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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.
Recipe Video
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’m wanting to try this recipe but I’m curious to know why I can’t use regular all-purpose flour. Is it a texture or flavor thing or does it just not work at all?
Hey there! I think you could probably use all-purpose flour. I was looking at other recipes, and a lot of them use AP flour. I haven’t tested my recipe with it. I developed it in response to people wanting more “nutritious” options than store-bought graham crackers, so I went with whole-wheat flour. That is what the readers wanted at the time. It might change the flavor and texture, but it might not be a negative change. You could try it out and see. I definitely see a lot of popular recipes on the internet using AP flour. Good luck! Thank you! – Meggan
Very easy directions to follow. The flavor is wonderful. My first attempt is a little chewy rather than crisp. Hopefully they’ll crisp as they cool completely. I will definitely make them again.
Practice makes perfect, Myra! Thanks for trying my recipe 🙂 – Meggan
Very good and easy to do. It did need a little more milk than what recipe calls for to come together, but that could be the dry winter air coming to play. I like that you can use them for pie crusts also and we can get away from the preservatives and Bioengineered Ingredients that are found in the grocery stores. Thank You.
Happy you found these so easy to make, Doris! – Meggan
I absolutely love these graham crackers!!! I have one suggestion for anyone who is having trouble rolling out the dough. Using my Nutibullet I ground up my whole wheat flour only for the roll out and the dough was so much more cooperative.
Hi Debra! Great tip! Thanks for the idea! -Meggan
Could you use this dough as a graham crust for pies? or would you make the crackers and then grind them and create a crust?
Thanks!
Hi TB! Great question, one I’m not prepared to answer fully. But seriously that’s a great idea. Without trying it, I would feel uncomfortable saying it would work as a crust as-is. So, in this moment I’d say you should grind them. When you make the graham cracker crust from the ground crackers, you also add butter (and sometimes sugar although it’s not required). I’m just wondering if the crackers alone, without that added butter, would be too dry as a crust. It might be fine, but it might be super brittle. So that’s my main concern. I will try it when I have a chance so I can add this to the knowledge base for all of us. I’m really curious now, I never thought of that, but what a great idea. Thank you! -Meggan
No ingredient list with measurements???
Hi Pattie, if you go to the bottom of the post, you will find the recipe card. That contains all the measurements for you. Sorry for the confusion! -Meggan
These are delicious! They remind me of a combo between a graham cracker and biscoff cookies. Also, they are very easy to make!
I’m so glad you like them, thanks Lyn! -Meggan
Absolutely perfect.
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for your comment Mary! -Meggan
I made these yesterday to whir up for a graham cracker crust. I use heritage wheat flour due to gluten sensitivity, so I wanted to make my own. I found the recipe went about as described, except that with just the flour and butter I didn’t really get a dough to form (perhaps my butter wasn’t softened enough), but after I added the liquids it was fine. I thought the dough was more cinnamon-y than a normal graham cracker, but after baking them up, they don’t taste overly cinnamon-y. Mine would not be confused with boxed graham crackers, but they are quite tasty and I think they will be great for the cheesecake crust! Thanks for this recipe! Next time I think I would score them into smaller cookie-like sizes to be eaten as cookies. My dad loved crisp cookies, so these make me think of him.
You’re so welcome, Susan! I’m so happy that they reminded you of your dad. I hope they come out perfectly next time. Take care! – Meggan
The taste of these are great but the dough was extremely dry and difficult to roll out because it cracked a lot. I weighed everything to the gram so not sure what I did wrong?
Thank you for trying my recipe, Brittany and I sorry for the dry and difficult dough. The dryness may stem from the brand of flour used or overmixing during step 2, where the dough should be soft and sticky. Another thing to consider is the room’s humidity level, which could impact the dough’s moisture. For your next batch, you may add more liquid or start with a little less flour, especially during the roll out step. I hope this helps and so sorry again, please write if you have any more questions! – Meggan