Graham crackers are such a versatile cookie. I never realized how much I like plain old honey graham crackers or how many recipes use them until I could no longer eat them. Earlier this summer, I picked up a box of gluten free graham crackers while shopping at Whole Foods in the City. (Oh how I miss living near a Whole Foods and Trader Joe's).
The store-bought gluten free grahams tasted ok, for a cookie, but they didn’t really embody the graham cracker flavor I remembered. Plus they were way too thick and not nearly wide enough to be made into a s’more. And they were expensive.
I figured that if I wanted to make any s’mores this summer (or any of the other classic desserts that require a graham cracker crust), I would have to make my own gluten free grahams.
Several years ago, I made gluten free graham crackers for a Daring Bakers Challenge. I remember that particular recipe being rather difficult to make--the dough was a bit temperamental to roll out & properly shape. And it called for a particular variety of flour that I no longer keep on hand.
I did some research online & found several recipes that could work. One in particular stood out: it was a very straight forward graham cracker recipe that used ingredients I already had on hand. The recipe had excellent reviews, which I took as a positive indicator of the recipe’s potential. I still thought there may be some tweaking to do, but I generally try to follow a recipe fairly exactly the first time I make it. Then, I taste & decide what I think would work better before I try my variations.
This recipe required almost no adjustments at all! My only change was to bake the crackers longer because I prefer a crispier texture, especially if I’m going to eat them as s’mores or crush them to make a crust.
I’m very excited to have this easy, successful, inexpensive recipe in my gluten free recipe arsenal. The possibilities of future recipes utilizing these humble graham crackers is very bright... Check back for a future post on how I used some of them!
Gluten Free Graham Crackers
adapted from Serious Eats
240 g Brown Rice Flour
1 oz Corn Starch
2.45 oz Dark Brown Sugar
1 tsp BP
1/2 tsp Salt
2.5 oz 5 Tbl Butter, cold
2.6 oz 6 Tbl Milk
2.25 oz/3 Tbl Honey
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- In a food processor, pulse together the dry ingredients until the ingredients are well combined.
- Add the butter to the dry ingredients & pulse until the butter becomes small pea-sized pieces.
- Add the milk & honey. To easily scale the honey, line a small rammekin-type dish with plastic wrap, leaving a generous overhang. One the proper weight is added, gather the overhang & lift the honey out of the dish. Twist into a little packet. When ready to addWhile still holding the top plastic, pierce the bottom of the packet, only once, & squeeze into the food processor.
- Pulse all the ingredients together until the mixture forms a dough.
- Dump the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper at least 12x16. Use the parchment to hand mix the dough, just a bit, and form the dough into a rectangle.
- Place a second sheet of parchment paper on top & carefully roll out the dough to a 12x16” rectangle. The final product will be approximately 1/8” thick.
- Remove the top layer of parchment and slide the bottom sheet (dough and all) onto a sheet pan.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
- After chilling, remove from the refrigerator & place the parchment back onto the counter. Use a pastry wheel, or sharp knife to cut the dough into rectangle shapes. It is ok if the rectangles touch. 3”x3” is a great s’more size. Dock the dough with the tines of a fork
- Bake for 9 minutes, rotate the pan & bake for another 9 to 11 minutes or until the crackers are lightly brown & crispy (I tasted a corner to confirm).
- Cool on a cooling rack before breaking into individual crackers.
- Store finished crackers in airtight containers, or freeze for longevity. Crackers may soften over time. Pop them back into the oven (or toaster oven) to re-crisp, if necessary.
