Baked buttered crackers

These are great crackers for our current lives, when we're pantry-challenged. They make a fine all-in-one appetizer; no need for cheese or dip to make these palatable. And it's a way to perk up a slightly old pack of crackers.

Somehow I had escaped the phenomenon of hot buttered crackers all my life, although apparently they are ubiquitous. I ran across a reference to them in Mary Laura Philpott's "I Miss You When I Blink," which I recommend almost as much as the crackers. These are not highfalutin, but not everything has to be. They'd be fine snuck into any appetizer buffet.

 

Hot buttered crackers

Adapted from Southern Living. They used 4 tablespoons butter and 9 ounces of oyster crackers, which I'm sure would be cute as well.

Ingredients

5 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons dry ranch salad dressing mix

1½ teaspoons dried dill

1½ teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ tablespoon onion powder

1 (11-ounce) container saltines (the minis work great and are super cute)

Method

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Whisk together melted butter, dressing mix, dill, lemon pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.

Put crackers in a large bowl. Drizzle in butter mixture, stirring in as you go. Stir to coat evenly. Distribute crackers on baking sheet or sheets; you’ll probably need two sheets if they’re 13-by-9s or you can get by with one half-sheet pan. You want to be able to spread them out so they aren’t stacked.

Bake for 10 minutes. Flip crackers over and bake for another 10 minutes until golden. You can cool these and store at room temperature, if any of them last that long.

Rating: Pretty much crack in cracker form. Super great hot from the oven, but perfectly fine at room temperature, and they'll keep stored at room temperature for a week, if you can avoid scarfing them all.

My googling for hot buttered crackers also yielded this recipe, which looked worth a try.

 

Baked seasoned crackers

Adapted from Half Baked Harvest blog

Ingredients

2 sleeves Ritz crackers from a 13.7-ounce package

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon seasoned salt (I used Penzeys)

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne powder

Method

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, melt butter and add Worcestershire sauce, pepper, seasoned salt, garlic and onion powders and cayenne. Toss to coat evenly. Spread on baking sheet. (I could fit this all on one large baking sheet, but you’d likely need two sheets if you either don’t have a half sheet or don’t have an oven big enough for one.)

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, flipping over once half way through. Crackers will be browned, but not crisp at this point. Resist the natural inclination to try to eat them while they’re warm. They really aren’t nearly as good until they’ve dried and are crisp again.

Rating: These were described as tasting like Chex Mix. They do not taste like any Chex Mix I have ever tasted, but once they’ve dried, they are indeed tasty. But then again, so are Ritz crackers anyway. They don’t really need as much help as saltines.