One of my favorite cookies growing up were graham crackers. Sure I loved chocolate chip cookies, but because my mom declared graham crackers "healthy" they were more often found in our house than any other kind of treat. I went with the flow and knew a good thing when I saw it.
When I recently realized that I could make my own homemade graham crackers I was intrigued. Were they really healthy? Were they tricky to make? Well, there is a whole cup of butter in the recipe - but they're smack full of whole grains, so that's a nice consolation prize. And no, they aren't tricky to make. In fact, rolling out the dough is as tricky as it gets.
I found this recipe on the Martha Stewart site but when I started making them, I quickly realized that there was a problem. As I followed the recipe, I noticed the dough just wasn't coming together. All I had were crumbs, not dough. I threw in a couple eggs and all of a sudden the dough came together perfectly! Her recipe needed more baking time – at least judging by my 30 year old oven. After 10 minutes, the cookies looked good but were soft instead of snappin', like a good graham cracker should be. So I decided to do a second shorter bake time at the top of the oven rack and it worked like a charm. Crunchy and perfect graham crackers. Perfect for snacking with a cup of tea or making your own homemade s'mores.
The recipe below is my own version because who needs an incomplete recipe (even if it is Martha's), leading you astray.
Graham Cracker Cookie
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat bran (or wheat germ)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, combine the flours, wheat bran, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together until well blended.
In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs and honey and beat well until fully incorporated. Add the flour mixture to the wet and stir until combined.
Divide the dough into 3 balls. Wrap with parchment or plastic wrap and slightly flatten these dough balls with your palms. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Unwrap the 1st dough ball and dust with a sprinkle of flour on both sides. Place the dough on a piece of parchment and use the wrapper of the dough ball on top. Roll out until flat, about 1/8" thick. Aim for a rectangle shape while you roll for perfectly shaped cookies. Use a pizza wheel or a dough scraper to score the dough into cracker shapes - squares or rectangles, and then poke each cracker with a fork.
Place the parchment on a cookie sheet and bake on the lowest oven rack for about 8-10 minutes, turning halfway through. Remove and let bake for another 5-10 minutes on the highest oven rack, keeping close watch to make sure the edges don't burn. Let cool on cookie sheet and then break apart and eat!
