Homemade Ritz Crackers

My son loves to feed himself, and crackers are easy for him to hold and gnaw. When I saw a recipe for homemade Ritz crackers on Cupcake Project, I had to bake them for him. These are delicious crackers that I enjoy just as much as my son! They don't taste exactly like a Ritz cracker, but they're close enough to compare.

I adapted the recipe slightly to make it a bit healthier by including wheat flour. I think next time I bake them, I'll ease up on the salt in the topping. I like them with the current amount of salt, but I think they'll still be tasty with a tad less.

I do plan to bake these for my son moving forward rather than buying Ritz crackers. However, I'll probably skip the cookie cutters and just cut the crackers to speed up the process.

Homemade Ritz Crackers
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. + another 1/2 tsp. salt for topping
6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter + 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2/3 cup water (I used about 1/3 cup)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Put the flours, baking powder, sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt in a food processor. Pulse to combine.

Add cold butter a few small pats at a time, and pulse to combine. Add vegetable oil. Pulse to combine.

Add water a little bit at a time. Pulse to combine after each addition. The dough should start to form a ball.

Roll dough out as thin as you can.Use cookie cutters to cut the dough out. Poke holes in the dough in the Ritz pattern or any pattern you like.

Bake the crackers on a parchment- or Silpat-lined baking sheet for 10minutes or until the crackers just begin to brown. While the crackers are baking, melt the remaining butter and mix in the remaining salt. As soon as you remove the crackers from the oven, brush them with the salty butter.

Cool, and store in an airtight container. This recipe makes a fairly large batch, so halve if you consume crackers at a slower rate (like that of an 8-month-old boy).