graham crackers

I've been wanting to try making graham crackers at home for a while now, and last week I had a long list of important things to do, I think it maybe included cleaning the bathroom? There was definitely some laundry on there. Anyway, the time was obviously right.


I used the recipe from Angry Chicken, with just a few changes. Since we didn't have any barley flour, I just used white, and I always like more cinnamon in everything than normal people do, so I upped that a little bit.

* 1 cup whole wheat flour
* 1 cup white flour
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon cloves
* 1/2 cup chilled butter
* 1/3-1/2 cup milk (you might not use all of this)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and mix the dry ingredients. The girls helped me by pushing the button on the Cuisinart to cut in the butter, and then pouring in the milk, until the dough made a ball. Then you just knead it for a minute until it's smooth, using enough flour to roll it out and not too much to make it dry. Then we let it chill for about 2 hours, just because we were running errands. I think much less time would work too.


We rolled it out, trying to get an even thickness but failing pretty miserably. I guess just try to get them as even as possible, at whatever thickenss you like graham crackers. I cut them with that adorable little thing whose name I don't know. It is from a wooden box of similarly obscure and rarified cooking tools- a wedding present from my gourmet aunt. I always feel so fancy when I use that stuff.


Then the girls sprinkled the squares with our patented cinnamon sugar shaker, and helped me dot them with holes. After that, I suggest you put them in the oven and watch them like a hawk, because they burn really easily. Chicken's recipe said 15 to 25 minutes, but mine didn't take anywhere near that long. Of course mine were all over the place in terms of thickness, so I guess if you take the time to get that part right, you don't have to worry so much about burning them.


On the upside, even the burned ones were delicious. They are a really great snack to have around- not too sweet to make you feel bad for giving them to the kids all day long. Or eating them yourself...