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Perfectly sweet, with a hint of cinnamon and honey, these Homemade Graham Crackers are a delicious, easy to make snack. If you’ve never baked cookies with your kids, this is a perfect starter recipe.
Table of Contents
Why I Love This Recipe
- Better Than Store-Bought: These graham crackers have a rich, buttery flavor and a slightly chewy texture that you just can’t get from store-bought versions. I love re-creating healthy versions of store-bought snacks like Homemade Fig Bars, Homemade Oreo Cookies and Chocolate Chip Granola Bars, homemade cheese crackers.
- Healthier Ingredients: Made with whole wheat flour, dark brown sugar, and honey, these crackers are a more wholesome treat you can feel good about serving to your family.
- Versatile Use: Enjoy them as a snack on their own, crumble them over yogurt, or make classic s’mores – the possibilities are endless!
- Fun to Make: This homemade graham cracker recipe is fun to make, especially if you get the kids involved in cutting out shapes with cookie cutters. It’s a perfect kitchen project for a cozy afternoon.
- Egg-Free: The best part is that there’s no eggs in this Graham Cracker recipe dough, so you can let your kids roll, cut out shapes and enjoy a taste of the dough AND the final baked product!
The Ingredients
- Whole Wheat Flour: Adds a wholesome, nutty flavor and extra fiber to the crackers.
- All-Purpose Flour: Creates a perfect balance between tender and crisp in the crackers.
- Dark Brown Sugar: Provides a deep, molasses-like sweetness that complements the honey.
- Kosher Salt: Balances the sweetness and brings out the flavors of the other ingredients.
- Ground Cinnamon: Adds a touch of warmth and spice, giving the crackers their signature taste.
- Baking Soda: Helps the crackers rise slightly and gives them a light, crisp texture.
- Unsalted Butter: Using chilled and cubed butter contributes to the flaky texture and rich flavor of the crackers.
- Honey: Adds natural sweetness to the graham crackers.
- Water: Helps bring the dough together and keeps it from being too dry.
*For exact measurements and instructions, see the recipe card below.*
Variations and Substitutions
- Flours: You can use all whole wheat flour for a denser, more fiber-rich cracker, or use all all-purpose flour. Some of my readers have used graham flour in place of the whole wheat flour with success too. Feel free to experiment!
- Gluten-Free: I’ve had Weelicious readers share that they’ve used a gluten free all-purpose flour in place of the flours in this recipe with great success!
- Toppings: If you want, before baking, sprinkle the crackers with a bit of cinnamon sugar or flaky sea salt for added texture and flavor.
- Chocolate Dipped: For a sweet treat, dip half of each graham cracker in melted dark or milk chocolate and let it set before serving. Or for a chocolatey version, make Chocolate Graham Crackers.
How to Make Homemade Graham Crackers
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor or mixer combine the flours, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking soda.
Step 2: Add cubed and chilled butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
Step 3: Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines.
Step 4: Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk and place between two sheets of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick.
Step 5: Cut dough into square crackers or fun shapes using cookie cutters.
Step 6: Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Cool and serve.
Tips and Tricks
For the best homemade graham crackers, keep these tips and tricks in mind:
- Chill the Butter: Make sure your butter is cold and cubed before adding it to the dough. This helps create a flaky texture in the crackers.
- Don’t Overwork the Dough: Mix the dough just until it comes together to avoid tough crackers. Over-mixing can result in a denser texture.
- Even Thickness: Roll the dough evenly to ensure that the crackers bake uniformly. Uneven dough can lead to some crackers being over-baked while others remain undercooked.
- Cutting Shapes: Get creative with shapes by using cookie cutters. If you’re making these with kids, they’ll love picking out fun shapes for their crackers!
Storage Tip
Store the cooled graham crackers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. They can also be frozen (pre-baked or baked) for up to 4 months.
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FAQs
Yes, you can prepare the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it for up to 2 days. Just let it come to room temperature for a few minutes before rolling it out. Alternatively, you can freeze the dough for up to a month and thaw it in the refrigerator before using.
Leftover graham crackers are incredibly versatile! Crumble them up and use them in Pumpkin Pie Parfaits, use them as a topping for yogurt or ice cream, or enjoy them with a spread of nut butter or homemade homemade strawberry preserves.
If your graham crackers are not crispy, they may need a bit more baking time. You can also try rolling the dough slightly thinner next time for a crisper result. Remember to let them cool completely, as they will firm up as they cool.
Absolutely! You can add different spices like ginger, nutmeg, or even a bit of cocoa powder to make Chocolate Graham Crackers. Or experiment with almond or vanilla extract for different flavors.
More Easy Snacks for Kids
If you’ve never made your own graham crackers, you’ve got to try! Especially if you have little one. Graham crackers are like a total cookie rite of passage for kids. Let me know what you think of this recipe by leaving a comment and rating below!
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Graham Crackers
Equipment
- Food Processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter, chilled & cubed
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a food processor or mixer combine the first 6 ingredients.
- Add cubed and chilled butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
- Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines into a dough.
- Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk and place between two pieces of parchment paper.
- Roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into crackers or fun shapes using cookie cutters.
- Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
- Cool and serve.
Video
Notes
- To Freeze: After step 6, place the cut out cookie shapes on a baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes. Remove, place in a Ziploc bag, label and freeze for up to 4 months. When ready to bake, follow steps 7-8, adding an additional 1-2 minutes baking time.
- If you have no Whole Wheat, you can use 1 Cup Oat Bran to 2 Cups AP Flour instead of what the recipe calls for and it works perfect!
- To Store: Place the cooled graham crackers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
no, but sounds like a great idea!
Have you ever used this recipe to make a pie crust. I was thinking it might be neat to fill with pumpkin pie filling, etc… I don’t know too much about cooking so I don’t know if that would work…
yummmmmmm…just made these! i halved the recipe (almost out of flour) and used light brown sugar. i have huge cookie cutters and was able to get 16 cookies out of the batch! thanks for the recipe Catherine 🙂
I have been waiting awhile to try these out. I was waiting for my youngest son to turn one. But I could just not wait any longer! So instead of Honey I used Brown Rice Syrup. I also do not own a food processor, so I used my Magic Bullet and divided the dry mixture into 3 batches. Then again with the butter in 3 batches. A little time consuming that way but they turned out so wonderful!!! It was really worth the extra effort.
You really need the butter or margerine because they allow the crackers to be flaky and crisp. You can try to use crisco shortening. Let me know how they turn out!
anything i can use in place of butter (or margarine) that will give the same result? im not a big fan of butter.
AWESOME-AWESOME-AWESOME! When these were baking in the oven, my husband and both kids were glued to the oven waiting for them to be done. This will definitely be in my regular routine.
These are pretty good, I think next time I will top them with a little bit of honey and hopefully I will have an actual food processor next time, because I tried to do it in a blender and it did not work at all. I did everything by hand but they still turned out great.
Can I use light brown sugar… that’s what I have on hand and don’t want to make a special trip to the store. thanks!
Katie
Yum! I just made these to bring to a moms’ group cookie exchange with lots of kids. They turned out really well! They don’t taste super sweet like store-bought, but they are sweet from the honey and brown sugar. When I took them out after 15 min, they were still a little soft, but appeared done. Within a few minutes on the cooling rack, they became more hard–still not crunchy (yet!) I used mini cookie cutters and like this method the best, especially if these are meant for children. The bears and giraffes turned out best. I found a set of Noah’s ark cookie cutters at a craft store. This made 2 large cookie sheets of cookies, plus some leftover dough that I cut and froze as Catherine suggested. When they were in the oven, they do puff up a bit, so be sure to leave some room for that. Next time I will try with Earth Balance! Thanks, Catherine!
Is there any other flour there?
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve been wanting to make this for my 18 month old son. We moved to the Middle East about a month ago and can’t find all purpose flour. They have all purpose wheat flour. Is this the same? If not, what can I use as a substitute? Happy Holidays!
Love this recipe!! I made it for my play group and we ran out because they were such a hit. This is the second recipe from here I tried out on this group of kids and they are loving it (so are their parents).
I just made these for my daughter to take to preschool for her fall party. I used 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour and added about 1/2 cup of pumpkin. They taste amazing! They are not crunchy like box crackers but I don’t know if that’s from the pumpkin or from not rolling them out thin enough. Either way, they will surely be made again! YUM!
Jennifer, I am having the same trouble as we speak…with a kitchen aide mixer. I was afraid to leave chunks of butter, I thought they may get too greasy. I think next time I will mix it half the time.
Just made these. They taste great but I could not cut them with a cookie cutter. The dough was like peanut butter. Maybe I overprocessed the butter in the kitchen aid. In any case, I rolled them into balls then flattened them with a floured cup.