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I have this thing with graham crackers. They are not the tastiest cookie in all the world, but I love them. I love having them around the house. After Will was born and I was in the hospital, I requested that my husband bring me a Diet Coke and a box of graham crackers. When I’m stress eating in the middle of the night, 9 times out of 10, it’s graham crackers and milk. When I’m starving in the morning and my kids are late for school, I grab a couple graham crackers before we head out the door.
My Grandma Randle always had graham crackers around her house. She had lots of treats, too, but those were definitely a controlled substance. The graham crackers, however, were fair game. My parents also always had graham crackers, even if they didn’t keep a lot of treats around the house. So maybe it’s a comfort food thing. In times of duress and boredom, I turn to graham crackers.
So imagine my excitement when I found these graham crackers in Martha Stewart Living magazine during one of my many end-of-pregnancy check-ups (I’m pretty sure I read that particular magazine 3-4 times. I really needed to start bringing my own reading material near the end). So one dreary, rainy, thundery day when it felt cooler than usual and my little girl was sick and sad on the couch, I finally made them. And we loved them. They don’t taste EXACTLY like graham crackers, especially if you roll them a little too thick *cough* like me *cough cough*. But they’re old-fashioned and comforting, kind of like a cross between gingerbread and shortbread, only with whole grains and no eggs.
You’ll need some all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, butter, honey, and brown sugar.
Measure out the flours by lightly spooning them into the measuring cups and leveling it off with the back of a knife. It’s important that you measure them this way because this dough has the potential to be VERY dry, so this will help keep the right consistency. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl…
and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, brown sugar, and honey.
Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture.
Beat until combined.
Lightly flour a work surface (a silicone rolling mat or wax or parchment paper work great because you can transfer the dough directly into the fridge) and turn the dough onto the floured surface.
Roll the dough out until it’s 1/8″ (you may need to work in 2 batches).
Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350.
Cut the dough with your favorite cookie cutters or a fluted pastry wheel and place on a baking sheet.
Refrigerate or freeze for another 10-15 minutes or until the dough is very firm. If desired, use a fork to prick the dough to ensure even baking.
Bake for 10-14 minutes or until very lightly brown around the edges (it can be a little tricky to tell), being careful not to overbake. Makes about 2 dozen graham crackers, although it really varies on how thick your dough ends up and how large you cut the graham crackers.
Homemade Graham Crackers
Recipe lightly adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (measured by lightly spooning the flour into the measuring cups and leveling with a flat surface), plus more for working
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar (you can use dark if you prefer a richer flavor)
2 tablespoons honey
Instructions:
Whisk together the flours, wheat germ, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, brown sugar, and honey. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture. Beat until combined.
Lightly flour a work surface (a silicone rolling mat or wax or parchment paper work great because you can transfer the dough directly into the fridge) and turn the dough onto the floured surface. Roll the dough out until it’s 1/8″ (you may need to work in 2 batches). Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350.
Cut the dough with your favorite cookie cutters or a fluted pastry wheel and place on a baking sheet. Refrigerate or freeze for another 10-15 minutes or until the dough is very firm. If desired, use a fork to prick the dough to ensure even baking. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until very lightly brown around the edges (it can be a little tricky to tell), being careful not to overbake. Makes about 2 dozen graham crackers, although it really varies on how thick your dough ends up and how large you cut the graham crackers.
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These look fantastic. Love the grain bread recipe also.
This looks awesome!!! At every opportunity, I am trying to replace brown sugar and other sweeteners with Agave. Do you think this would work or do you think it would make it too runny and the wrong consistency?
I truly don’t know enough about substituting agave to say, especially in baking, but I do know the brown sugar adds a real richness (because of the molasses in the brown sugar), so it’s really tough to tell.
One of the many, many things that I love about your blog is that you’re not ashamed to use ‘store brands’. I have that same little honey bear in my cupboard. Thank you again for making cooking and baking accessible and easy!
I was thinking the same exact thing as I was reading the article and looking at the pictures! That is why I love this site:)
Pinned! I love graham crackers too!
We have multiple food allergies in our house, and wheat is one of them. I am always looking at your recipes and trying to find ways to adapt them so my kids can eat them. I am curious how this would turn out if I replaced the wheat germ with oat germ and used an all-purpose wheat free flour instead. I guess I will just have to try and see. Thanks for the recipe!
I have done a similar recipe to this using Better Batter gluten free all purpose flour and it works well. I leave the wheat germ out, obviously. If you want that whole-grany texture of the wheat germ, try Arrowhead Mills Rice N Shine hot cereal, which is basically just stone ground rice – think grits but rice instead of corn. You can use an equal measure of it. The Better Batter GF flour blend (like all gluten free flours) is VERY “moisture loving” so I recommend backing off a bit on the measure – say 2 cups total of GF flour plus 1/2 cup of the ground rice cereal then proceeding with the recipe as directed. If it comes out dry, add a beaten egg to the recipe next time. I have to add an egg because I live in a very hot dry climate, but you might not. You probably know how tricky the GF flours can be! Good luck! 🙂
Awesome! I was surprised to see they don’t have “graham flour” in them…I thought that’s what made graham crackers…”graham”y. But even if they turn out between gingerbread/shortbread, that still sounds amazing. I’m a total graham cracker girl too and can’t wait to try these.
I think graham flour is just whole wheat flour.
I have never have graham crackers before (not sure we get them here in the UK), so I will have to make these.
Dannii you may know them as digestive biscuits in the UK. We don’t have either in Germany normally but can sometimes find digestive biscuits.
My all time favorite Graham crackers are the Nabisco Grahams in the red box. Sadly, I get them only once a year, since I have to wait for someone on the East Coast to bring them to me. I have no idea why they won’t sell them West of the Mississippi.
This is an interesting idea! I would love to make my own graham crackers! I wonder if they would make a good neighbor gift at Christmas? I was also curious on how you lightly adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart- why did you substitute the baking soda for baking powder? Thanks!
I liked the texture better with baking powder. 🙂
Count me in as one of the ones who thought graham crackers had to have special “graham flour”. Your recipe made me Google it, and it was quite educational 🙂 I didn’t realize that graham flour is basically just taking the entire wheat kernel and grinding it all up. You can supposedly get a rough facsimile by combining unbleached white flour, wheat germ, and a tiny bit of wheat bran (or apparently mixing only whole wheat flower and wheat germ, as in this recipe). So interesting that I MUST try it. Mmmmm, warm from the oven with whole milk…nom nom nom. Thanks for sharing!
Lol, I wrote ‘wheat flower’…spell check doesn’t fix it when you accidentally put in a correctly spelled, but misused, word!
who would have thought you could make your own graham crackers. thanks for sharing.
Oh my goodness YUM!!! Never even thought of making my OWN graham crackers-how totally cool! :)) I too, am a HUGE fan of those delicious little things even though they aren’t overly sweet (and I have a huge sweet-tooth!). I don’t know what it is but they are amazing. 🙂 Can’t wait to try these!
Now all we need is homemade marshmallows and some chocolate to make s’mores.
homemade marshmallows are the bomb diggity! and so easy too! I made my first ever batch last year at Christmas and I had to make more because they were a HUGE hit!
I love this! We don’t have Graham crackers where I live, but I love using them for cooking, smores etc. Now I can make my own!
Funny because I was just googling “homemade graham crackers” the other day.
I just want to thank you for this post today…it was screaming my name. I ran home from work excited to make these sweet little things and oh are they wonderful! I am a chocolate fan (okay, fanatic), so I added about 2T of cocoa and a few drops of vanilla…YUM!!! The last of them are still baking and I couldn’t wait to tell you how excited I am about them! Now I just want to try to figure out how to make them a little more healthy, maybe without so much butter…I’ll work on that!
So I am not the only one whose go to snack is graham crackers. It is not that they taste extraordinary or anything, they are just quick easy, and handy on your way out the do when you are hungary, or pretty great with milk when you have no other delicious cookie around the house for a snack option. Totally will have to give these a whirl.
Oh wow, these are adorable. So much better looking than the boxed!
Must try this! I snacking on graham crackers and milk at your house, but I didn’t know they were a”grandma comfort food” for you. Graham crackers and milk were one of the only things I could keep down when I was pregnant. Surprisingly, I still love them. 🙂
Alright, I don’t think that anyone has asked this yet but if they have sorry about the duplicate. Where did you get your cookie cutter? It’s so dang cute!
Here you go! I LOVE them (I have the round ones, too).
http://www.amazon.com/RSVP-Biscuit-Cutters-Square-Fluted/dp/B000FLVRRY/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1344831717&sr=8-11&keywords=biscuit+cutter
I love graham crackers. I love them with applesauce especially. And ditto on the cookie cutter from above post
Answered! 🙂
These look like the perfect back-to-school treat! Do you think they’d make a good graham cracker crust for a cheese cake?
It would be a slightly different flavor, but very tasty.
My daughter and I made these today. We were already planning to have s’mores tomorrow for National S’Mores Day, so it was perfect timing. Too bad I didn’t think to make homemade marshmallows too! The graham crackers have a great flavor, but I think I should have baked mine a minute longer so they’d be just a touch crispier. It was so hard to tell when they were done. Also, baking powder is listed in the ingredients, but baking soda is referenced in the text of the recipe – just thought you might want to know if you don’t already.
I pinned it!!!
Here goes nothing.. Again!! For some reason my comment didn’t post the first time! Thanks for all your awesome recipes- and especially the tip about sneaky facebook! I don’t want to miss your posts!!
have you ever tried a recipe with graham flour??? i love the combo in this recipe & can’t wait to try, but just curious!
Graham flour is so hard to find and it’s so similar to whole wheat that I’m cool with whole wheat. 🙂
yum! can’t wait to try!
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My phone is having issues. I just repinned the giveaway! Thanks!
I love pintrest . I love your blog. I love ipads.
I also like crackers but I can take a break when I start to eat them. Great thing about your it is diet.
Something awesome is being known amongst your coworkers as “THE baker” =) I love your cupcake recipes and tips/tutorials!
I’ve been searching for good homemade graham cracker recipes. This one looks so delicious! I’m glad to find one that doesn’t use graham flour, since I have trouble finding that at the store.
I was just going to try finding a homemade graham cracker recipe and thought I would look here first! My baby loves graham crackers but I am trying to cut out high fructose corn syrup and all the store varieties have that in them. I am excited to try this recipe! Thank you!
I live in South africa, and we do not have Graham crackers ( and hence no legit s’mores options ) but no more!! I will be trying these out ASAP, I miss them from my USA Summer camp counselor years!
Thanks for all the great recipes
Made these tonight and they are delicious! You MUST eat them with milk. I ate some plain and then thought, “oh yeah! milk!” The magic combination. Just delicious. Thanks again!
Your ode to graham crackers could have been taken directly from my head! LOL! I too absolutely love graham crackers with milk for an afternoon or midnight snack, for breakfast or with s’mores! They were something we always had around the house when I was a kid and I do now. I have wanted to attempt homemade graham crackers for a while but have been worried I would be disappointed, but I really should get over that and try making them soon!
I have a love for graham crackers too. And the name Graham. It started when I was offered graham crackers and apple juice after the delivery of my first child. I have requested that combo with 3 other babies. I also love to spread them with peanut butter or cream cheese (little cheesecake if you will). Thanks for this recipe!! I have been dreaming of homemade graham crackers.
Whenever I make it it comes out to dry to cut with cookie cutters what do I do?