Graham crackers are a childhood staple - but the ones in the blue box I loved as a kid are full of stuff I don't want my own kids eating! (well, except for those s'mores on our last camping trip, hehe.) I sought out healthier versions at the natural foods stores, but ouch - so expensive, and they didn't really taste the way we wanted a graham cracker to taste. So I came up with this recipe, adapted from one I found on the net. I converted it by subbing in wholesome ingredients and applied the soaking technique common to Traditional Foods grain preparation. It's easy to do, the dough is mixed one day and the baking done the next, or whenever you have time.
2c. whole grain flour, approx. ½ to 1/3 of it soft wheat aka pastry flour
½ c. pasture butter, or a combination of butter & coconut oil
½ - ¾ c. rapadura
1tsp. vanilla
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ c. yogurt, mixed with 1/8 c. milk or filtered water
Cream together the butter & rapadura. Stir in vanilla. Mix the dry ingredients and stir in, alternating with yogurt. If needed you can add a bit more flour. The dough should come together in a slightly sticky ball. Cover and let sit overnight.
Chill the dough to cool it. If necessary you can keep it in the fridge a day or two. If you want to keep it longer, freeze it, and thaw before baking.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F. Divide the dough into three portions. Roll out to a 1/8’ thickness on parchment paper, all the way to the edges, trimming off the ragged edges and adding them to the next portion. Slide the parchment onto a cookie sheet and with a knife, score the dough into square or rectangle shapes. Poke holes all over with a fork... seven year olds are great at this task...
and bake about 10 - 12 min. til lightly golden on the edges. Repeat for the remaining dough. I usually get about four 1’x1’ squares of dough after rolling each one out on its own parchment, including using up the scraps trimmed off to make straight edges.
As soon as one sheet of crackers comes out of the oven, slide on another and continue baking. Cool baked crackers on a wire rack.
If the crackers are not completely crisp, then after the last batch comes out of the oven, put all the cooked crackers back onto the baking sheets and place them in the hot oven. Turn off the heat at that point, and let the crackers sit in the oven until they are cool.
Crackers that won’t be eaten within a couple of days will keep perfectly for a very long time in a quart size canning jar, with an oxygen absorber packet and the lid on tight.
