Music Crackers (aka Animal Crackers)

I'm making my way along the cracker isle and making everything I can unprocessed. As I've mentioned before, having a toddler (and now almost 2 toddlers...whoa!) and crackers are a big deal. Looking at the toddler food pyramid of our house, crackers come second only to fruit, and maybe pizza. Everything else: cheese, vegetables, meat....come after. So it makes sense to want to make them as wholesome and nutritious as possible, without losing their signature flavor and texture. This recipe isn't the most nutrient dense cracker recipe I have, but it fits the bill for a kid (or adult) looking for a little cookie-like cracker.

That reminds me. Animal crackers are cookies. There is no question. Maybe calling them crackers makes us parents feel better about giving them to our children. If that is the case, I'll just keep calling them crackers and feeling good about myself.

Thus far I have made wheat-thin type crackers, graham crackers, cheese crackers, rustic crackers, other types of wheat cracker....so it was time for some animal crackers. However, I don't have little animal shaped cookie cutters. I know I could find them on Amazon, but why would I do that when I had these adorable little music cutters that my Mom got for me in Chicago. My son helped me make these and we talked about all the instruments we used.

I started this dough in the evening, so the lighting is bad. I'm also without a kitchenaid mixer, which I would have used if I had it. I should get my new one in about a week! It is your basic cookie recipe - cream butter and sugar...

add egg and honey, followed by flour, baking powder, and salt.

Mix until it forms a dough, and wrap it up and put it in the fridge if you aren't going to use it right away.

When I got up the next day I had my dough ready to go and got to rolling and cutting! I'll be honest, this is not something I'll do very often. Every once in a while fine, but I am not really into rolling and cutting, rolling and cutting. I can't deny that they are adorable though, and while it is time consuming at least I made it an activity for the day.

Aren't the music shapes cute? I've got trumpets, guitars, harps, treble clefs, saxophones, notes, and cellos. Oh and pianos!

I even took the time to take a toothpick and make a little more detail on the trumpets and harps.

They baked for 10 minutes and then I let them cool.

I prefer crunchy "crackers" so I made sure they got nice and brown.

The next batch I sprinkled some with a little cinnamon sugar...because I always have cinnamon sugar on hand. 

I included a few dancers and conductors on this tray...

Then I just stored them and they are good to go! I took them with us on a car trip this past weekend and the kids loved them.

Mmmmm!!

Music Crackers
adapted from Baby Foodie

1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
3 Tbsp. honey
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and honey. mix in flour, baking powder, and salt to form a dough. You can use it right away, or you can refrigerate it until ready to use. Let it warm up a bit if you do this before you try rolling it out.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes. Place shapes on non-stick cookie sheet (I used a silpat and highly suggest using one). Bake for 10 minutes or until browned. Let cool and enjoy!