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~ raw, vegan, gluten-free ~
Not only will your kids love the taste of these animal crackers, but it will allow them to play safely with wild animals. What more could you ask for?
Animal crackers seem to a part of everyone’s childhood – no matter how many years ago that was… and they are recorded as far back as 1800. I hope no one is still around who can recall that day. haha
More than 40 million packages of Barnum’s Animal Crackers are sold each year. They are baked in a 300 foot long moving band oven for about four minutes and are baked at the rate of 12,000 per minute! Fifteen thousand cartons and 300,000 crackers are produced in a single shift, using some thirty miles of string for the handles on the packages. This runs to nearly 8,000 miles of string a year.
These commercially made animal crackers are made of; ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS), DEGERMINATED YELLOW CORN FLOUR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE), NATURAL FLAVOR (CONTAINS MILK), SOY LECITHIN, MOLASSES. These they’re not exactly at the height of nutritional excellence. But here at Nouveau Raw times, they are a-changing. :)
My raw animal crackers are not baked but dehydrated instead on a 16×16″ tray. They take more than 4 minutes to make… more like 12 hours. And I am sorry to say, but I can’t pump out 300,000 in a single shift… more like 48. lol BUT they are made with love, joy, and whole organic ingredients! Nothing can compare to that, right?
These crackers would be a lot of fun to make with little ones, and if they sneak a little dough here and there, you don’t have a worry. :) I used these farm animal cookie cutters that you can be purchased through my Amazon link. But gosh, you can use any animal cookie cutter. So much fun… I hope you enjoy them.
Yields 50 crackers, depending on cookie cutter size
Amiesue what could I use instead of butter.
Hello Rhonda,
You can try a nut butter perhaps. I haven’t tested it, but it might work. Have a great day, amie sue
Thanks Amiesue, I am trying to eliminate oils and fats from my diet to reverse heart disease.
Hi Rhonda, I am currently studying herbal medicine and I would like to suggest that you look into taking Hawthorn to help heal your heart disease. I wish you excellent health!
~Tiyana
wow Tyanna I am just now seeing your response. I guess because tonight I am prepping to make these animal cookies lol or he he as Amie would say. Im always in outpost so I will pick up some Hawthorne leaves the next time I’m in there. Thanks a bunch Rhonda
Hi Amie-sue,
Just want to thank you for all of your wonderful recipes. I am always looking forward to receiving your emails and open them with a big smile on my face :-)
Thank you.
Thank you Nazeen, in return you put a big smile on my face. :) Thanks for visiting my site and I look forward to hearing from you in the future. Amie sue
OH MY GOSH THOSE ARE SO CUTE!!!
Aren’t they though Nicole?! I thought they were just too adorable. I had so much fun making them. :) Nice to hear from you. Have a splendid day. amie sue
Hi Amie-sue! I’m going to make these today! I have liquid stevia, but could never get into the taste. Could I just double the maple syrup? Or what else should I use to substitute? Cause I do like sweet! :)
Hello Rachel,
I wouldn’t double the maple syrup because that is a lot of extra volume of liquid. You can try adding a dry sweetness such as raw coconut crystals (grind to a powder before adding)… or you could add a bit more liquid sweetener but start with 2 tbsp and taste test the batter. Good luck and let me know how they turn out. amie sue :)
Also, hehe, I just noticed- Do you mention here how long we are supposed to dehydrate the crackers? I just don’t see it anywhere….Maybe I’m blind… :)
Hello there Rachel,
Oh it’s as though that whole sentence was deleted. I fixed it. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. :) Blessings, amie sue
Amie Suuuuuuuuuue!!!!!!!!
WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!!!! You know what’s funny? When I saw that no one had made these yet, I thought to myself “Maybe since no one is trying them out, they see something I don’t- maybe I shouldn’t try it.” But BOY! Man, I am soooo glad I made these- I actually took your advice and made them with the liquid stevia. I have only used liquid stevia once, and that was in your orange white chocolate nibs thingies, LOL I don’t remember what they are called. Anyway, I felt like there was an after taste to the liquid stevia, and I remember trying to use another liquid sweetener, but it just didn’t work. Anyway, as I was making the dough for these today, I noticed that with all of the ingredients, maybe I wouldn’t notice the aftertaste of the stevia in a recipe like this, and I was right- I could not taste the after taste of the liquid stevia in this recipe- I’m so glad that I tried it with the stevia.
The liquid part of the dough with all of the liquid ingredients put together tasted A-MAZ-ING! Do you have a cookie recipe with that base so that I could eat a cookie with a stronger taste that this base has with all of those liquid ingredients? I mean, WOW, that tasted AMAZING! When I mixed all of the dry ingredients in and had my first taste of the dough, my first thought was “Yep! That tastes JUST LIKE REAL ANIMAL CRACKERS!” The grainy cracker with that sweet but not too sweet cookie taste- the batter is amazing.
I didn’t have any animal cookie cutters, so I used just a simple round one. The dough made 47 crackers for me. I noticed probably about 4 times here and there that there was a crack in the dough- I felt like I was taking a risk with not adding more water, but I couldn’t actually tell if it needed more water or more flour, or nothing at all. The dough over all held together pretty well and I used your exact measurements. I thought to myself that since animal crackers are sort of crumbly and flaky in the first place, maybe you purposely made this a flaky light dough instead of a typical heavier dough? Your thoughts?
I am wondering if as it dries if the crackers will stay together or not. It almost seems that they will stay together, but maybe when I pick them up, they will fall apart? I don’t know…..Never worked with a batter like this before. Honestly, I hardly ever worked with batter when I was a regular vegan cook, and this is probably my 2nd batter in raw vegan recipes, so part of me felt like I didn’t even know what to look for in how the dough should have been……..
Hello Rachel,
You know that saying, ” Can’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, you can’t judge a recipe by its lack of comments. lol Sadly, most people don’t leave comments when they try the recipes. Often times, they send me direct emails rather than commenting which is fine but it’s nice for others to read what people have to say. :) Anyway, I am glad that you had faith in me, and made them.
This dough/batter could easily be adapted to other shapes, forms, or thicknesses. The beauty of raw! By the time I got to answering all of this, you have already made them and got your questions answered so I won’t double up on all that. :) Just happy that you were thrilled with the end product and trusted the process.
Blessings! amie sue
Okay they are done! Wow, the humidity here is so high that almost all of your recipes in my dehydrator need 2 hours less in the dehydrator- lol, I’m not complaining! :) Okay, so the dough turned out just. perfect. No crumbling, no tearing apart- just perfect! :)
Hello there Rachel,
That’s the thing with dehydrating foods… the dry times are always estimates. It can change based on the machine you use, the outside temp and humidity, how full the dehydrator is and when using almond pulp… some might have more moisture than others (depending on your hand strength). Thank you for commenting Rachel… always nice to hear when others try my recipes. Have a wonderful day, amie sue
Hi Amie Sue,
My husband LOVED these tonight- he said he preferred them softer at the 4 hour mark instead of 6 when they got crispy, so I took several our for him when they were softer. My question is if I leave those in a sealed glass tupperware outside of the fridge, will it still be okay since there is still moisture in them? Or should I store them in the fridge?
Good afternoon Rachel,
So happy to hear that they are being enjoyed. :) When it comes to raw foods and dehydration, we always need to be careful when we leave moisture in foods. It will shorten their shelf life because it has more of a chance to form molds and bacterias. How long they will last on the counter is based on several factors such as moisture in the food and the climate / humidity. If you think that you might make these again in the future, and since I can’t gauge from afar as to just how moist or dry the ones are that you made… I would do a little test. Keep some on the counter and put some in the fridge and see how they hold up.
Does this help? I hope that you are having a wonderful day. amie sue
Yes, definitely helps! The humidity here in New York is so intense right now that after leaving them on the counter over night in a sealed container, I already noticed a difference, so I immediately stuck them in the fridge.
Hi there, i would love to know what i can use, instead of Stevia ??
Aloha, Amie Sue
Good afternoon,
You could try any sweetener that you prefer. If you use a liquid sweetener, be careful that the batter doesn’t get too wet. On the other hand, if you use a granulated sweetener, you might need to add a little bit of water. It will depend on how much you add, based on desired sweetness and how “wet” the almond pulp is. enjoy, amie sue