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If you have the time and the energy, Homemade Graham Crackers are truly something special. As a classically-trained chef with lots of experience in baking and pastries, I tested and perfected this recipe so it’s ready for your next weekend baking project.
Soul Warming Graham Crackers At Home
If you are trying to minimize processed ingredients or avoid things like palm oil and high fructose corn syrup, these are an easy yes. But even that’s not on your radar, you can make graham crackers at home because they are simply delicious and smell wonderful.
Be sure to consider the measurements in the recipe and to roll out your dough to the correct thickness. Otherwise, your crackers might end up too thin or too thick. I love graham crackers for quick snacks (especially spread with cream cheese frosting, just like mom used to do), s’mores, and dessert crusts.
Table of Contents
Graham Cracker Ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
- Whole wheat flour: Do not substitute stone ground or white whole wheat flour.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together.
- Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until incorporated well and a soft dough forms, about 2 minutes.
- Add the milk, honey, and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated. The dough should be sticky and soft.
- Divide the dough into two discs, wrap both in plastic, and chill for at least one hour.
- Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously flour your counter or a piece of parchment paper and place one ball of dough in the center.
- Pat into a 5-by-6-inch rectangle, sprinkle with flour, flip, and dust again.
- Working from the center out and adding more flour as needed, roll the dough with a rolling pin until roughly 15-by-11 inches and very thin, about 1/8-inch thick.
- Slide the parchment paper on to a baking sheet and brush away excess flour. Repeat with the remaining dough. For grocery store look-alike, score each sheet of dough into twelve 2 1/4-by-4 3/4-inch rectangles and dock with a bamboo skewer, fork, or the narrow end of a chopstick (feel free to use a ruler). Otherwise, leave the dough uncut.
- Bake until crackers and firm and darkened, about 10-12 minutes. Immediately cut along the pre-scored lines with a knife, or cut into free-form shapes using a pizza cutter. Cool to room temperature directly on the baking sheets.
Where to buy a rolling pin
I got the J.K. Adams French Rolling Pin at Amazon for $18. It’s my favorite rolling pin because features tapered edges instead of handles, so you can change the position of your hands right on the dowel instead of using specific handles. I use it for all my parties and baked goods!
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 24 graham crackers.
- Storage: The graham crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks at room temperature or frozen for up to 3 months.
- Make ahead: The dough may be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature for 30 minutes before using.
- Pie Crust: Use leftover graham cracker crumbs in a delicious Graham Cracker Crust made with crackers, melted butter, and sugar. It’s the base of many desserts including Vanilla Cheesecake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Cheesecake Bars, and Key Lime Pie.
Frequently Asked Questions
The closest cracker to a graham cracker in the UK and Australia is called a digestive biscuit.
Graham crackers are never healthy in that they are mostly empty carbohydrates. But, not all food needs to be consumed for health purposes. By making homemade graham crackers which contain whole wheat flour and honey instead of refined sugar, you can close the gap between “snack” and “health food.”
These crackers are named after Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister who lived in the 19th century. Graham believed that in order to live in the way God wanted, people should resist all pleasures. This included eating a vegetarian diet. He created graham crackers, then an unsweetened biscuit, as an example of the pleasureless food he wanted his congregation to eat.
We don’t think so. Graham flour is extremely hard to track down even with the resources we have here. So, we developed a graham cracker recipe without it, and we think it tastes great. Your kids will love them!
More homemade snacks
Chocolate Recipes
Puppychow
Appetizer Recipes
Ranch Oyster Crackers
Appetizer Recipes
Chex Mix Recipe
Candy Recipes
Candied Pecans
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Graham Cracker
Equipment
- Stand mixer (I LOVE my KitchenAid Professional mixer!)
- Pizza Wheel (This makes it easier to cut the crackers)
- Bamboo skewers (For scoring the crackers!)
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour plus more for dusting (see note 1)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 7 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the dough:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together.
- Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until incorporated well and a soft dough forms, about 2 minutes.
- Add the milk, honey, and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated. The dough should be sticky and soft.
- Divide the dough in two discs and wrap both in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
To roll and bake the dough:
- Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously flour your counter or a piece of parchment paper and place one ball of dough in the center.
- Pat into a 5-by-6-inch rectangle, sprinkle with flour, flip, and dust again. Working from the center out and adding more flour as needed, roll the dough until roughly 15-by-11 inches and very thin, about 1/8-inch thick. Slide the parchment paper onto a baking sheet and brush away excess flour. Repeat with remaining dough.
- For grocery store look-alike, score each sheet of dough into twelve 2 1/4-by-4 3/4-inch rectangles and dock with a bamboo skewer or the narrow end of a chopstick. Otherwise, leave the dough uncut.
- Bake until crackers and firm and darkened, about 10-12 minutes. Immediately cut along the pre-scored lines with a knife, or cut into free-form shapes using a pizza wheel. Cool to room temperature directly on the baking sheets.
- The graham crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks at room temperature or frozen for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Whole wheat flour: Do not substitute stone ground or white whole-wheat flour.
- Yield: This recipe makes 24 graham crackers.
- Storage: The graham crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks at room temperature or frozen for up to 3 months.
I would like a recipe for chocolate graham crackers. Please and thank
Hi Gloria, thank you for your comment! This recipe can be modified for chocolate graham crackers! Reduce the whole-wheat flour to 2 1/4 cups (10 ounces), and sift it with 1/3 cup (1 ounce) of cocoa powder (natural or Dutch processed are both fine). Instead of rolling out the dough with flour, roll it out with extra cocoa powder to keep the dark brown color. Otherwise everything else is the same! Happy baking! – Meggan
The recipe was absolutely spot-on with measurements, time of prep., and even how many crackers it yielded. And yes, they are SO much better than store bought.
Thank You, Meggan 😃🌟!
You’re so welcome, Connie! I’m glad you loved them! – Meggan
I am trying to make graham crackers from scratch for a cheesecake crust because all the store bought ones are filled with garbage. This is the third graham cracker recipe I’ve tried. I rolled on a piece of parchment paper, super easy and baked for about 12 minutes at 350. (I tested my oven with a thermometer and at 350 it mid actually 350). Texture and flavor are amazing. They are a bit too sweet for my liking for a cheeecake crust so I will be making them again with Andy’s suggestion. Thank you for an awesome recipe!
You’re so welcome, Teresa! Thank you for your comment! Take care! – Meggan
You can skip a lot of the steps by rolling the dough out and lining a pie pan – it’s wonderful and much easier than a traditional graham cracker crust.
The flavor is fabulous!! My family loves it! I almost posted that I couldn’t quite get graham cracker consistency, but I baked for a little longer. I don’t think I rolled it thin enough. Using with my cookie press in the future! Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome, Anna! Thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad the extra bake time helped. – Meggan
Hi Meggan!
I was wondering if you could substitute maple sugar or coconut sugar for the brown sugar in this recipe?
Thanks!
Hi Michelle, thank you so much for your question! I haven’t tried this substitute but I don’t see why you couldn’t. The graham crackers may come out a little more dense, though. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help. If you do try this substitute, would you please write back and let me know how it turns out? Take care! – Meggan
Could these be cut out type cookies? Minding bake time of course.
Hi Amanda! I haven’t tried it myself, but I don’t see why not. Besides cook time, I would be mindful of how much flour is used while rolling out the dough, especially if you roll it out a second time after cutting the first set of cookies. If you do try it, please write back and let me know how it turns out! Take care! – Meggan
Super yummy! With the unreasonable price of graham crackers, along with other things, I’m making them at home. I’ve struggled to judge the right time and worry about burning them, but they’re good a little soft anyhow. I’ve also made them with maple syrup instead of honey, which is really good.
Based on other reviewers comments that these cookies were potentially too soft/chewy, and also too sweet, I made the following recipe modifications, with very good results:
Reduced the light brown sugar to 3/4 of a cup.
Reduce the honey to 1/4 cup.
Add an extra pinch of salt (I was using unsalted butter).
Baked them at 330° for about 16 minutes.
They came out quite crispy and delicious— sweet enough but not cookie-sweet. I plan to use most of them for s’mores at a party, but they would be equally good with coffee or as a snack. Somewhere in between a commercial
gram cracker (but much better) and a crisp Christmas sugar cookie.
A good cookie but a little too too sweet for a graham cracker.
I tried this recipe today but my crackers are chewy, not like a graham cracker should me. Taste great, but what am I doing wrong?
Hi Allison, I’m so sorry about that. They may have needed some more time in the oven. Do you have an oven thermometer inside the oven? Also, the graham crackers will dry out some more as they cool. How did they turn out once cooled? Sorry again! – Meggan