Want to hear a dirty, sugary, little secret?
Well, if there’s one surprising thing that seems to unite food snobs—and I’m talking about even the purest of food-purists, here—it’s a deep-seated yearning for the junk food of their youth.
Whereas they would rather die than allow their kids to chow down on Twinkies, TastyKakes or Funyuns, they can wax lyrically about those (and Oreos, Klondikes and Peeps), for hours on end. I have personally witnessed the eyes of an organic and grass-fed advocate glazing over as she relived moments of a childhood spent eating chemical-laden sugar bombs or inhaling the cheesy powder in the bottom corners of the packaging.
As someone who grew up overseas, I don’t recognize this particular vocabulary of midnight feasting and binging (mine were all Wotsits and Twiglets, Discos and Frazzles) although I do understand completely: food creates memories and memories beget nostalgia. I suspect that as fledgling foodies, we were intrigued by the extraordinary textures and flavors of the food we grew up with. And even though we now know that some of it was bad, those early sensory experiences have lodged in our brains.
Now, thanks to food explorer and self-confessed culinary storyteller, Casey Barber, (otherwise a freelance food writer, recipe developer and the editor of Good. Food. Stories.) you can actually cook some of that nostalgia at home without the bad ingredients.
Casey has just written a book called: Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats (Ulysses Press, 2013).
The book features 70 recipes and I challenge you to name one childhood or college favorite that is not included: Oreos, Goldfish, Klondike Bars, Peeps, Funyuns, Devil Dogs, Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes, Pizza Rolls, Cool Ranch Doritos, and Cheez-Its – they are all in there as at-home recipes.
I caught up with Casey, a Clifton resident, for a quick coffee before her book tour starts. Her experimentation has led to her replicating many of the flavors of these classic foods without any of the bad stuff. For example, she uses no preservatives or palm-oil derivatives in her DIY repertoire.
I asked her about her biggest challenge:
“I thought Funyuns would be impossible to make but I got there. Ritz crackers are still a challenge… I’m still figuring out the perfect flavor profile to get that buttery-ness,” she told me.
The quest for buttery crackers aside, Casey has not been defeated by any other recipe. She told me that she has perfected Tater Tots, Cheetos and Animal Crackers and that she mastered Oreos by using vegetable shortening and using Lyle’s Golden Syrup to get that “teeth-aching sweetness.” The book has most Hostess Products covered, so if you are mourning the demise of Twinkies you can make your own.
Most of her recipes contain ingredients you will find in any decent grocery store and do not require special tools, although purists may wish to check out such things as the tiny goldfish cookie cutters at Coppergifts.com.
When asked what ingredients she always has at home she told me she gets nervous if she runs out of butter. “I always need to have butter and melk” (Originally from Pittsburgh her accent bubbles beautifully to the surface.) “If I have pasta, butter, eggs, garlic, flat leaf parsley, I can always whip something up.”
Always inquisitive about the possibilities of food, Casey left me to check up on her steak that she was dry-aging back at home in her fridge. The steak had been marinating in fish sauce for three days in a Ziploc bag.
Casey shared her Goldfish recipes with Baristanet. I made them with my kids and the recipe were easy to follow and fun to make. The Goldfish crackers require cheddar powder, which you can buy online from King Arthur Flour. Casey confided that this is a great addition to pop corn….I predict this could be the start of a new food addiction.
Overall, Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats, is an addictive and quirky cookbook that brings accessible excitement to the kitchen with easy-to-follow recipes. It uses real ingredients and allows you to reintroduce your taste buds to the cool and creamy pleasure of a Klondike Bar or the satisfying crunch of a Tater Tot without unhealthy preservatives, unnatural colorings, and unwanted chemicals.
Here is Casey’s recipe for Goldfish Crackers:
Goldfish Crackers
YIELD: 10 to 15 dozen crackers (depending on cookie-cutter size)
TOTAL TIME: 1 hour
Ingredients
- 1 cup (4 oz) very finely shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
- 1⁄2 cup (21/8oz) unbleached all- purpose flour
- 1⁄2 cup (21/8oz cake flour
- 1 tablespoon Cheddar cheese powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ cup whole or reduced-fat milk
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
MAKE THE DOUGH:
Stir the cheese, flours, Cheddar powder, salt, baking powder, and onion powder together in a large bowl until the cheese is evenly distributed and coated. Add the milk and vegetable oil and continue to stir with a spatula, then, knead in the bowl with your hands until a cohesive dough forms. It will be crumbly at first, but continue to press and knead the dough until any dry bits are incorporated.
Transfer the dough to your work surface, cover with the upside-down bowl, and let rest for 10 minutes.
MAKE THE CRACKERS:
Preheat the oven to 375° F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat liners.
Divide the dough into 2 pieces and refrigerate one piece while you roll the second piece as thin as humanly possible, no more than 1⁄8 inch thick. (The thinner your dough, the crispier your crackers will be; thicker dough means puffier, more bread-like crackers.)
Stamp out cracker shapes with your cookie cutter of choice: a fish is the traditional shape, of course, but the crackers taste just as good as hearts, stars, circles, or small squares. Transfer the shapes to the prepared baking sheets.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the crackers are crispy and just turning golden at the edges. The timing will vary according to the size and shape of your crackers.
Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
The crackers will soften when kept in an airtight container, so they’re best eaten within a day or two.
