Homemade Honey Cinnamon Graham Crackers

Graham crackers are named for Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham, who introduced the eponymous coarsely-ground, unsifted wheat flour he believed to be an antidote to the poor health suffered by people in his circles who ate too much white bread. A vegetarian and a big believer in high-fiber diets, Graham also recommended “hard mattresses, open bedroom windows, chastity, cold showers & loose clothing” … not exactly a party dude!

But Graham would have approved of Janie’s Mill flours. Like Graham’s flour, our Turkey Red Flour is 100% whole-kernel, milled from organically grown Turkey Red, an heirloom hard red winter wheat, stone ground and unsifted (sometimes called “unbolted”), making it perfect for use in this recipe provided by Monica Kass Rogers.

Once you make these simple graham crackers with Janie's Mill delicious (and nutritious!) Heirloom Turkey Red flour, you’ll never buy them from the store again!

Honey Cinnamon Graham Crackers

Ingredients

• 3 cups Janie’s Mill Turkey Red Flour
• 3 cups Janie’s Mill All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 pound unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, not too densely packed (Dark brown sugar may be substituted for a darker flavor)
• 1/4 cup honey
• Optional glaze: egg wash made with 1 egg and 1 Tbsp water; sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top

Instructions

1. Combine the two flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl, whisking to combine. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, whip the softened butter with sugar and honey for five minutes. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture in three parts, paddling it into the butter sugar mixture until smooth.
3.  Spread work surface with a covering of parchment paper. Trace around a cookie sheet onto the parchment paper. Cut out the cookie sheet shape from the parchment paper. Leaving a four-inch border around the edges of the cookie sheet-shaped paper, take handfuls of the playdough-like dough and mash them down connecting one handful of dough to another and flattening with your hands until you have a big rectangle of partially-flattened dough on the parchment.
4. Completely cover partially-flattened dough with parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough to an even, 1/8 inch thickness.
5. Remove the top layer of parchment paper. Cut the dough into a grid of 1 1/2-inch x 2 1/2-inch rectangular crackers, puncturing each cracker with the tine of a fork to make three rows of dots in each cracker.
6. Carefully slide the now finished, parchment-backed grid of raw crackers onto a cookie sheet. Set aside.
7. Repeat step number three and four until you have rolled out and scored all of the dough into cracker shapes on cookie sheets. Cover each of the cookie sheets of raw crackers with parchment paper; place all in freezer and freeze dough for 2 hours.
8. Place oven rack in center position. Preheat oven to 350.
9. Using a thin spatula, work quickly to remove frozen raw crackers one at a time from frozen cookie sheet, placing them on a fresh, parchment-lined cookie sheet and leaving at least ¼ inch of space between each cracker.
10. Repeat this process until all raw graham crackers are now on fresh, parchment-lined cookie sheets.
11. If desired, spread raw crackers with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
12. Bake graham crackers for 12 to 14 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool.

TIPS

Monica Kass Rogers writes: "Spreading this dough before rolling it out is a good job for little helpers. I take handfuls of the playdough-like dough and mash them down one at a time, connecting one handful to another and flattening until I have a rectangle of partially flattened dough. Fun for your kids!"

Read more details on Monica Kass Rogers’ blog, Lost Recipes Found, where she also gives a brief history of the Rev. Mr. Graham.

While white flour from roller mills was becoming popular, Mr Graham knew that retaining the endosperm, germ, and bran would result in much healthier flour, and healthier people . . . and he was right! Any whole-kernel, unsifted flour may still be referred to as Graham flour.

FLOUR VARIATIONS

For a cracker close to Graham's original, use 100% (6 cups) Turkey Red flour instead of only 50%. Or substitute Einkorn Flour or Sifted Durum Flour for the All-Purpose flour. The resulting crackers will be delicious and even more nutritious!