Healthy Homemade Cheez-Its® — Gluten-free and Keto with Vegan Option
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If you love Cheez It Crackers, but you're trying to eat healthier, do I have a treat for you! Here is a great Healthy Homemade Gluten-free Cheez Its® Cracker recipe–and they're vegan and keto too!
Now you can enjoy your childhood favorite guilt-free!
I just love it when I can remake a processed food into a healthier version, like my “Almond Joy®” Bars, homemade protein bars, powdered sugar substitute, sugar-free lemonade, homemade ketchup, and 5 ingredient salad dressing.
If you're like me, Cheez-Its® were one of the most flavorful snacks of your childhood. I can't think of a time that I sat down with a box of those without almost polishing off the entire box.
Or at least more than I should have (ahem).
Anyone else with me?
Well, my CHEEZ-IT® days are over since I am gluten-free (and presently dairy-free due to an apparent food allergy), but thanks to Kate from Kate's Healthy Cupboard, I can have CHEEZ-IT®s again!
Well, sort of.
Homemade “Cheez-Its®” that are gluten-free, grain-free and even dairy-free, with a vegan option.
Now that's something to get excited about!
When you are on a special diet, having healthy snacks around is one of the biggest challenges I have found. It's fairly easy to pull off meals, but when the kids (or adults) are clamoring for something to eat, and the typical cheese sticks, crackers, cereal, cookies, and such isn't an option, you need to have easy to grab replacements.
These healthy crackers are a great solution to that problem.
These Homemade Gluten-free Keto Cheez Its Crackers are so good – they'll satisfy your craving for crunchy cheesy goodness without the refined flours, grains, and even without dairy!
What is Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional yeast has gained in popularity in recent years and is staple for many — particularly vegans or those who are allergic to dairy.
It gives a really nice cheesy-nutty flavor to dishes and can be made into many dairy-free versions of typical dairy heavy foods.
We've used it in our home for years since my son was born with a life-threatening milk allergy. Until we found nutritional yeast, our son had never had cheese sauce, grilled cheese, pizza with cheese — anything like that.
Imagine how thrilled he was to have his first Dairy-Free Grilled Cheese and “Cheeze” Sauce that he could dip things into.
And nutritional yeast doesn't feed candida, so if that is a concern (which it is for us), you should be fine eating it. However, there are some people who seem to react to it due to the fact that their systems are so sensitized to yeast from the proliferation of yeast in their system.
Besides these Homemade Keto Cheez Its, we have several favorite recipes using nutritional yeast:
Other Recipes Using Nutritional Yeast
– Nutritional Yeast Salad Dressing and
– “Dorito®” Popcorn
and Kate (the author of this recipe) has a few tempting ones as well:
– “Cheesy” Kale Chips and
– Cashew Alfredo Sauce
How To Make Cheez Its
Combine flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. (Photo 1)
In another bowl, whisk the egg with the melted butter/oil and lemon juice. (Photo 2)
Combine the wet with the dry ingredients and stir until dough forms. (Photos 3 & 4)
Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness. (Photo 5)
With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into desired cracker size and sprinkle the top with more sea salt. Slide the bottom piece of parchment and crackers onto a cookie sheet. (Photo 6)
Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes until golden. (Photos 7 & 8)
The outer crackers will brown the fastest, remove those and continue to cook the remaining crackers
Recipe Notes
- Good options for an egg substitute include my Powdered Egg Replacer as well as a flax or chia egg.
- This is an “S” for those on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.
The nutrition values below were calculated using egg and butter.
Homemade Cheez Its – keto w/ vegan option
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups almond flour
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more for sprinkling on top)
- 1 egg (or egg substitute)
- 1 tablespoon butter or coconut oil (melted)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt and yeast in a bowl.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk the egg with the melted butter/oil and lemon juice.
- Combine the wets with the dries and stir until dough forms.
- Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness.
- With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into desired cracker size (I use a ruler with a pizza slicer to get them straight and even) and sprinkle the top with more sea salt.
- Slide the bottom piece of parchment and crackers onto a cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes until golden.
- The outer crackers will brown the fastest, remove those and continue to cook the remaining crackers.
Notes
-
- *Honeyville or Bob's Red Mill almond flour will work just fine for these crackers.
- I prefer using butter to make these a bit “creamier” tasting, but expeller pressed coconut oil will work for dairy-free option.
- Good options for an egg substitute include my Powdered Egg Replacer as well as a flax or chia egg.
- This is an “S” for those on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
What childhood snacks were your favorite?
Kate Criswell is a Fitness Trainer and Nutrition Coach who loves spending time in the kitchen tweaking recipes to make them healthier yet still satisfying and delicious. For more of her grain-free recipes and tips, visit Kate’s Healthy Cupboard at www.kateshealthycupboard.com.
I just recently discovered nutritional yeast and this was the first recipe I tried. I’m so glad I found it! The tang the lemon juice adds is exactly what I miss so much from real Cheez-It’s.
I used regular flour because I don’t have the need to cut out gluten from my diet (yet) and I used Earth Ballance butter because it’s dairy free. My dough ended up very, very thick and just a little too dry so I added about 1/2 tbsp more lemon juice right at the end to bind the rest together. I made my crackers too thick because the dough was tough to roll out and I was impatient lol
Any thoughts on what I did wrong or suggestions? I will definitely be making these again!
I’m sorry for the delay in responding – trying to catch up. I don’t know! You are saying you used white flour? Maybe that’s why?
Whoever came up with this recipe does not know what cheese tastes like! It’s not a bad tasting cracker but it doesn’t taste like cheese.
Well, Kate is the one who came up with it. And of course it’s not totally like cheese – b/c there is no cheese in it. But nutritional yeast is a well known vegan cheese alternative that people who can’t have cheese really enjoy. Hope that helps. You could put some regular cheese in the recipe if you like, just as it was mentioned in the post.
I have made these several times and LOVE them, am addicted. The salty crunch with a “cheesy” flavor, without actually having cheese is great for me! Does anyone happen to know the calorie / serving count?
Glad to hear it! If you plug the ingredients into a calculator that you trust that is online you can get it. Thanks again!
These are so good! I made mine a little too thick this first batch so I’m excited about the second. These srsly taste like cheese!!!! Ty
So glad to hear it. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
I am new to this type of cooking since my daughter recently had to drastically change her diet. My question is how can they be considered vegan if butter is used?
She has to remove dairy, wheat, rice, potatoes, garlic, vanilla, strawberries, black pepper, and egg yolks from her diet. Cooking has definitely become an adventure!
Any ideas or resources would be greatly welcomed.
Hi Jean.
About the butter, the recipe says that you can use coconut oil instead so that would make them vegan. I know how “the adventure” goes. It’s hard. I am sure you already sub in onion for garlic. Can she have other peppercorns? We have a variety here. Hope that helps and I have several dairy free milks and 2 “cheese” recipes on my site as well.
https://wholenewmom.com/whole-new-budget/easiest-coconut-milk-recipe-improved/
https://wholenewmom.com/whole-new-budget/almond-milk-recipe-how-to-make-almond-milk-almonds-milk/
https://wholenewmom.com/recipes/garlic-and-chive-cheese-dairy-and-soy-free/
https://wholenewmom.com/recipes/almond-feta/
Hope those are helpful! You will find only 1 recipe w/ wheat on my site, all are dairy free, almost no potatoes, strawberries are only in 1-2 and you can exchange for other berries, garlic is easily subbed, almost all recipes are egg free, and vanilla I would just leave out as well. Rice – more and more I am doing grain-free recipes too so you should find plenty that works for you here! Hang in there.
Followed the recipe exactly. Not good at all. When I made the dough it was not dough like at all but just fell apart added water and olive oil and a little coconut oil but still did not turn out good at all. The texture was chalky and bland. I’m so disappointed and feel like it was a waste of good ingredients.
I’m so sorry. I need to work on this recipe – it’s not mine—it was a guest post. Maybe it needs reworking…..
Sorry, but I tried these last night and followed the recipe exactly, and they are not even close in taste to cheeze its. I loved cheeze its. They are not even a good tasting cracker. I kept trying them every 5-7 minutes, and they didn’t even turn out crispy or crunchy like a cracker, even after leaving them in twice as long. I don’t get how people loved these crackers. I don’t have much money, so it was hard to part with expensive ingredients.
I’m so sorry! So many people have said that they love them. Perhaps there was a mistake you aren’t aware of? Is there a way to salvage what you ended up with (I’ve been pretty creative in the past :). Like using a messed up cake or cookie batch for cereal….)
Where’s the Cheese in the ‘Cheez It’ crackers
It’s in quotation marks….they are dairy free so they are “like” Cheez Its, but not. You could try parm cheese instead.
Does yeast really feed candida? Once it is baked it killed isn’t it? I have heard that it bothers candida but it doesn’t seem like it should when its dead.
Some people are sensitive to it b/c it is similar to the yeast that is proliferating in the gut, etc. Kind of an allergic reaction, so to speak. Hope that helps.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I am a Cheez-It addict, and like you, I can demolish an entire box in one sitting; however, in the time since I was diagnosed as a hypertensive and diabetic, I have searched for recipes for old favorites like Cheez-Its, potato chips and the many kinds of sweets that I can no longer eat due to the amount of sugar they contain that would be healthier and contain less of the things that are not good for me to eat. I will be trying out this recipe very soon!
Hope you like it and hope you get healthier!!