[beachgal]

Hi! I modified the recipe posted at this link for use with SBD Phases 2 & 3. You can eat these as is (they are DELICIOUS, especially with natural peanut butter...), or crumble for use in graham cracker crusts. My substitutions/suggestions are in red brackets. Enjoy!

Homemade Graham Cracker Recipe

I got the graham cracker recipe from Free Range Living. She got the recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book.

I am reprinting the recipe below along with all of my baking notes. It makes 36 2 1/2 inch squares.

* 4 T (1/2 stick) butter, softened [I used Smart Balance's 50/50 butter]
* 1 egg
* 6 T sugar [I used a mix of Splenda, Erythritol, and Stevia]
* 4 T honey (Some graham crackers use half honey and half molasses. You might consider trying that as a variation.) [I used 2T Agave nectar, 2tsp molasses, and 4tsp Splenda]
* 1/2 t baking soda
* 2 t water
* 3/4 t salt
* 1 1/2 C graham flour (If you can't get ahold of graham flour, there are plenty of graham cracker recipes that use regular whole wheat flour such as this graham cracker recipe from Baking Bites. You may also be able to directly substitute whole wheat flour in this recipe, but I haven't tested it and I make no promises.) [I used Bob's Red Mill's Whole Wheat Graham Flour]
* 3/4 C all-purpose flour [I used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour]

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Combine the butter, egg and sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in the honey and blend.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the butter mixture.
5. Add the salt, graham flour, and all-purpose flour to the mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough should hold together and be manageable. If it is too "tacky" add a little more graham flour.
6. Liberally dust a surface with graham flour and roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. For convenience in handling, cut the rolled dough into three or four sections that will fit on your cookie sheet. (I am not good at rolling things out. It doesn't come up too often since I mostly make cupcakes. To make my life easier, I lined my cookie sheets with parchment paper and rolled the dough directly on the cookie sheets. That way I didn't need to worry about the dough breaking when I lifted it onto a cookie sheet.)
7. With a knife, score the dough, without cutting through, into 2 1/2 inch squares. (Boring! Since your graham crackers are not store-bought, they don't have to be square. Use your cookie cutters to make them any shape you want!)
8. Prick each square a few times with the tines of a fork. (I did this because those little pricks do make them look like graham crackers, whatever shape they are.)
9. Using a spatula, place the sections of scored cracker dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. (I didn't have to do this since I rolled right on the cookie sheet.)
10. Bake on the first side for 8 minutes, then turn the cracker over and bake for another 6 or 7 minutes. (Cheryl of Free Range Living said that she found that flipping wasn't necessary. I agree. I left out the flip step.)
11. Remove from the oven and cool on racks. (They weren't quite crispy when I removed them. However, they hardened up as soon as they cooled.)

[honeysox]

These look fabulous. I am (used to be!) an avid baker and these look right up my alley. Will definitely give them a whirl.

Won't the hubs be pleased when I add a graham cracker crust to his SB cheesecake???? : )