Homemade Graham Crackers

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An easy recipe for Homemade Graham Crackers. Made with 100% whole wheat flour and brown sugar, these are so much better than store-bought crackers!

Homemade graham crackers on a cooling rack.


 

Homemade Graham Crackers are truly something special. They truly raise the bar on the crackers sold in grocery stores.

You might want to make homemade graham crackers because they are made with ingredients you know and recognize and are not “processed.” None of us having access to high fructose corn syrup or palm oil anyway, so you cannot possibly add it!

Or, you you might want to make them because of the delicious flavor. We don’t throw in artificial flavors (and we know “natural flavors” aren’t much better because they aren’t really defined).

Whatever your motivation, they are absolutely worth the effort!

Ingredient notes

  • Whole wheat flour: Do not substitute stone ground or white whole wheat flour.

Step-by-step instructions

  1. In a medium bowlwhisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a standing mixer fit with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together.
  2. Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until incorporated well and a soft dough forms, about 2 minutes.
  3. Add the milk, honey, and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated. The dough should be sticky and soft. Divide the dough into two discs, wrap both in plastic, and chill for at least one hour.
  4. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously flour your counter or a piece of parchment paper and place one ball of dough in the center.
  5. Pat into a 5-by-6-inch rectangle, sprinkle with flour, flip, and dust again, Working from the center out and adding more flour as needed, roll the dough with a rolling pin until roughly 15-by-11 inches and very thin. Slide onto an aluminum baking pan and brush away excess flour. Repeat with the remaining dough.
  6. For grocery store look-alike, score each sheet of dough into twelve 2 1/4-by-4 3/4-inch rectangles and dock with a bamboo skewer, fork, or the narrow end of a chopstick (feel free to use a ruler). Otherwise, leave the dough uncut.
Graham Cracker dough on a baking sheet before baking.
  1. Bake until crackers and firm and darkened, about 10-12 minutes. Immediately cut along the pre-scored lines with a knife, or cut into free-form shapes using a pizza cutter. Cool to room temperature directly on the baking sheets.
Homemade graham crackers on a cooling rack.

Recipe tips and variations

  • Yield: This recipe makes 24 graham crackers.
  • Storage: The graham crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks at room temperature or frozen for up to 3 months.
  • Make ahead: The dough may be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature for 30 minutes before using.
  • Pie Crust: Use leftover graham cracker crumbs in a delicious Graham Cracker Crust made with crackers, melted butter, and sugar. It’s the base of many desserts including Vanilla Cheesecake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Cheesecake Bars, and Key Lime Pie.
Slices of no-bake Chocolate Eclair Cake on white plates with forks.
Chocolate Eclair Cake: This no-bake Midwestern classic has vanilla pudding with whipped topping layered between graham crackers and topped with chocolate frosting.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the UK equivalent of graham crackers?

The closest cracker to a graham cracker in the UK and Australia is called a digestive biscuit.

Are graham crackers healthy?

Graham crackers are never healthy in that they are mostly empty carbohydrates. But, not all food needs to be consumed for health purposes. By making homemade graham crackers which contain whole wheat flour and honey instead of refined sugar, you can close the gap between “snack” and “health food.”

Why is it called a graham cracker?

These crackers are named after Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister who lived in the 19th century. Graham believed that in order to live in the way God wanted, people should resist all pleasures. This included eating a vegetarian diet. He created graham crackers, then an unsweetened biscuit, as an example of the pleasureless food he wanted his congregation to eat.

Do you need graham flour to make graham crackers?

We don’t think so. Graham flour is extremely hard to track down even with the resources we have here. So, we developed a graham cracker recipe without it, and we think it tastes great. Your kids will love them!

More homemade snacks

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Homemade graham crackers on a cooling rack.

Homemade Graham Crackers

An easy recipe for Homemade Graham Crackers. Made with 100% whole wheat flour and brown sugar, these are so much better than store-bought crackers!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Chilling Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 24 crackers
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Calories 115
5 from 273 votes

Equipment

Ingredients 

Instructions 

To make the dough:

  • In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  • In a standing mixer fit with the paddle attachment, or with an electric hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. 
  • Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until incorporated well and a soft dough forms, about 2 minutes.
  • Add the milk, honey, and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated. The dough should be sticky and soft.
  • Divide the dough in two discs and wrap both in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

To roll and bake the dough:

  • Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously flour your counter or a piece of parchment paper and place one ball of dough in the center.
  • Pat into a 5-by-6-inch rectangle, sprinkle with flour, flip, and dust again, Working from the center out and adding more flour as needed, roll the dough until roughly 15-by-11 inches and very thin. Slide onto an aluminum baking sheet and brush away excess flour. Repeat with remaining dough.
  • For grocery store look-alike, score each sheet of dough into twelve 2 1/4-by-4 3/4-inch rectangles and dock with a bamboo skewer or the narrow end of a chopstick. Otherwise, leave the dough uncut.
  • Bake until crackers and firm and darkened, about 10-12 minutes. Immediately cut along the pre-scored lines with a knife, or cut into free-form shapes using a pizza wheel. Cool to room temperature directly on the baking sheets.
  • The graham crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks at room temperature or frozen for up to 3 months.

Recipe Video

Notes

  1. Whole wheat flour: Do not substitute stone ground or white whole-wheat flour.
  2. Yield: This recipe makes 24 graham crackers.
  3. Storage: The graham crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks at room temperature or frozen for up to 3 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 crackerCalories: 115kcalCarbohydrates: 20gProtein: 1gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.2gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 9mgSodium: 124mgPotassium: 56mgFiber: 1gSugar: 13gVitamin A: 106IUVitamin C: 0.03mgCalcium: 15mgIron: 0.5mg
Did you make this recipe?Tag @culinaryhill on Instagram so we can admire your masterpiece! #culinaryhill
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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.

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Comments

    1. Hi Sven, stone ground flour typically has a coarser texture, different flavor profile, and different liquid absorption rate than whole-wheat flour. If you have it on hand and would like to experiment, it can be used instead of whole-wheat flour in this recipe, but may likely need some adjustments. Thanks for the question! Take care! – Meggan

  1. Made these today. With the exception of replacing half of the honey with molasses, the remaining ingredients were the same. I did have graham flour that I stumbled across last week while shopping. This caused the search for a recipe and this one is a winner! Although I had some difficulty with rolling, the finished product…even though it isn’t the most attractive, was unbelievably crunchy and delicious. This will be my go to recipe whenever I need crumbs to make a graham cracker pie crust. I also think that crushed, they would make an excellent substitution for a streusel-type topping on some desserts.
    Thank you so much for the recipe and all your helpful directions!5 stars

  2. Love this recipe!
    First all I had was trader joes organic unbleached all purpose wheat flour so that’s what I used.
    Cut down the cinnamon to about 1/4 tsp , used full amount 1/3 cup manuka honey. I always cut sugar at least in half in
    any recipe so I cut it back to a little less then half cup.
    My purpose was to make a graham cracker crust for a pie. Having read reviews that suggested making this dough right into a pie crust eliminating the steps of having to grind up crackers , I thought why not try it.
    First -dough worked up beautiful. refrigerated it over night. Rolled out perfect and into pie dish no trouble.
    Had a little left over, so i rolled that real thin and made 4 crackers, gently pressed holes with floured meat tenderizing mallet, that also worked perfect. The aroma and color of the dough baking was so authentic of traditional graham crackers. The crackers came out nice and crispy and very tasty though still too sweet for my taste! next time I’m counting the honey as my sweetener and adding no additional sugar. As far as the pie crust, the flavor is wonderful same as crackers but also too sweet.
    However to me, a traditional baker, I will go through the usual steps next time of making the crackers, then grinding them up to make them into a pie crust.
    the texture using the shortcut method this time just didn’t make what my family likes a graham cracker pie crust to have.
    I will update this review after making these graham crackers again.
    And thank you Meggan! for this wonderful recipe, I’ve been looking for a perfect traditional graham cracker recipe
    and am so excited to have found this one,5 stars

    1. Hi Lisa, you’re so welcome! Thank you as well for such a thorough and detailed comment. I look forward to your update! – Meggan

  3. As other commenters have noted these taste much like gingerbread due to the cinnamon. I figured I’d follow the recipe the first time at least. If I make these again I will omit or at least greatly reduce the cinnamon. I wasn’t super impressed but maybe I need to keep letting them cool, and I’ll like them more?

  4. Made a batch today. They are the best ever!😇 bought grahams a few weeks ago and they are not very good, not the ones from my youth. I’m sure the bakers have had to change the recipe do to pricing and availability of ingredients. Homemade is always better.5 stars

    1. I’m so happy you loved them, Dale! I agree, homemade is the best. Take care and please write if you have any questions! – Meggan

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