Home Made Graham Crackers

          
             If you have been reading this blog for a while, you will probably have figured out that I am trying to use as few processed products as possible.  It's a personal choice.  With this choice, I am avoiding buying anything with high fructose corn syrup in it.  Yeah, I know, it's just a sugar.  My issue is with how they get the sugar from the corn.

             So, one of the products I no longer buy are graham crackers.  When I came across a recipe for graham crackers at smitten kitchen, I knew I had to try it, for the kids of course.

             You'd think it would be hard, right?  Nope, not at all.  The toughest part is cutting the dough in straight lines to shape the crackers.



Ingredients (slightly modified from smitten kitchen)

1. 2 Cups all- purpose flour
2. 1/2 Cup white whole wheat flour
3. 1 Cup dark brown sugar
4. 1/2 tsp salt
5. 1 tsp baking soda
6. 7 Tbl cold butter sliced
7. 2 Tbl vanilla
8. 5 Tbl milk
9. 1/3 Cup of honey

Topping if desired: mix 1 Tbl cinnamon with 3 Tbl sugar.

In your food processor mix the first 5 ingredients.

Then add your cold butter to the flour mixture and pulse until the butter is mixed in.  The mixture should look like course sand.

Then mix together the milk, honey, and vanilla.  Pour that mixture into the food processor.  Pulse, and the dough will start forming itself into a nice ball.

Remove the dough ball, flatten it in a rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

After you take the dough out of the freezer, roll it out to 1/8 inch think.  I rolled it out on parchment paper.  I was then able to easily place the paper with the dough right on my cookie sheet.  Oh, the dough is sticky, so you will need to flour it and the rolling pin when rolling out.

On the cookie sheet you can make your cracker borders.  Mine were 2 1/2 inch squares.  I used a fork to make the typical graham cracker design.  Sprinkle with your cinnamon sugar topping if you desire.

 Extra dough was turned into an angry bird graham cracker.

Chill the rolled out crackers for 30 minutes in the fridge.  Then place them in a preheated 350F oven for 10- 15 minutes.  Mine were done in 10.  They will turn brown.  Take them out before they turn black.

I never would have thought that I could have ever made graham crackers of all things, but I did it and succeeded.  Happy faces all around!  Hurray for mommy!