Graham Crackers

I looked all over the grocery store and Whole Foods for it.  What is it?  It is called graham flour.  Maybe this is something you are familiar with but I sure wasn't.. other than it must be in graham crackers, right?  That must be where they get their name and flavor.  At least that is what I always thought.  Well let me tell you, I couldn't find it but since then I have researched it and guess what?  It is a type of whole wheat flour where they use the whole wheat grain to grind it in a special fashion but it remains just whole wheat flour.

So I got busy with my dehydrated wheat berries, grinding them as I normally do to make wheat flour and being grateful someone did not sell me special expensive "graham flour"....

Graham crackers


2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or if you want to search high and low and find Graham flour, be my guest - these can also be made with other flour combinations)
½ cup turbinado, sucanat or brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon (more or less to taste)
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
¼ cup honey
¼ cup milk (I actually used the leftover "milk" from making the butter last week)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (try making you own with organic vanilla beans and vodka)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  I put Journey to work cutting up the cold butter into little pieces and since the KitchenAid was busy making me marshmallows, I chose the food processor and dough attachment for this recipe.  I was very happy with the results I got too!

In the food processor I mixed the dry ingredients then added Journey's butter pieces and pulsed until they were well incorporated into the mix.

We added the honey, milk, and vanilla and continued to process until a ball of dough was evident.

 

Cut this ball in half and work with 1/2 at a time.  If it is too soft or sticky you can refrigerate it for awhile.






Now comes the fun rolling part.  Do this between 2 pieces of parchment paper and try to roll your dough pretty thin (mine was a bit fat).  Roll it about 1/8 inch thick in a rectangle the size that will fit on your cookie sheet.

You can slide the parchment paper with the rolled dough rectangle right onto the cookie sheet (but take the top parchment paper off before baking).  Using a pizza cutter, I scored the dough into the size of crackers I wanted and popped them in the oven.  Journey had a good time making the little fork holes in the top - sort of like on store-bought graham crackers.

Bake 18 - 22 minutes. Watch the edges.. they may turn brown (but they are still tasty).  When you take them from the oven, cut them again on the lines you made.  Cool for just a few minutes before transferring them to a place to cool completely and separate the crackers.

I had to put some of my thicker crackers back in the oven (turned off but still warm) for about 10 - 15 minutes longer just to crisp them up so they would be good and dry before storing.  Remember they need to be completely cooled and dry before placing them in an airtight container.

These were so good!  We are still eating them ... for our S'mores that night, dipped in milk for a snack, in lunches, etc.  These are great crackers!