't want them to be soft or they won't stay fresh once they're out of the oven.

I find they stay freshest in a glass jar or biscuit tin. Storing them in plastic tends to make them go soft, even if it's an airtight container.

You can freeze the dough and bake them when you want them. I find the most successful way to do this is to cut the dough into your desired shapes and then freeze on the baking tray before transferring to a sealed, freezer safe container or ziploc bag. You can bake them from frozen.

Share the sourdough love!