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Making Homemade Graham Crackers is super easy! These crunchy and slightly sweet squares are the perfect after school snack and are just the thing to make s'mores a little more special. Use these in all of your recipes that call for graham crackers.
Making graham crackers at home is not at all as scary as it sounds (it sounded scary to me at least!). How does one go about making a cracker?!
It turns out, it's pretty darn easy. If you can make roll out sugar cookies, you can make these delightfully, crunchy squares.
One thing I really like about these crackers is, the taste & texture. These are NOT copycats of what you get from the box. They are not tasteless and overly sweet, but instead have a denser, crisp bite. These crackers have a nutty, wheat flavor, they taste homemade, and homemade is always better!
What are the ingredients for homemade graham crackers?
What makes a graham cracker a graham cracker? Graham flour. What is graham flour? Graham flour is a type of whole wheat flour which contains all the germ, oil and fiber from the kernel, lending to it's distinctive taste. If you can't find graham flour, whole wheat flour is a perfectly fine substitute.
I like keeping a bag of graham flour in my pantry because it's high in fiber and healthier than other flours. One of the other recipes I love to make is my Chewy Graham Cookies.
Aside from the flour, you don't need any other specialty ingredients! You'll just need eggs, all purpose flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, vegetable or canola oil, honey or maple syrup and milk. All pantry staples.
One thing I tried out was substituting the honey for maple syrup. You can use either in this recipe.
Honey is thee classic flavor for grahams and will give you true graham flavor. I recommend using a nice, high quality honey, or local honey if you can get some in your area. But if you're looking to add a little flair to these delightful crackers, you can totally use pure maple syrup. , Maple syrup lends caramel undertones which pairs nicely with the nuttiness of the whole wheat flour.
Also, I chose to leave cinnamon as optional because I wanted to use these specifically for s'mores, but you can totally add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough if you want to!
How do you make Graham crackers?
As the above description says, making graham crackers at home is really easy. There are just a couple of extra steps in the baking process which require a bit more attention, but there are no special skills required.
The Dough
Basically, you start off by making your dough. Whisk the dry ingredients together and in a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and gently stir them together until the flour is absorbed. I found that I really did not need to work the dough that much; it came together quite nicely. Once I stirred the ingredients together, I used my hands to form a ball. The dough shouldn't be sticky or too dry- it should be moistened all the way through.
After making the dough, it needs some chill time. Pop into the fridge for one hour. After that, you can roll out the dough.
Rolling
Rolling the dough out wasn't tricky, but it took a little more care because you have to roll it out really, really thin! You want it to be about 1/16th of an inch.
This is imperative to create a crisp cracker. Any thicker and the crackers will bake up too soft.
Grab 3 large pieces of parchment and get your baking tray ready. Lay one of the pieces down on your work surface. Take ½ the dough and put it in the center of the paper, flattening slightly. Place another sheet of parchment over the dough and begin to roll it out. It is very important that you use this parchment method for two reasons.
- You'll never be able to transfer the dough to the baking sheet on it's own. It will fall apart.
- I found it's best to avoid adding flour to the dough when rolling. Because the dough is so thin, you don't want to dry it out any further.
Once the dough is the correct thickness, transfer the whole sheet of parchment to your baking tray. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Baking
These are not the type of cookie you pop into the oven for 20 minutes and walk away. These guys need a little babysitting (at first).
Out of all the graham cracker recipes I tried, I found it difficult to achieve the crispness I was looking for. This baking method works REALLY well and gave me consistent results.
- After your oven is preheated (300 degrees), place the trays into the oven and set the timer for 5 minutes. After that time is up, rotate the trays. Set the time for another 5 minutes.
- While they're baking, prepare a space to cut the crackers. You'll need a pastry wheel/pizza cutter or knife, a fork and space to set the trays down on the counter.
- After the second 5 minute bake time, pull the trays out. Cut them into even squares (trimming off the uneven edges). The recommended size is 2x3 inches, but I just approximated. I got about 12 crackers per tray.
- Then, take the fork and poke holes into the crackers. If you have a pastry docker, you can use that too.
- Once you're done cutting and poking, leave the crackers on the tray exactly as they are. Do not separate them.
- Place back into the oven for about 20-25 minutes until medium golden brown.
- Once they're browned, pull them out and turn off the oven and leave the door open for 5 minutes. Put the trays back in the oven after time is up to ensure you get maximum crispness.
- Once done resting in the oven, allow to fully cool. Snap the crackers apart and enjoy!!
Uses for homemade graham crackers
- Enjoy with a spread of peanut butter as a snack
- S'mores
- Grind into crumbs for a homemade graham cracker pie crust
- Icebox cake
- Dip in dark chocolate
- Make homemade cracker toffee
- Crumble on top of ice cream
- Use for dessert dips
Homemade Graham Crackers
Making Homemade Graham Crackers is super easy! These crunchy and slightly sweet squares are the perfect after school snack and are just the thing to make those s'mores a little more special. Use these in all of your recipes that call for graham crackers.
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 24 crackers 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup graham flour ((regular whole wheat flour can be used))
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup vegetable oil or canola oil
- ¼ cup honey ((100% pure maple syrup can be used))
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together (flours, sugar, salt & baking powder). In a smaller separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients (egg, oil, honey, milk).
- Add the wet to the dry and gently stir them together with a spatula until the flour is absorbed. Do not work the dough too much.
- Use your hands to form a ball. The dough shouldn't be sticky or too dry- it should be moistened all the way through.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for one hour.
- After one hour, preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
- Grab 3 large pieces of parchment. Lay one of the pieces down on your work surface. Take ½ the dough and put it in the center of one sheet of paper, flattening slightly. Place another sheet of parchment over the dough and begin to roll it out.
- Once the dough is 1/16th of an inch, transfer the whole sheet of parchment to your baking tray removing the top piece of parchment. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
- Place the trays into the oven and set the timer for 5 minutes. After that time is up, rotate the trays. Set the time for another 5 minutes.
- While they're baking, prepare a space to cut the crackers. You'll need a pastry wheel/pizza cutter or knife, a fork and a place to set the trays down on the counter.
- After the second 5 minute bake time, pull the trays out. Cut them into even squares (trimming off the uneven edges). The recommended size is 2x3 inches, but you can approximate. Then, take the fork and poke holes into the crackers. If you have a pastry docker, you can use that too.
- Once you're done cutting and poking, leave the crackers on the tray exactly as they are. Do not separate them.
- Place back into the oven for about 20-25 minutes until medium golden brown.
- FOR MAXIMUM CRISPINESS: Once done baking, pull the trays out of the oven and place on a cooling rack. Turn the oven OFF. Leave the oven door open for 5 minutes to allow the majority of the heat to escape. Then, place the trays back in the oven and close it for another 15 minutes. Be sure the oven is turned off.
- Remove the trays from the oven to fully cool. Snap the crackers apart and enjoy!
- Store graham crackers in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Notes
Recipe by Owlbbaking.com
For Cinnamon Graham Crackers, add 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon to the dry ingredient mixture.
For Cinnamon Sugar topping, brush the rolled out dough with milk then sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar (do this before baking).
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
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