Recipe Review: Homemade Graham Crackers

Following on the heels of the homemade goldfish last week, I decided to give the homemade graham crackers a go this afternoon.  I'll apologize in advance for the fact that there are far fewer pictures in this review than in that one, I set my camera aside and completely forgot about it during the actual construction of the crackers.

At any rate, if you read the goldfish post, this is going to sound really familiar.  Here is the recipe I used, which is basically flour (AP, and whole wheat), butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, honey, water, salt and baking soda.  You'll note in this picture of my ingredients, I've left out the water and the brown sugar, that was carelessness, not design.

All of the dry ingredients go into a mixer or food processor (I used the food processor, since I'd already located it for the goldfish and didn't relish the idea of diving back into my boxes, not even for my KitchenAid.)  Give the dry stuff a quick whirl to combine, then add the butter, cubed and chilled, and pulse till you have something that looks like sand.  Add the honey and the water (note to self, find a better measuring device for honey, suggestions, anyone?), then remove to a piece of parchment, rest, roll out, cut and bake, 15 minutes at 350.

This dough is very tender, even after a 30 minute rest in the fridge, but since I was just cutting out squares, it worked fine.  I rolled the dough out between layers of parchment (best baking invention ever? I think so.) since it is also quite sticky.  I went for smallish squares, and made no effort at all to make them all the same size, I just cut the dough with a small paring knife, into roughly similar sized rectangles.  I like the little holes you get on commercial graham crackers, so I dotted these with a fork, and sprinkled them with sugar before putting them in the oven.  The sugar was totally unnecessary, I just thought it might be kind of pretty on the finished product.  Most of it fell off when I moved them off the cookie sheet at the end, though, so I probably wouldn't bother next time.

As for how they turned out?  Wellllll, unless I'm using them a delivery vehicle for melty chocolate bars and marshmallows, I can take or leave graham crackers.  But these are really good, much better than store bought, very crisp and with a distinctive taste of cinnamon without being overwhelming.  But really I made them for Max, who was filching them off the cookie sheet while my back was turned.  I will assume that since when I turned around he had AT LEAST three shoved into his mouth, plus two in each hand, that he also likes them.  He keeps asking for more, but these are more of a sweet treat than a regular staple of his diet, so he's had his fill for today.

Here's the finished product.  The recipe made enough (minus the ones Max ate) to fill this container, which should keep us in graham crackers for a week or so.

And here's Max laying on the kitchen floor eating the last graham cracker I let him have, he wouldn't smile for the camera, but I assure you he was enjoying it.

Oh, I forgot to mention, but following advice from the friend who recommended this recipe, I inverted the amounts of AP and WW flour, and they turned out just fine.  Next time I am going to try using more WW and even less AP, maybe offset the junk food like nature of this with whole grains?  I'll let you know how it turns out.