Graham Crackers

I must be feeling more domestic lately. I've been working on my assignment for Thanksgiving dinner (more on that later) and just getting back into the kitchen. After having to keep my kitchen clean all summer for the house to sell and moving I'm enjoying baking and creating in the kitchen again.

So my attempt yesterday? Graham Crackers.

Yep. My own Graham Crackers.

You see David eats these as if they were going out of style. He's pretty specific about what brand he likes (Honey Maid) and how he eats them (dunked in milk) So when I saw an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats where he made his own a few years ago, it's always been on my bucket list of things to cook.

And they were wonderful! They even passed David's dunk test. They reminded me of a crunchy textured gingerbread. I think next time I'll replace half of the molasses with honey for more of a honey graham flavor.

But you should give them a try. Just roll them REALLY thin. I thought I was about at the 1/8 inch mark, but now they're cooked they're a little thicker than I prefer.

I will make them again and I'm thinking next time I'll make some homemade marshmallows to go with them to create the ultimate S'more!

If you want to try I've included the recipe. If you don't have a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients here's a handy calculator that should change it for you. Oh I buy my graham flour on Amazon.com. Some health food stores carry it, and there are recipes out there that tell you how much wheat bran and germ you can add to white four to make it...just google it.


Ingredients
8 3/8 ounces graham flour
1 7/8 ounces all-purpose flour
3 ounces dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes and chilled
2 1/4 ounces molasses
1 1/2 ounces whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Place both flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Add the molasses, milk and vanilla extract and process until the dough forms a ball, approximately 1 minute. Press the ball into a 1/2-inch thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Unwrap the chilled dough and place it onto a large piece of parchment paper and top with a second sheet of parchment paper. Roll the dough out until it is 1/8-inch thick. Slide the rolled dough and parchment paper onto a half sheet pan. Remove the top sheet of parchment paper and cut the dough, using a rolling pizza cutter into 2-inch square pieces, by making vertical and then horizontal cuts all the way across the dough. Trim off any excess. Using a fork, poke holes all over the top of the dough. Leave the crackers on the pan and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 25 minutes or until the edges just start to darken. Remove from the oven, set the sheet pan with the crackers on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Once completely cool, break into individual crackers and store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.