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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 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!
Table of Contents
Ingredient notes
- Whole wheat flour: Do not substitute stone ground or white whole wheat flour.
Step-by-step instructions
- 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 into two discs, wrap both in plastic, and chill for at least one hour.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
The closest cracker to a graham cracker in the UK and Australia is called a digestive biscuit.
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.”
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.
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!
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Chex Mix Recipe
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Homemade Graham Crackers
Equipment
- Stand Mixer (I LOVE my KitchenAid Professional mixer!)
- Pizza Wheel (This makes it easier to cut the crackers)
- Bamboo Skewers (For scoring the crackers!)
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour plus more for dusting (see note 1)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 7 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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
- Whole wheat flour: Do not substitute stone ground or white whole-wheat flour.
- 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.
Nutrition
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.
I absolutely love these graham crackers!!! I have one suggestion for anyone who is having trouble rolling out the dough. Using my Nutibullet I ground up my whole wheat flour only for the roll out and the dough was so much more cooperative.
Hi Debra! Great tip! Thanks for the idea! -Meggan
Could you use this dough as a graham crust for pies? or would you make the crackers and then grind them and create a crust?
Thanks!
Hi TB! Great question, one I’m not prepared to answer fully. But seriously that’s a great idea. Without trying it, I would feel uncomfortable saying it would work as a crust as-is. So, in this moment I’d say you should grind them. When you make the graham cracker crust from the ground crackers, you also add butter (and sometimes sugar although it’s not required). I’m just wondering if the crackers alone, without that added butter, would be too dry as a crust. It might be fine, but it might be super brittle. So that’s my main concern. I will try it when I have a chance so I can add this to the knowledge base for all of us. I’m really curious now, I never thought of that, but what a great idea. Thank you! -Meggan
No ingredient list with measurements???
Hi Pattie, if you go to the bottom of the post, you will find the recipe card. That contains all the measurements for you. Sorry for the confusion! -Meggan
These are delicious! They remind me of a combo between a graham cracker and biscoff cookies. Also, they are very easy to make!
I’m so glad you like them, thanks Lyn! -Meggan
Absolutely perfect.
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for your comment Mary! -Meggan
I made these yesterday to whir up for a graham cracker crust. I use heritage wheat flour due to gluten sensitivity, so I wanted to make my own. I found the recipe went about as described, except that with just the flour and butter I didn’t really get a dough to form (perhaps my butter wasn’t softened enough), but after I added the liquids it was fine. I thought the dough was more cinnamon-y than a normal graham cracker, but after baking them up, they don’t taste overly cinnamon-y. Mine would not be confused with boxed graham crackers, but they are quite tasty and I think they will be great for the cheesecake crust! Thanks for this recipe! Next time I think I would score them into smaller cookie-like sizes to be eaten as cookies. My dad loved crisp cookies, so these make me think of him.
You’re so welcome, Susan! I’m so happy that they reminded you of your dad. I hope they come out perfectly next time. Take care! – Meggan
The taste of these are great but the dough was extremely dry and difficult to roll out because it cracked a lot. I weighed everything to the gram so not sure what I did wrong?
Thank you for trying my recipe, Brittany and I sorry for the dry and difficult dough. The dryness may stem from the brand of flour used or overmixing during step 2, where the dough should be soft and sticky. Another thing to consider is the room’s humidity level, which could impact the dough’s moisture. For your next batch, you may add more liquid or start with a little less flour, especially during the roll out step. I hope this helps and so sorry again, please write if you have any more questions! – Meggan