Buttery Graham Crackers

I purposely didn’t use any sort of mixer here, so anyone can stir their way through this using good old-fashioned manual labor, but if you have one, by all means, make your life easier.

Recipe makes about 30 crackers, depending, of course, on how big you want to cut them.

1/2 cup (70 g) all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups (250 g) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (110 g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (4 g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (4 g) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (4 g) salt
1/4 teaspoon(2 g)  cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks (170 g) unsalted butter, which must be softened to room temperature for easy incorporation, and diced into little chunks
1/4 cup (75 g) honey
3 tablespoons (60 g) molasses
1/3 cup (100 g) milk
1 teaspoon (6 g) vanilla extract

1. Stir together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

2. Cut the softened butter in until it starts to look like a shaggy, coarse meal.

3. Mix together the liquid ingredients — honey, molasses, milk and vanilla extract, then pour over the flour mix. Stir this all together until it’s smooth and you don’t see any visible butter chunks.

4. The dough will be quite soft and will need to be chilled before it can be rolled, at least 2 hours.

5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. After a couple of chilling hours have gone by, I grab a hunk of dough, and roll it out directly on a piece of lightly floured piece of parchment so it won’t stick to the table. Ideally, a piece that will fit the sheet pan you plan to bake in. It should be quite thin, about 1/8″.

I sprinkle on more flour as necessary, so the dough doesn’t stick to the rolling pin, using as little as I can get away with. I don’t want to work too much excess flour into the dough.

6. Brush off the excess flour.

7. Slide this onto a sheet pan, parchment and all, and bake uncut for about 30 minutes. You can also use a cookie cutter first if you prefer, and re-roll the dough.

The cracker is still quite pliable right out of the oven but will set and crisp up as it cools. When it first comes out, I take the opportunity to cut the shapes I want. You can also use a fork and poke some decorative holes in the tops. Let these cool completely, and store in an airtight container, at room temperature, for about a week.