Easy vegan "cheesy" crackers

I've made vegan crackers before, trying to get a "goldfish" type of flavor, and mostly succeeded.  However, the previous recipes I've used required quite a lot of ingredients and effort so I don't make them very often.  Theeeennnnnnn....my son brought home some REAL goldfish crackers. I was like, O_O  *sniffle...I want some!  But....not enough to go through all the trouble of those time consuming and complex recipes.

Theeeennnnnnn....I came across a super duper, mega easy recipe at the 100 Days of Real Food blog.  It's not vegan, and not dairy-allergy friendly, but I thought, "Hey, I can fix that!"  Oh, and I didn't have whole wheat flour, and didn't feel like going to the store to get some (lazy!).  The 100 Days recipe says to use a food processor, but my dough didn't come together in a ball as it was supposed to...plus, washing the thing is a chore!  I'd rather just knead the dough by hand for a minute or two.

So, undaunted by the lack of whole wheat flour, I plowed onward.  Here's what I came up with...

1 Cup flour
1/2 Cup nutritional yeast 
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp dry, crushed basil
6 Tbsp COLD margarine of your choice (or butter if not vegan or dairy allegic), cut into pieces, with 1 or 2 set aside "just in case"
3-4 Tbsp of cold water 

The nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and dry mustard give the crackers the "cheesy" flavor, and the basil is just yummy.

In a dry bowl, whisk together the flour, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, mustard, and basil.  Use a pastry cutter or fork to work in the 4 or 5 Tbsp of butter/margarine. When it is looking like a bunch of crumbs, add 1 more Tbsp of butter/margarine and 1 Tbsp of water. Knead by hand until you have a fairly smooth, non-sticky ball of dough.

(Mine was quite dry and crumbly so I added one more Tbsp of butter, and 1 more Tbsp of cold water.)

Once your dough is sticking together in a ball, roll out with a rolling pin to about 1/8 inch thick, and cut with cookie cutters for fun shapes.  Or, do as the original 100 Days post suggests, and roll the dough into a log and just cut into simple rounds.

Place your cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes.  Check them at 8 minutes - the bottoms should turn a golden brown.  The tops will NOT brown or really change color much so you MUST carefully use a spatula to lift one or two up and look at the bottom side.

Store in an airtight container for a few days, or freeze if not eating right away.

***Just a side note: If you eat a whole bunch of these all at once, you pee will turn a sort of neon yellow!  After doing some research I found that this is because of the B-complex vitamins in the nutritional yeast.  Your body will get rid of the excess when you pee.