Here’s a recipe from my stepmother, Pat. Or at least I think it's from Pat. Maybe it's from my sister-in-law, Kathy or my dad's friends from Arkansas, Shelly and Kermit. I can't remember, but someone explained how to make Soufflé Crackers at a family gathering, and I finally got around to trying the recipe myself. It’s for those days when you’re bored you’ve invited friends over for a fancy party, then at the last minute, realized “Whoops! I don’t have anything in the pantry but Saltines!”
This is a way to transform plain old Saltines into elegant pastry-like crackers.
I guess the first thing I should tell you is you’re not *really* making soufflés out of crackers. What you’re doing is soaking the crackers until they puff up with water, draining them, dotting with butter, baking, salting and cooling. Here's an illustration of what happens along the way. I was a little stingy with the butter, but this should give you a vague idea of how much to use.
The end result is a fancy brown cracker with a buttery flavor that can be eaten alone or served with dip. I like eating them straight, tossed with a little sea salt, as did the rest of the family. I made them as I was making dinner, then put them out for people to snack on before the meal. That's always a good time to experiment with crackers, as people are usually starving. If you try these, let me know what you think.
Soak Time and Vodka Saltines
Since comments have been coming in about the soak time, I made a batch of these with some almost stale crackers and found the soak time was way less than 10 minutes. My prior batches did take that long, so there seems to be variability in the soak time. I also learned that you can soak the crackers in ice cold vodka. I'm experimenting with that, but the vodka soaked crackers had a little more flavor -- especially when topped with mixed red pepper flakes. It was almost as if the vodka made the pepper hotter.
Recipe
Saltine Soufflé Crackers
Ingredients
- 15 or more Saltines to start
- Butter unsalted or salted -- amount will vary
- Water
- Coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with nonstick foil or parchment paper.
- Fill a 9x13 inch (ish!) pan with about 1 inch of very cold water. Put the Saltines in the water one by one, doing your best to cover them with a little water without breaking.
- Let the crackers sit and soak up water until they become slightly waterlogged. The original recipe called for a 10 minute soak, but the crackers may be full soaked in as little as a minute. They should be a little delicate to lift, but not so much that they completely fall apart.
- With a slotted spatula, carefully lift the sopping crackers up, one by one, letting water drip out through the slots in the spatula. Try to keep the crackers from falling apart.
- Arrange the crackers side by side on your baking sheet.
- With a grater, grate some cold butter into a pile. I did this over a sheet of foil. Put a small (about ½ inch across -- see photo) pile of butter flakes in the center of each cracker.
- Bake the crackers at 425 on the center rack for 12 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 and bake for another 22 to 30 minutes (check at 20) or until crackers are golden brown and seem crisp. Remove from oven and let cool completely. While they are cooling, sprinkle with a little coarse salt. If you’ve used salted butter, you might be able to skip the last bit of salt, but I used unsalted butter and felt the crackers needed it.
Anna says
Hi Will! Thanks for bringing up this old fun recipe. I was literally about to toss some stale Saltines, but saw your comment and made a quick batch. The stale crackers absorbed the water in less than 2 minutes, while my earlier batches were able to withstand 10 minutes. Maybe the staler the cracker, the quicker they absorb? Or perhaps it's the brand. I used store brand this time, not actual Saltines. While I was at it I soaked some crackers in straight up vodka just to see what would happen. The vodka took a longer time to soak in. So the Camp David crackers, like my original batch, were probably soaked for 10 minutes as you suspected.
Will says
I watched the White House Stewards make these soufflé crackers at Camp David when I was stationed there in 1970. Richard Nixon was the president at the time. I was impressed with the process of soaking and then rebaking the lowly saltine. I’m sure they were soaked for much longer than 10 seconds. My guess is it was closer to 10 minutes.
Gerry Garcia says
Susan. I remember those cookies at the WH when I worked there then. Can you post the recipe please.
Susan Filippi says
Nancy Reagan used to serve these at the White House. I have a cut out newspaper article I saved as a kid with her recipe for these. She used to soak them for 5 to 10 minutes. They are excellent !
Anna says
Hi Lorna,
I’m so glad you are familiar with this recipe!! About the soak time, I tried another version that had the quick 10 second soak time. The 10 second crackers were great, but I found that with the 10 minute soak time, they puffed up more (due to the absorbed water) and baked up a little lighter. However, I liked the 10 second soak version too. Also, if you only soak for 10 seconds you can brush them with butter or oil rather than use grated butter.
Lorna says
I learned to make these in my high school cooking class back in the 60's. Are you sure you soak the crackers for 10 minutes? I seem to remember it was only about 10 seconds, although I no longer have the written recipe. I also brush the wet crackers with melted butter and sprinkle poppy seeds and sesame seeds on them before I bake them. They are so good and I get a lot of compliments on them.
melissa@the hungry artist says
Interesting recipe, Anna!
And a big congratulations about the book!!! Can't wait to see it in November!
Paula B. says
I love all kinds of crackers including saltines so I know I will have to try making these soon. Had never heard of this "technique". They look yummy and I believe it will be hard to stop eating them , thanks for the heads-up!
Anna says
Sue, yes. I'd say it was. They weren't that difficult to work with, plus they're so cheap I felt like I had nothing to lose! It was a fun recipe to play with. My biggest challenge was getting the bake time just right.
Cheryl, we have that same problem. We'll eat one sleeve straight, but I usually use the rest of the Saltines in one of these recipes:
Rooster's Famous Fire Crackers
https://www.cookiemadness.net/2011/02/roosters-famous-fire-crackers/ and
Cracker Candy
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cracker-candy/
Cheryl says
Looks like a good way to use up stale crackers! We never are able to eat a whole box!
Sue says
This seems really unusual! Was coping with the soggy saltines worth it?