Guilt Free Graham Crackers with whole grain unprocessed ingredients

Guilt Free Unprocessed Homemade Graham Cracker

By Irvin Lin

Graham flour is a coarse ground type of whole wheat available in health food stores. The wheat kernel is separated into its components (bran, germ and endosperm) and ground separately, with endosperm ground finely – just as you would white flour. Then the bran and the germ are ground coarsely and added back in to the finely ground white flour. If you can’t find graham flour, you can try substituting whole wheat flour, but I haven’t had a chance to try that, so I can’t guarantee how it will turn out. I’ve also read that you create a cup of graham flour by combining 84 g (about 2/3 cup) white flour, 15 g (a little less than 1/3 cup) of wheat bran and 2.5 g (1 1/2 teaspoons) of wheat germ. But that seems really fussy.

Teff and buckwheat flours are available at health food stores and at ethnic grocery stores, specifically Ethiopian (for teff) and Japanese (for buckwheat) groceries. Sucanat, which is evaporated cane juice can also be found at health food stores. If you don’t have it, you can use an equal amount of brown sugar, but the graham crackers will be sweeter.

Adapted from Kim Boyce’s book Good to the Grain, an excellent book if you are interested in baking with alternative and whole grain flours.

Ingredients
cracker dough
3/4 cup (150 g) sucanat (evaporated cane sugar)
1 cup (170 g) graham flour
1/2 cup (85 g) teff flour
1/2 cup (100 g) white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (40 g) buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon all spice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) of unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons flaxmeal

for dusting
1/4 cup sucanat (evaporated cane sugar)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom

Directions
1. Place the sucanat in a spice grinder or food processor and process until it is a fine powder. If you don’t have a spice grinder or food processor, you can use the sucanat as is, but you graham cracker may be a little bit more crumbly in texture.

2. Place the sucanat, along with the flours, baking soda, and spices in a large mixing bowl. Take a balloon whisk and vigoriously stir until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

3. Melt the butter in a medium bowl in the microwave (or in a medium saucepan). Once liquid, add the honey and stir until the honey starts to loosen and dissolve. Add the milk and the stir until combined. Add the flax meal and stir so the flaxmeal dissolves and starts to thicken the liquid. Pour the liquid into the bowl of dry ingredients. Using a large wooden spoon or spatula stir the ingredients until you get a moist dough, similar to a cookie dough. I went in with my hand halfway through and worked the dry ingredients into the dough to make sure everything was an even consistency.

4. Take the dough and form a flat disk with it. Wrap it with plastic wrap (or place it in a large gallon ziplock bag) and then flatten it further. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to three days. Once the dough has sufficiently chilled, take it out of the fridge. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

5. Combine the sucanat, cinnamon and cardamom in a spice grinder or food processor. Process until the sucanat is a fine powder and the spices are blended in. Roll the graham cracker dough out on a well floured surface with a rolling pin. You want to get the dough to about 1/4 to 1/8” thick. Cut out rectangle crackers about 3 inches by 5 inches. Place on the lined baking sheet and score the crackers with a butter knife, making sure not to cut all the way through the crackers (I scored each cracker 3 times, making 4 sections). Using a fork, prick some holes into the crackers as well (I used three fork pricks per section).

6. Sprinkle with the sucanat spice mixture on top. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the sides of the crackers starts to darken. Be careful not burn them. Cool for a five minutes on the sheet before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely. These crackers are best eaten the day of, but you can store them in an airtight container for about three days.

Makes 15 crackers.