How to Make Spent Grain Crackers | Spent Grain Soda Crackers

What Are Spent Grains?

Spent grains are the grains leftover from brewing beer.

Spent is not necessarily the best term for them, because they still contain some flavor, nutrients, and fiber. You just can’t use them for brewing anymore.

Many people throw away their spent grains. Some people compost them, some have relationships with farmers who use it to supplement their animal feed, and others bake with them.

You can use spent grains wet, or you can dry them first. Either way, they bring added flavor, color, and texture to whatever you use them for.

What Are They Good For?

Spent grains are the the grains that are leftover from the brewing process.

After the grains are boiled and they have given up all their malty goodness and many of their carbs, what is left or “spent” is called spent grains.

Since spent grains give up virtually all of their carbs and sugar in the brewing process, what is left is fiber and protein. Yay!

Using these spent grains whole or ground into flour increases the protein content and fiber content of whatever you use them in, and it doesn’t appreciably increase the carb count. Pretty sweet!

If you are a home brewer, you can use your grains wet, or you can dry them in a low oven.

And then when completely dried, you can process them into your own flour. You can also leave some whole, to add texture to your baked goods.

Where to Find Spent Grains

If you are, or know, a homebrewer, you can just use the spent grains from your brewing sessions.

If not, worry not. There are a few ways to get your hands on spent grains.

• Join your local homebrewing group and ask for spent grains there.
• Join a local Facebook group dedicated to homebrewing. Most of those folks will be happy to give you some of their spent grains.
• Ask at a local microbrewery or craft brewery. If they don’t already have a way of using their grains, they should be thrilled someone wants to use at least some of them.
• Ask at your local homebrew store that sells ingredients and equipment for brewing, or check with the folks at your local bottle shop. Most of these people will know folks who’ll be happy to share.

Spent grains are generally waste, so many people would otherwise just throw them away. It never hurts to ask around.

How to Make These Crackers

Crackers are actually pretty easy to make. Almost any type of dough can be turned into crackers by rolling it really thin and baking until crisp.

In this case, I have added spent grains to a pretty basic soda cracker recipe, resulting in a flavor that is both familiar and a little elevated.

The grains do not lend a hugely pronounced flavor, but they do add a bit of “maltiness” to the dough, which I quite like.

I used both spent grain flour and whole spent grains to add some texture to the crackers, and I think they turned out beautifully.

Here’s the rundown of the ingredients.

Ingredients

• all purpose flour: provides the “bulk” for the crackers. You can use bread flour if you like for a bit heartier cracker.
• spent grain flour: Adds fiber and protein and a rustic color. If you can’t find ready-made spent grain flour, you can make your own. In short, blend up dried spent grains in your blender until they turn to flour. You can read about the process in this section of my post on making spent grain English muffins.
• whole spent grains: Adds some nice texture to what would otherwise be a “smooth” cracker once you start chewing. Here’s how to dry your spent grains.
• salt: brings out the flavor in the flour and the grains
• baking soda: provides a touch of lift
• butter: Adds a bit of fat to carry flavor
• whole milk: helps to form the dough. You can substitute 2% milk or even a plant-based milk
• finishing salt, for sprinkling on top of crackers: you can also top with seeds of your choice (poppy seeds would be nice)

Procedure

The hardest part of making these crackers is letting the dough rest in the fridge for an hour. Other than that, it’s a very straightforward process:

1. Whisk flour, spent grain flour, whole spent grains, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl.
2. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse meal. You shouldn’t have any “pebbles” of butter.
3. Use a dough whisk, the handle of a wooden spoon, or a regular dinner knife to slowly mix in the milk until dough comes together.
4. Finish mixing by hand and knead a few times right in the bowl.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
6. Roll out dough very thin.
7. Prick all over with a fork and cut into desired shapes with cutters or with a pizza wheel or pastry wheel.
8. Bake, cool, and enjoy.

Pro Tip for Mixing Sticky Dough

Many people tell you to buy a dough whisk to mix sticky dough, but

PRO TIP: You can get good results using either the handle end of a wooden spoon or a dinner knife to mix sticky dough.

Because neither of these implements has as much surface area as the bowl end of a spoon, your hands, or a regular whisk, clean up is much easier.

You won’t end up having to scrape a ton of sticky dough off a spoon, your hands or out of the tines of a whisk.

Rolling Out and Cutting Crackers

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This dough is really pretty dreamy to work with.

It rolls out easily. If it does try to spring back a little when rolling, just cover the partially-rolled dough with a towel and let it sit for 5-10 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.

Then just roll it as thinly as you can into a more or less regular square that’s less than 1/8″ thick. Using a tapered pin gives me lots more control over the final shape of the dough.

Then cut off the ragged edges with either the “wavy” or straight wheel of a pastry wheel.

From there, prick the dough all over with a fork.

This allows steam to escape, keeping the crackers from puffing too much so they bake up nice and flat.

Simply cut the crackers into whatever shapes you like:

PRO TIP: making straight-sided shapes such as squares, rectangles, diamonds, or triangles ensures you won’t have any waste like you would if you make round shapes.

Transfer the crackers to parchment-lined cookie sheets.

You will need four to make a whole recipe. Or just recycle what you have.

To cool off your sheets between rounds of baking, run under cold water for a few seconds. Dry off the sheet and you’re ready to go.

You can also use the parchment squares again–no need to throw them away after only one use.

How to Change Up the Flavors in Your Fancy Soda Crackers

Even though I really love using the spent grain flour in these crackers, you can leave it out and use 100% all purpose flour instead. Once you decide how to make your base dough–with or without spent grains–there are tons of ways to switch up your flavors.

• Italian Cheese Crackers: Add 1/2 cup of finely grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (or a combination of the two) to your dough along with 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
• Cracked Black Pepper Crackers: Add 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon white pepper to the dough. Top the finished crackers with more cracked pepper and coarse salt.
• Dill crackers: Add 3/4 teaspoon dried dill and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder to the dough. Brush baked crackers with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven.
• Sesame crackers: Add 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds to the dough and sprinkle the tops of the crackers with salt and sesame seeds before baking.

Aside from these specific ideas, you can add pretty much any sort of spice or herb to your crackers to customize them.

You can also play with what you top them with before baking. No reason to limit yourself to just salt.

Use this cracker recipe as a good starting point and then switch up the flavors however you like.

What To Do if Your Crackers Get Soft

There’s nothing sadder–or not much, anyway–than a soft cracker. Homemade crackers are much more prone to getting soft than their store-bought counterparts, even when stored airtight.

Store crackers in heavy-duty sealed zip-top bags or in airtight storage containers for up to 3 days.

If they get soft, and they probably will, place them on a cookie sheet in a single layer and refresh them in a 350F oven for 2-3 minutes.

They will re-crisp as they cool. Make sure they cool completely before storing them.

Embossing Crackers and Cookies

Since I generally make loaves of bread for Nadine’s communion services and I knew this would be a small retreat, I decided on making crackers.

I thought the crackers would be even more meaningful if they had words embossed on them, and when Nadine told me the theme was connection, it was a short jump to pressing one letter into a “sheet” of crackers that would spell one word and then breaking them to serve them.

I immediately hied myself to Amazon to search for cookie letter stamps, and this was the set I settled on.

Aren’t they just so cute? And they work so well!

The letters are only about 3/8″ tall, so you can press even a relatively long word or message on a cracker or cookie and not need for it to be as big as your head!

For reference, the crackers that say “cracker” on them are roughly 1″ x 2″.

Questions?

If you have a question/questions about this or any other post, whether recipe or technique, don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m happy to help.

You can leave a comment on the post, and I will respond within 24 hours. If you need an answer more urgently, please email me, and I will respond within about 4 hours (unless I’m sleeping) and often much more quickly than that.

Either way, I will answer as completely as I can. That’s why I’m here!

Dips and Spreads to Serve with Your Homemade Crackers

Aside from munching on them plain, add them to a cheese plate for entertaining. Homemade crackers always impress people, and you don’t have to tell them how easy they are to make!

Serve them as a dipper for homemade pimento cheese, a tasty retro port wine cheese ball, labneh with pesto and roasted tomatoes, or even muhammara.

Some earthy white bean hummus or creamy roasted eggplant dip would go really nicely with the earthy spent grains in the crackers as would southwestern hot cream cheese dip or garlic spinach dip.

And for your seafood lovers, I think you’d really like this shrimp and crab dip.

Last, but certainly not least, consider serving these crackers as a base for the best sauce to pour over a block of cream cheese, tangy, sweet-sour “red sauce.” It is seriously one of my favorite retro appetizers!

A Note About Measurements

NOTE: Most of my recipes are written by weight and not volume, even the liquids.

Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.

This is the scale I use, love, and recommend. If you’re unsure, please read my post about how to use a food scale.

I really hope you love these little soda crackers, you guys! I think they’re so cute with the little embossed letters on them.

And there you have it, friends. Crispy little brewers crackers made with both spent grain flour and whole spent grains.

I hope you enjoy them. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Take care, and have a lovely day.