I LOVE graham crackers. They are perfect for those times when you’re craving just a little bit of sweet. Plus, they’re pretty much essential when you’re making s’mores (though not so much if you make S’Mores Cookies, which you totally should).

In contemplating what recipe I was in the mood to make and share a couple of weeks ago, I started thinking about these amazing S’more Cookie Bars I’d made for a holiday party years ago. TOO many years ago. Mouth watering, stomach grumbling for those amazing bars, I started making a mental list of what ingredients I’d need, crossing all my fingers that I could find the recipe again.

It’s one of those recipes that uses a few ready-made ingredients like milk chocolate bars, marshmallow fluff, and graham crackers. And I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we had a recipe for graham crackers, too? So if people wanted to make that part from scratch, they could? It seemed only right that I should post that recipe first since I had one in my baking arsenal.

Though, once you try these you may wonder why in the world anyone would do anything with these graham crackers but eat them just as they are. They are SOOOOOOOO delicious. So much better than the ones you buy at the store (and, don’t get me wrong, those are very tasty, but these are INCREDIBLE in comparison). These have more depth to their flavor—most likely thanks to the simple ingredients that go into them like honey, molasses, butter, and vanilla.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably never really considered making your own crackers. Before stumbling upon this recipe in a Fine Cooking magazine gifted to me by my mom, I’d never even thought about the fact that you CAN make your own crackers. Cookies, cakes, pies, tarts, brownies, muffins, breads—those are all no-brainers for making your own. But crackers? It just hadn’t ever occurred to me.

And I honestly don’t know what possessed me to try this recipe in the first place, when it was surrounded with all sorts of incredible-sounding cookie recipes. In fact, the only reason I noticed it in the first place was because it’s on the facing page to a recipe that I’d marked as wanting to try: Triple Ginger Cookies. (They’re the BEST ginger cookies ever, and I’ll definitely be sharing that recipe, too. Pinky promise.)

I think what drew me to this recipe was not only my deep, undying love for graham crackers, but also that everything gets mixed up in a food processor, rolled out, and then baked. No mess, no fuss. It looked really simple, and I am all about the simple when it comes to baking.

And let me tell you, when I smelled them baking that first time (and, yup, every time since) I knew I’d struck gold. HEAVENLY. That’s the scent of these baking up crisp in your oven. I kid you not.

After you’ve rolled them out, the original recipe instructs you to trim off the uneven edges so you have perfectly straight lines all around. Which is crazy-pants if you ask me because WHY would you dispose of perfectly good cookie dough? Just don’t do it. I beg of you. Cut your straight lines with your pastry or pizza cutter, as instructed, and leave those uneven edges to bake along with the whole mass. Then, if you’re really concerned about perfect edges, just eat them all up before anyone else sees them. I’m just saying, you’ll thank me.

And if, by chance, you’re all WAIT, WHAT ABOUT THAT S’MORES COOKIE BAR RECIPE YOU MENTIONED WAY UP THERE AT THE TOP OF THIS POST? Don’t worry. That’s coming up in a couple of weeks. And it’s totally worth the wait.

Happy baking!

Homemade Graham Crackers

A lightly sweet, flavorful graham cracker---better than any you can buy at the store.

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Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Course: Snack

Servings: 45 crackers

Ingredients

Volume - Weight

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 3 Tablespoons buttermilk (or regular milk with a splash of lemon juice added)
• 3 Tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C. Cut two large sheets of parchment that fit the size of your cookie sheet. Set aside.
  
• Place flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine.
  
• Cut butter into small pieces, add to food processor, and run for about a minute until it looks like coarse meal.
  
• Combine buttermilk (or milk and lemon juice), honey, molasses, and vanilla in a small bowl, and mix until well combined. Add to the food processor and run until the fully formed dough comes together. (You may have to stop the machine several times and move the dough around to achieve this because it is a really thick, stiff dough.)
  
• Pull the dough out of the processor, pat it into an evenly distributed flat, rectangular shape, and place in between the sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough to an even 1/8" thickness in about a 13 x 16" rectangle (or whatever size rectangle will fit on your cookie sheet).
  
• Peel off the top parchment sheet, then use a pastry or pizza cutter to cut lines through the dough, creating the size crackers you want to have. If you want, pierce each cracker a few times with a fork.
  
• Place the dough-filled parchment onto a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until crisp. Let cool on the cookie sheet, then break into individual crackers along the lines you cut. Keep in an airtight container.
  

Notes

TIP: If your crackers in the middle did not get entirely crisp, you can place them back in the oven to dry out. Simply heat your oven to its lowest temperature, place your tray of crackers in it, then turn off the heat. Let the crackers sit in the oven while it cools and they should be nice and crisp when they come out. You can repeat this step if necessary.

Recipe adapted from Fine Cooking.