A few Sunday’s ago, my kids brought home a few small boxes of animal crackers that someone had given them, from church.

I knew, without looking at the ingredients list, that these were not a healthy treat for them. A treat, yes…but healthy? No way. I snuck the boxes into the pantry for a rainy day…or until I could toss them out without the kids noticing. 

No such luck…not even 3 days after they were brought home, did ALL the kids ALL at once have major meltdowns. So bad, that I am honestly ashamed to say that I succumbed to “treating” them to the leftover crackers, in order to get them to settle down. (It was a rough day…I was desperate). But it worked. So wonderfully, in fact, that I had a moment of weakness and tried one myself. After all, they were probably one of my favorite treats growing up.

Oh. My. Goodness. They tasted awful!

WHY were my kids loving these cardboard, tasteless, HFC and enriched everything loaded “crackers”??? It was at that moment, I made it my mission to find a recipe that I could feel good about giving my kids. The search began…and thankfully didn’t last too long. The longest part was locating just the right cookie cutters to use. I got these, and they worked amazingly!

The base recipe, I found on Pinterest (shocker), over at Gather & Dine. I didn’t have to change TOO much, but you know me…if there’s an ingredient I’d rather not have, I’m going to do my best to find a way to sub it out for a healthier option. So that’s exactly what I did. I thought this recipe would have been more difficult, but it was so easy, and J-Man loved helping me cut out the animal shapes!

Plus, look how cute they are!

If these don’t make you wanna dunk that frog in a glass of cold milk, and bite his head off…

So grab (or order) your cookie cutters, and let’s get started!

What you’ll need:

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon ( or 1 drop dōTERRA Cinnamon essential oil)
• 1 tsp baking powder *(see below for an easy, aluminum free, version you can make right at home!)
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 Tbls raw honey
• 2 Tbls molasses
• 2 Tbls whole milk

What to do:

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flours, applesauce, salt, cinnamon and baking powder.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into the flour mixture and mix together on low-medium speed until the ingredients are just combined.

Step 3: Form the dough into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Step 4: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Step 5: On a well floured surface, gently kneed the dough until the dough is smooth. Roll out dough to be fairly thin (I did about 1/16th of an inch). Use your cookie cutters to shape the crackers, then transfer to parchment lined baking sheet.

Step 6: Bake for about 8 minutes, or until the tops of the crackers start to look a little dry and the edges begin to brown slightly. Transfer to a cooling rack. Can be stored in an air tight container at room temperature or in the fridge. Enjoy!

Homemade Baking Powder

This is so easy, I don’t know why I never did it sooner. You literally need 3 ingredients: 

• Arrowroot powder
• baking soda
• cream of tartar

Mix together in a jar with lid: 1 part baking soda, 1 part arrowroot powder, and 2 parts cream of tartar. Mix together, and store in the sealed jar in your spice cabinet!