Corn Bread Crisps

3.3/5 - (81 votes)
cornbread crackers
Cornbread in a cracker!

We’ll come right out say it up front. Of the crackers that we tried from Ivy Manning’s Crackers & Dips: More than 50 Handmade Snacks, we thought that these were the best. There, we said it. Now, let’s get scratchin’ so you can try them, too, and see if you agree.

Right from the beginning, we liked the idea of these crackers. We love cornbread and these promised the flavors of cornbread in a crispy bite-size package, so we just had to try them. Plus, they had the added bonus of being one of those doughs you just whip up in a food processor. In other words, easy-peasy.

Corn Bread Crisps

Servings: 40 crackers
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 1 cup yellow corn meal (145 g)
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (90 g)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 5 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 6 Tbs unsalted butter cold, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
  • 1/4 cup buttermilk

Instructions

  • In the bowl of a food processor, combine dry ingredients by giving them 5 good pulses.
  • Distribute butter over the top, and pulse about 10 times, or until butter is cut in and the mixture resembles coarse meal.
  • With processor running, add buttermilk and process until dough comes together.
  • On a lightly-floured work surface, divide dough into two pieces, shape into rectangles about 1-inch thick. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to one day.
  • Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking sheets.
  • Place dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and roll to a thickness of 1/8-inch.
  • Cut into 1 1/2 inch diamonds and transfer to prepared sheets.
  • Bake about 15 minutes, or until dry and lightly browned around the edges.
  • Cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

Ingredient discussion:

We made these with coarsely-ground meal, giving them a nice crunchy texture; you could tell you were eating something made from corn meal, so we’d recommend you might try the same. Make sure to use unsalted butter; why have some corporation deciding how much salt to put into your baked goods? They aren’t baking, you are. We, of course, use our own scratched buttermilk. We use a lot and it’s the easiest cultured milk product there is, so you might want to consider making it, too. Finally, watch out for the cayenne pepper. It can be very hot — ours is — so adjust the amount you use accordingly.

Procedure in detail:

dry ingredients
Place all the dry ingredients in the food processor, and whirr them around.

Combine dry ingredients. Yep, just measure them right into the bowl of a food processor, and give it a few good pulses to get everything all mixed together.

adding butter
Distribute those butter chunks across the surface and pulse until they’re cut in, about 10 pulses.

Add butter. Drop in the chunks of butter and pulse until butter is cut in and the mixture resembles cornmeal. Wait. That’s how it started out. Well, it’ll look like that again. Our food processor will shoot out flour as we cut in the butter. Does that happen to you? If so, you might want to try setting the machine into a dry sink before hitting the pulse button.

adding butermilk
Pour in the buttermilk while the processor is running. Here you can see our trick of processing in the sink for easy cleanup.

Add buttermilk. With the processor running, slowly pour in the buttermilk and process until the dough comes together and rides on top of the blade.

cornbread cracker dough
Once the dough comes together, stop. You don’t want to over-process.
cornbread cracker dough
It’s quite soft, but shape it into rectangles as best you can, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Shape and chill. Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide into two pieces and shape each into a rectangle about an inch thick. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.

Roll out dough. Place dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and roll it out to 1/8-inch thick. It really helps to give the block of dough a good whacking with the rolling pin to get it started. We whack it from left to right, rotate the dough, and whack again.

cornbread crackers
Rolling between pieces of plastic wrap is the way to go for sticky doughs. It makes it so easy!

Cut crackers. Using a knife, or a pasta cutter, slice out diamond-shaped crackers about 1- to 1 1/2-inches on a side and transfer to the baking sheet. These do not spread, so you can put them close together.

cornbread crackers
The diamond shapes are nice for these crackers, and cutting them with a fluted pasta wheel gives added bits of crispness.

Bake. Slide the sheets into the oven and bake until the crackers are dry to the touch and lightly browned around the edges.

cornbread crackers
Golden diamonds of deliciousness!

Cool. Transfer to a rack to cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

These taste just like cornbread! Eating one of these is like biting into the crispy edge of cornbread cooked up in a cast-iron skillet. You get the crispness, the slight sweetness with a bit of a tang from the buttermilk, followed by that bite of heat from the cayenne. All the flavors of a great batch of cornbread rolled up into one little snack. Just perfect and worthy of the five stars.

Worth the trouble?

18 Replies to “Corn Bread Crisps”

  1. What a great idea. I get so tired of chips for dips. How long will they last in air tight container? I am so glad to have your website.
    THANKS,
    LEILA Turpin

  2. I found these while trying to find a dupe for the trader joe’s cornbread crisps. I had to modify slightly based on what I have on hand, so not trying to compare directly, but these were really good. I had regular cornmeal, not coarse ground, and no buttermilk, so I used the vinegar + milk trick. Since this is such a cheap recipe I figured I’d try it with my subs before I made a trip to the store for the right stuff. Definitely think I want to try coarse ground next time. Only two complaints. 1: this was a little difficult to roll out between plastic and get even thickness. Next time I will use parchment and fold over the ends since the edges of the whole mass of dough were way too thin but the inside part was perfect. 2: one half of the recipe is basically one serving to me. Maybe I’m gluttonous, but hey – just giving my experience. Thanks so much for posting! I will make these often I suspect :).

    1. Yes, I do remember that these were sticky and hard to deal with. I bet parchment will work a lot better than the plastic wrap for rolling. I think I’d make the exact same substitutions if that’s what I had on hand.
      Thanks,
      Shawn
      PS. They are pretty addictive.

  3. I just completed my third batch in as many days. Each batch was different, the third was the best. Consistency being the go-word- I found thickness was paramount. After mulling over that issue I used two thin (1/8th inch) long skewers glued together at the pointy end for each side of rolling the dough to be the answer.

    Oh, yeah, I make a double recipe. Doing that I use 1 cup of APF and 1 cup of sourdough starter in the mix, then add Tbsp(s) of APF to get the right touchy feely finish in the dough.

    1. I love the idea of using skewers to get the right thickness. I’ll have to try it. We have some kebob skewers that are square in cross section and should be just perfect.
      Thanks for the tip.
      Shawn

    2. Man, I have NEVER been able to roll out a nice rectangle as shown in numerous recipes. As a consequence, some of my corn bread crisps are the shape of MT, KY, TN, VA, etc. LOL I will definitely make myself a “frame” next time.

  4. Newest modification to rolling out the dough to an even thickness of 1/8″. I was in a paint store over the weekend and grabbed 8 of their wood paint stirrers. Getting out my trusty Gorilla glue bottle I glued two together, printed side in, and have 4 wide flat 1/8th inch thick platforms to run my rolling pin on. Did I mention that my rolling pin can be filled with water and placed in the freezer? Rolling it over the dough (with the outside RP ends on the paint stirrers) keeps it chilled and facilitates an even crisp (pun) dough piece that holds its shape when being moved to the half sheet pan.

  5. Will this guy from Minnesota let someone else on the comment page? OK – this is the last one. For rolling out the dough I clean and then flour the work table. Rolling out the dough, I cut the rectangular shaped dough into two long pieces. Flour both sides lightly, then lay a long piece of floured wax paper onto the dough and get to rolling. I can maneuver the sticks on the sides of the dough as I see the dough spreading horizontally and vertically and make the sticks stay in use until I have the rolling pin hard on the sticks. I stamp out the crisps using a ravioli cutter and slice them crossways using a small pastry cutter with a flat wheel knife and a crimper on the same wood handle.
    Bye!

  6. Finally, the ultimate in getting the dough absolutely the thickness you want. On a visit to the local big box hardware store I bought a flat piece of aluminium that is 1/8th inch thick, 3 inches wide and 4 feet long.

    I cut it into a pair of 2 feet long pieces and the despair of using the former wood pieces and worrying about contamination of the wood and transmission of bad things in future batches is gone. Easy clean up, a wider surface for the rolling pin to ride on and simple storage makes these metal pieces the ultimate. Now I’m going to get a 3/16th inch set for rolling out pie dough.

  7. Fabulous for an accompaniment to butternut squash soup. These were wonderful and everyone liked them. I did add a little more cayenne pepper a very shy 1/4 teaspoon of cayanne. I was the only one that tasted the heat at all.

    1. I agree these are very good, and I bet they would be good with butternut squash soup. I will say, that our cayenne pepper must be super spicy, because we’d definitely be able to taste nearly 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne in just about anything.
      I’m glad they were a success, and all the best,
      Shawn

  8. I am very anxious to try this recipe! But I am a newbie baker without a food processor (and no room to buy one). How do you suggest I make the dough the old fashioned way, by hand, without overworking it? Thank you in advance for any tips!

    1. I would suggest adding the butter to the dry mixture and using your fingers, smash and break and crumble the butter into the mix. Work quickly so the butter doesn’t warm and melt. If you have a pastry cutter, you might find that easier, but it really isn’t needed. If the butter does start to melt, refrigerate or freeze it for a bit. You could also chill the dry ingredients first which should help keep the butter from melting from the heat of your hands.
      Hope that helps.
      All the best,
      Shawn

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