Homemade Graham Crackers

I am on a quest to not buy packaged food anymore...so expect some great recipes coming your way! Homemade is always better, with less ingredients, better quality ingredients, and no preservatives. I've been anti-packaged foods for awhile but due to the munchkins I would still buy some snacks. In an effort to not do that anymore, I am trying out all sorts of recipes to replace the beloved snacks my kids love. These graham crackers are pretty yummy. They don't have the exact consistency of store bought crackers but they taste great. I also like that depending on how long you cook them they can be crunchy or soft. They taste like cookies when soft! Yum! You can use these to snack on, for smores, or for sweet dips. I generally always double the recipe below. As written it makes approximately 2 dozen depending on what size you cut them. I usually only make them about 2 or 3 inches long.


Homemade Graham Crackers

Ingredients:
 1 1/4 cups organic whole wheat flour (plus some for dusting your rolling surface)
1 1/2 ts organic ground cinnamon
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts good salt
2 TB cold butter,organic, cut into small pieces
2 organic egg whites, divided
6 TB organic brown sugar
2 TB honey
1 TB organic vanilla extract
3 TB organic sucanat or other organic cane sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. My oven heats unevenly so I do one baking sheet at a time. If you have a more reliable oven you can do more than one baking sheet at a time.

In a food processor, mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and butter. Process until it's fine meal consistency. If you don't have a food processor you can mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and work the butter in with your fingers. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 egg white, brown sugar, honey and vanilla. Add this to flour mixture and stir until a sticky dough forms. I find I need to get my hands in there to get all the flour incorporated.



Turn half of the dough out onto a very well floured surface and roll out into a 10-inch square (it will be thin). Cut into 12 rectangles and transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Repeat process with remaining dough and second prepared baking sheet if doing two at a time. Otherwise wait until after baking first batch.


Brush crackers with remaining egg white. Note that when I double the recipe I still only need one egg white to brush the tops. Sprinkle with the sucanat or cane sugar, or a mix of cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes. My oven does them perfectly at 11 minutes, 9 minutes if I want them soft. They are usually done when you can smell them. They won't harden until cooled.


Repeat with the rest of the dough.