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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
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Puppychow
Appetizer Recipes
Ranch Oyster Crackers
Appetizer Recipes
Chex Mix Recipe
Candy Recipes
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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 wonder what would be the result if I left the honey out.
Hi Nancy, readers have shared that they’ve substituted equal amounts of maple syrup or molasses in their crackers for the honey. I hope you love them! – Meggan
Hi Meggan,
Great recipe! I am having one issue though – the edge of my dough is baking to a nice crisp, but the inner part of the dough remains chewy (even after it cools). I have not poked any docking holes in my prior attempts. Could this be the issue, or is there something else that might be going on? Love the flavor but still trying to get a good even crisp.
Thanks.
Hi Daniel! Thank you so much, I’m sorry the graham crackers are giving you some trouble. I’ve found that when I don’t roll the dough out evenly, I get the same result, crispy edges and soft middle. Besides this, I think docking the next batch might help release some of the steam that builds up in the dough and once cool, the crackers should be more firm and less chewy. I might even try baking them a little longer to see if that helps as well. (Watching to make sure it doesn’t burn them, of course.) I hope this helps! Sorry again! – Meggan
Can these be cut and put into a mold and then baked?
Hi Nancy, yes. Readers have shared they have made cutouts with the graham crackers and baked them, so I don’t see why a mold wouldn’t work as well! – Meggan
Love this recipe, on repeat this year for various christmas dinners in kids school and for neighbour gifting.
I changed the sugar for coconut and only used 3/4 and came out perfectly.
Thank you and happy holidyas
You’re so welcome, Monica! I’m so happy they were a hit. Happy Holidays, too! – Meggan
Hi, mine ended up very chewy instead of hard Graham crackers. Any suggestions on what I did incorrectly? Seasoned baker here. Thank you.
Hi Melsisa, thanks for your question! I’ve found they turn out more chewy if they are on the thicker side. They may need to rolled out thinner for your next batch or a little more time in the oven. (Keeping a close eye on them so the edges don’t burn.) Take care! – Meggan
Hi Melissa, thanks for this great recipe! Graham Crackers all have at least one bioenginered ingredient in it (the popular store bought brands) and also expensive nowadays I was shocked to see that 1 box is over $5!
Anyways my question is what happens if someone only had white whole wheat the Arthur’s brand at home and wanted to try this recipe out? Will it work? What are your thoughts?
Hi GenH, using white whole wheat flour will result in crackers with a lighter color, different texture, and a sweeter flavor, which is why I do not recommend using it. If you do, please write back and let us know how it turns out! – Meggan
Why not stone ground? What’s the difference if it’s whole wheat?
Hi Sven, stone ground flour typically has a coarser texture, different flavor profile, and different liquid absorption rate than whole-wheat flour. If you have it on hand and would like to experiment, it can be used instead of whole-wheat flour in this recipe, but may likely need some adjustments. Thanks for the question! Take care! – Meggan
Made these today. With the exception of replacing half of the honey with molasses, the remaining ingredients were the same. I did have graham flour that I stumbled across last week while shopping. This caused the search for a recipe and this one is a winner! Although I had some difficulty with rolling, the finished product…even though it isn’t the most attractive, was unbelievably crunchy and delicious. This will be my go to recipe whenever I need crumbs to make a graham cracker pie crust. I also think that crushed, they would make an excellent substitution for a streusel-type topping on some desserts.
Thank you so much for the recipe and all your helpful directions!
You’re so welcome, Karen! I’m glad you loved them! – Meggan
Love this recipe!
First all I had was trader joes organic unbleached all purpose wheat flour so that’s what I used.
Cut down the cinnamon to about 1/4 tsp , used full amount 1/3 cup manuka honey. I always cut sugar at least in half in
any recipe so I cut it back to a little less then half cup.
My purpose was to make a graham cracker crust for a pie. Having read reviews that suggested making this dough right into a pie crust eliminating the steps of having to grind up crackers , I thought why not try it.
First -dough worked up beautiful. refrigerated it over night. Rolled out perfect and into pie dish no trouble.
Had a little left over, so i rolled that real thin and made 4 crackers, gently pressed holes with floured meat tenderizing mallet, that also worked perfect. The aroma and color of the dough baking was so authentic of traditional graham crackers. The crackers came out nice and crispy and very tasty though still too sweet for my taste! next time I’m counting the honey as my sweetener and adding no additional sugar. As far as the pie crust, the flavor is wonderful same as crackers but also too sweet.
However to me, a traditional baker, I will go through the usual steps next time of making the crackers, then grinding them up to make them into a pie crust.
the texture using the shortcut method this time just didn’t make what my family likes a graham cracker pie crust to have.
I will update this review after making these graham crackers again.
And thank you Meggan! for this wonderful recipe, I’ve been looking for a perfect traditional graham cracker recipe
and am so excited to have found this one,
Hi Lisa, you’re so welcome! Thank you as well for such a thorough and detailed comment. I look forward to your update! – Meggan
As other commenters have noted these taste much like gingerbread due to the cinnamon. I figured I’d follow the recipe the first time at least. If I make these again I will omit or at least greatly reduce the cinnamon. I wasn’t super impressed but maybe I need to keep letting them cool, and I’ll like them more?
Made a batch today. They are the best ever!😇 bought grahams a few weeks ago and they are not very good, not the ones from my youth. I’m sure the bakers have had to change the recipe do to pricing and availability of ingredients. Homemade is always better.
I’m so happy you loved them, Dale! I agree, homemade is the best. Take care and please write if you have any questions! – Meggan