After eating these, I seriously will never be able to buy or eat store bought graham crackers ever, with the possible exception of Mi-Del Honey Grahams. This recipe is straight from one of my new favorite cookbooks, Whole Grain Baking from King Arthur Flour. (Note: I bought Bob's Red Mill graham whole-wheat flour, but apparently graham crackers aren't made of some wheat called "graham," rather, they're "an invention of Sylvester Graham, one of the early proponenets of whole wheat flour," so any whole wheat flour is fine.)Graham Crackers
1 cup (4 oz.) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (2 oz.) whole barley flour
1/2 cup (2 1/8 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 7/8 oz.) packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz.) granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 oz.) unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 cup (2 oz.) milk
Cinnamon-sugar (optional)
Combine all the dry ingredients (all the above but the last three) in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until very crumbly. Add the milk and combine to make a stiff dough. Knead the dough lightly to make sure it's smooth, cut into two pieces, shape each piece into a rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least an hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper.
Working with one piece of dough at a itme, turn it out onto a floured surface and roll until it's about 1/16 inch thick; the thinner you can roll it, the crispier the crackers. Be sure your rolling surface and pin are well floured; you may want to roll this dough directly onto a piece of parchment paper, as it's difficult to transfer to your baking sheet (I floured up my fake silpat mat put the dough on, sprinkled a little more flour on the dough, put some parchment on top and then went to work with my rolling pin. Way easier!). When you're done rolling, and you've trimmed the edges, you should hav a piece of dough about 9 x 12 inches. Cut the dough into three inch squares (I used a pizza cutter), then cut each square in half. Prick the crackers several times with a fork, and place on baking sheet. If you like, sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar (I didn't do this).
Bake the crackers until they're lightly browned, 12-15 minutes. Remove the crackers, transfer to a rack, and let cool completely before serving.
Nutrional info: (for 29 g of crackers, about 4 small?)
116 calories, 6 g fat, 2 g fiber
