Over the years, I’ve been known to eat a graham cracker or two. Actually, that’s an understatement. Graham crackers are as much of a staple in my home as flour, butter and coffee. My bedtime snack is often a graham cracker smeared with nut butter. The crackers (a childhood favorite), come in plentiful boxes and are sweet, but not too much, and make a lovely platform for rich almond butter. A satisfying snack that never disappoints, graham crackers are a definite go-to.
[E]ven though the boxed versions more than fit the bill, I often wondered if you could make your own graham crackers. Having recently purchased a bag of King Arthur Flour Whole Wheat Pastry/Graham Flour for another recipe, I noticed a recipe on the back of the package for homemade graham crackers. How handy! It seemed simple enough, too.
[T]he nutty/wheaty graham flour is combined with all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon are blended together.
[I]n another bowl, an egg, oil, honey and a few tablespoons of milk are whisked together.
[T]he wet ingredients are then poured and incorporated into the dry.
[T]he dough comes together with a little spatula mixing and then further hand-mixing to make a nice smooth pliable dough.
[T]he dough is shaped into a disk and refrigerated for at least an hour. I let mine stay in the fridge overnight, since I wouldn’t be able to get to the dough till the next day.
[T]he dough is divided in half for rolling. I found the dough very easy to roll. The recipe recommends rolling on parchment to not only get it to very thin (1/16â€) thickness, but also keep the dough from sliding or sticking.
[I] rolled the dough out and trimmed it to make two large rectangles and used a square cutter to cut the scraps into individual crackers.
[T]he dough is then brushed with milk and sprinkled with a cinnamon-sugar mixture.
[T]he dough bakes for a brief period, then is removed from the oven to be cut into individual crackers using a pastry wheel.
[T]he completed crackers spend more time in the oven and additional time after the heat is turned off to ensure the crackers turn out crispy.
[I] was happy with the look of the crackers, even though mine (of course) came out in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They were delicious — crispy and flavorful and more fuller bodied in taste and texture than purchased graham crackers. Also, far less sweet.
[G]iven that, why not dip some in dark chocolate? Chocolate-covered graham crackers are also a favorite, so I decided to give them a plunge into darkness, ,coating half of the crackers.
[H]aving recently gotten some cute Halloween sprinkles, I could not help myself but embellish some of the dipped crackers with some gaiety.
[B]ut the ultimate taste-test treat was to turn these homemade crackers into that fall (and year-round, really) iconic treat — s’mores! I laid the classic segments of Hershey bars on one cracker. Melted (slightly) a marshmallow by holding it by a fork over a burner on the stove (I was in a hurry and had no bonfire), and placed its gooeyness on the chocolate and another cracker to sandwich the whole deal.
[O]h boy! It had been awhile since I’d had a s’more and this made up for all that lost time. The crackers, sturdier and more sumptuous than purchased ones (which often break apart in s’more form), the sweetness of the chocolate and marshmallow more pronounced against the less-sweet cracker. What a complete treat, pre-Halloween, to keep, at least a little while, all to myself.
For the recipe, go to https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/graham-crackers-recipe.