So...I dig deep into the investigation....
Flour, sugar, shortening, corn flour, whey solids, salt, leaving and oil-of-lemon are the ingredients behind these tasty little morsels. They have been around since the 1800's and were so popular American Bakers started providing them here in the US. Now of course the most popular known brand is the one pictured above. More than 40 million packages of Barnum's Animal Crackers are sold every year, in the United States and exported to 17 countries worldwide by NJ Bakery by Nabisco Brands.
In 1958 the creation of rotary dies was implimented to be able to give more details to the animals. That process is still being done today.
Yet why are they called Crackers when to most of us they are Cookies?
For that we go to another maker of Animal Crackers, Stauffers who still make their Animal Crackers similar to the original, they don't use the rotary die system as you can see by the Stauffers Animal Cracker Chart. Stauffer Biscuit Company produces more than 250 tons of animal crackers, cookies and snack crackers every day.
What is the difference between a cookie and a cracker?
A cookie's dough is higher in shortening and sugar; and contains less flour. The cracker's dough is flour, some shortening and sugar, and some flavors and dough conditioners.
We can also discover thru our indepth investigation that crackers are created generally by layers of dough as opposed to the way cookie dough is baked. While most of us may believe that crackers should be salty, there are a great many "Sweet Crackers" in existance. For a pictoral review of several different sorts of crunchies out there that will probably make you hungry? Visit Here, where we are reminded that the Graham Cracker is also considered a...Cracker...
There are also many ways to be creative with your Animal Crackers.
Now, I have a few hippo heads to bite off...
:-)
