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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.
Yes, they are made with ingredients you know and recognize and are not “processed.” However, the flavor of homemade graham crackers is far superior to store-bought and totally worth the effort.
How do you make Graham Crackers?
Graham crackers, like many cookies, are made with the creaming method. This means you cream softened fat (butter or shortening) in a mixer with sugar until it is pale in color and fluffy.
Then, add your remaining wet ingredients (in this case, milk, honey and vanilla) and your dry ingredients.
Scrape your dough and knead by hand before forming into two large rectangles. Score the dough before baking, but otherwise leave it uncut.
Bake the crackers until darkened, then break along the score lines.
Or, you can use a pizza wheel to cut out any shapes you want.
Store the baked graham crackers in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks. Or, freeze the crackers for up to 3 months.
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Homemade Graham Crackers
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour plus more for dusting (not stone-ground or white whole white flour)
- 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 and a soft dough forms, about 2 minutes.
- Add the milk, honey and vanilla extract. 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 am 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
Nutrition
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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.
The flavor is fabulous!! My family loves it! I almost posted that I couldn’t quite get graham cracker consistency, but I baked for a little longer. I don’t think I rolled it thin enough. Using with my cookie press in the future! Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome, Anna! Thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad the extra bake time helped. – Meggan
Hi Meggan!
I was wondering if you could substitute maple sugar or coconut sugar for the brown sugar in this recipe?
Thanks!
Hi Michelle, thank you so much for your question! I haven’t tried this substitute but I don’t see why you couldn’t. The graham crackers may come out a little more dense, though. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help. If you do try this substitute, would you please write back and let me know how it turns out? Take care! – Meggan
Could these be cut out type cookies? Minding bake time of course.
Hi Amanda! I haven’t tried it myself, but I don’t see why not. Besides cook time, I would be mindful of how much flour is used while rolling out the dough, especially if you roll it out a second time after cutting the first set of cookies. If you do try it, please write back and let me know how it turns out! Take care! – Meggan
Super yummy! With the unreasonable price of graham crackers, along with other things, I’m making them at home. I’ve struggled to judge the right time and worry about burning them, but they’re good a little soft anyhow. I’ve also made them with maple syrup instead of honey, which is really good.
Based on other reviewers comments that these cookies were potentially too soft/chewy, and also too sweet, I made the following recipe modifications, with very good results:
Reduced the light brown sugar to 3/4 of a cup.
Reduce the honey to 1/4 cup.
Add an extra pinch of salt (I was using unsalted butter).
Baked them at 330° for about 16 minutes.
They came out quite crispy and delicious— sweet enough but not cookie-sweet. I plan to use most of them for s’mores at a party, but they would be equally good with coffee or as a snack. Somewhere in between a commercial
gram cracker (but much better) and a crisp Christmas sugar cookie.
A good cookie but a little too too sweet for a graham cracker.
I tried this recipe today but my crackers are chewy, not like a graham cracker should me. Taste great, but what am I doing wrong?
Hi Allison, I’m so sorry about that. They may have needed some more time in the oven. Do you have an oven thermometer inside the oven? Also, the graham crackers will dry out some more as they cool. How did they turn out once cooled? Sorry again! – Meggan
Which brand whole wheat flour you.recommend?
I have tried and compared a few different Graham Cracker Recipes and this one is by far the most amazing and delicious! I planned to just make them for my toddler and they have now become mine and my husbands favorite thing to partner with our coffee.
Thank you, Hanna! So glad you and your husband love it! – Meggan
Super easy and yummy
Happy you loved it, Stephanie! Take care!
I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but have a question. Does it matter if the butter is salted or unsalted? I know that sometimes it does so want to make sure before hand. Thank you!
Hi Amanda! I personally don’t worry about salted vs. unsalted unless there is some specific reason, and then we would call out unsalted butter. And we didn’t here because I don’t think it matters. Hope this helps! Enjoy! – Meggan
The recipe states a 40 minute bake time, but the instructions state 10 – 12 minutes. Maybe that’s why so many people have soft crackers?
Hi Robert, thank you for pointing that out. I’ve updated the recipe card. Thank you again and have a nice day! – Meggan
Baking them rite now, is super easy to make i made them and im only 10 they smell amizing😌 Thank you !!!
You’re welcome, Lilly! I hope they were amazing! – Meggan
I followed the recipe exactly.
1 too sweet! What I like about graham cracked us that they are not overly sweet, these are very sweet!
2. I would bake on parchment, they tend to stick when cooked directly on the pan
Hi Tasha, I’m sorry you didn’t care for these graham crackers. I hope you are able to adjust the amount of sweetness next time by reducing the amount of honey or brown sugar. Step 1 suggests using parchment paper, but it is not necessary for this recipe. I included it because I agree it is easier to handle on parchment paper. I hope you are able to adjust my recipe to your liking. Take care! – Meggan
This recipe was amazing! And so easy! We wanted to make smores last night and did not have the graham crackers. On a whim, I looked online to see if there were any recipes. I had all the ingredients (including the whole wheat flour)! I would definitely suggest to roll out the thin cracker dough directly on the parchment paper you will be using to bake on. I can’t imagine trying to pry that thin of a layer of dough off a board. These were so tasty, we ate a couple before actually making the smores. Will never buy boxed graham crackers again!❤
Hi Jill, I’m so happy you love these! Great suggestion with the parchment paper! Take care! – Meggan
Holy Cracker Complainers! The sheer volume of grown adults whining about a recipe not working for them is mind boggling to me. The convenience of being able to easily access FREE recipes via the internet instead of purchasing cookbooks or asking multiple friends the way we used to has seemingly spoiled a lot of people. How about trying gratitude instead of grumbling and complaining about flat, chewy or whatever first world issues your graham crackers are ailing from?? So what if a recipe doesn’t work, quit blaming the recipe and the author and either find a new recipe or bake something else. Jeepers!
Rant over and I have a question 😊
Has anyone tried this with gf flour? I’m hoping to be able to create a gf cheesecake base and this recipe looks forgiving enough to try it with gf flour.
Call me crazy, but if it doesn’t work – who cares lol
I followed the recipe but my dough was much darker than yours and it spread significantly, making the score lines and dock marks disappear. I chilled it for several hours but noticed it was still quite soft when I rolled it out. The first batch never got crisp and although I baked the second batch for way longer, it was chewy as well. The texture is almost like a florentine and they seem super buttery, what am I doing wrong? They are so tasty, I want to get them right they’re my husband’s favorite!
I like the chewy texture.
Thanks Allan! – Meggan
Mine turned out soft. Not what I wanted, need that cracker affect. Not sure what went wrong followed everything to a T.
Hi Kryslal, I’m sorry the crackers didn’t come out how you would have liked. They may have needed some more time in the oven. Do you have an oven thermometer inside the oven? Also, the graham crackers will dry out some more as they cool. How did they turn out once cooled? I’m so sorry again. – Meggan
love the taste of this cookies, and made as a pie crust too thanks for sharing this recipe it’s a keeper.
These cookies are delicious and super simple to make. Way better than boxed cookies!
What a beautiful dough to work with…wish I had thought about making graham crackers before now. After rolling the dough out I cut 21/2 inch rounds with a scalloped edge cutter. Sending them to my out-of-state grandchildren with a bag of marshmallows and chocolate bars for some springtime s’mores.
THANK YOU… recipe I’ll will use again and again.
Shirley Harris
Thanks Shirley, I’m so glad you liked them! – Meggan
I had lots of whole wheat and butter so this recipe would be perfect. I substituted molasses for the honey and hazelnut coffee creamer for the milk. I baked them at 350 fan for 15 minutes. They turned out perfect and had a deep rice flavor. This is a great recipe and I will try again with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar just before baking.
Used scale and metric measurement and after 15 minutes of baking the crackers are still not baked through and wet. Add another 5 and still the same. It’s gooey and chewy :( I bake cakes and bread every week and I can’t believe this simple crackers didn’t work out for me. What a waste of ingredients *sob*
Hi Sadday, so sorry for the late response! They may have needed some more time in the oven. Do you have an oven thermometer inside the oven? Also, the graham crackers will dry out some more as they cool. How did they turn out once cooled? I’m so sorry again they didn’t work out for you! – Meggan
To make these as Cinnamon Graham Crackers, do I just add sugar and cinnamon on top before baking and/or add more cinnamon in the dough? Thank you for this recipe! Can not wait to try these!!!
Hi Mitzi, what a great idea! I would sprinkle cinnamon sugar topping on the dough after rolling it out and docking it, before baking. I hope you enjoy! – Meggan
I made the recipe 😁. However I wasn’t too successful with the rolling out. It didn’t want to lift off the kitchen bench. So, I used a two inch biscuit cutter and just cut them out and popped the circles on the cookie sheet. Half of the dough made 30 cookies. So I’ve popped the remaining dough in the freezer for later on. They look amazing and will be perfect for S’Mores, which is the reason I made them.
How creative Robyn! Hope you enjoy those S’Mores! – Meggan
7 tbsp of butter is 100 grams
please include metric measurements with your receipts, i.e. Grams, ml,
Hi Terrie, thanks for the comment and sorry that not everything converts easily into metric. It’s a burden we cooks sometimes have to bear converting recipes between the two systems. Take care – Meggan
Hi!
I will try to make them….the recipe is very easy….I hope they will come out good…I will let you know soon..
I live in Greece and we do not have Graham cookies here at all…the stores don’t sell.
I’m allergic to honey. Is there a substitution I can use?
Wow, these crackers are so delicious and easy to make. I actually made these because I needed a graham cracker crust for a cheesecake and I’m trying very hard to stay away from processed foods. Thank you for sharing this with us.
is it possible to use molasses instead of honey? i want to veganize this recipe : )
Hi Vanessa, it may be possible to use molasses instead of honey, but it may not work as well. – Meggan
Had to add a splash of milk to get it to come together at the end , but looks like it will be great recipe !
Can i shape it to make gingerbread house instead?
Hi Milly, I haven’t tried it myself so I’m not sure if they could support the weight of icing and decorations, but another reader did, though, and they said it worked! – Meggan
Greetings ~
I am making a pie that calls for a graham cracker crust but the person I am making it for is on a low sodium diet. I cannot find a low sodium crust or crackers anywhere so I thought I would make crackers from scratch and go from there. Can I use this recipe with unsalted butter and then remove the salt? Would that effect the results at all? I know flavor wise it won’t be the same (ahh, the magic of salt) but I would rather sacrifice the flavor a bit if it means she can have her favorite pie.
Hi Lesley, that’s so thoughtful of you! If you leave out the salt, the crackers will not rise. The salt is needed to interact with the baking soda. I haven’t tried this recipe without salt, so I can’t say it won’t work out for sure. I’m sorry about that! – Meggan
This dough had too much liquid for the amount of flour used.
Hi. I’m going camping with friends in a few days, so hoping you see this question sooner than that. Must I absolutely use whole milk? This recipe only calls for three tablespoons of it, but I can’t find any container smaller than a quart around here, and for some reason I can’t find whole powdered milk, unless I want a giant vat of it, which I will never use. I don’t drink milk. I really don’t want to end up with a lot of it leftover when I dislike the taste of it so much. Are there any other suggestions? Maybe a lower-fat milk? I have nonfat milk power which I use to bake bread. Will that do? Or can I substitute a rich almond milk, which I’ve noticed behaves exactly the same as regular milk when used in cooking? Then I can share it with my dairy-free friends. Is the fat content ultra-important, or is it just for flavor?
Hi Jennifer, I unfortunately haven’t tried this with any other milks. I have tried several graham cracker recipes, though, and they tend to be super finicky and touchy and prone to disasters. You are welcome to test the recipe with other milks, but I cannot promise what will happen. I’m so sorry about that! I completely understand the dilemma, I can only say that I learned during quarantine that milk can be frozen. Which is not really super helpful since you don’t like it. Sorry about that! -Meggan
Could I roll this dough out into a pie crust shell for a graham cracker pie crust?
Hi Amy, I’m not really sure. Graham cracker crusts usually have extra butter and sugar added. I’m not sure how just plain graham crackers would taste or if it would perform the way you want to. You could definitely try it, but only if you feel adventurous and won’t have your day ruined if it fails! Ha ha! I’d hate for your day to be worse because of one of my recipes. Thanks. -Meggan
I made this exact recipe a few weeks ago and it turned out perfect. Tried again today and it’s a sticky mess!
I must have more than doubled the flour by this point trying to make it come together, adding a bit at a time and getting nowhere. I eventually gave up, made little balls and flattened them onto parchment paper. Let’s see what comes out of the oven!
very delicious cookies ,my children savored them.
make the dough thing not super thin but thin to have them come out crispy if that’s the way you want them. Instead of butter I used avocado oil and they taste very delicious I believe some recipes that include butter you really don’t need to use it you can use oil instead because you will not savor the taste of butter, like in this recipe. Instead shortbread cookies the butter is a must.
I figured it out. Thank you for posting up the recipe!
Made these, they are delicious! thanks for the recipe@
Mangos are raining from the trees this time of year. Needing a taste of home, naturally I thought of Graham crackers. I was happy to find a simple recipe given how few fancy I gredients are available here on the coast of Oaxaca. I forgot to fork them, so they puffed a little. They tasted delicious, especially when we made mango cream pie.
For those playing along in Australia- do we have whole wheat flour? I used whole meal flour, which I think is whole-wheat white flour, so the dough didn’t come together at all. I added the other ingredients (used golden syrup instead of honey), and added more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until it became the sticky dough described. Dough currently resting in the fridge. I’m making NY cheesecake for my birthday and I’m so excited to see how these turn out!
Whole meal and whole wheat flour are the same. I realized this when I first made my Irish boyfriend soda bread
Why does your measurement for cinnamon and baking soda change when you switch between US and Metric?
Hi Ross, I fixed it. I’m so sorry about that. With my original recipe, some readers had issues so we worked on it a lot and tested it and what not. Ultimately we updated it, but we never recalculated the metric conversions. So the amounts you saw for Metric were from the old version of the recipe. So now I’ve recalculated everything and it should work fine. I’m really sorry about that! Thanks for letting me know. -Meggan
My Graham Crackers turned out very chewy and spread out a lot? Any advice
Hi, the narrative discusses molasses, but it’s not listed in the ingredient list or recipe. Am I missing something? Thanks, Jane
Hi Jane, I’m sorry for the change. Readers were having the original recipe fail on them repeatedly, not being able to get the dough to come together. I changed it to a recipe in September, but forgot to change the write up. I’ll do that right away so it is no longer confusing!
What happened to the molasses in the actual recipe???? This is my favorite graham cracker recipe, but it’s changed. I don’t see the molasses anymore. Did you replace it with the honey? There used to not be honey.
Hi Cherri, I’m sorry for the change. Readers were having the original recipe fail on them repeatedly, not being able to get the dough to come together. I changed it to a recipe that I thought had a similar taste but had dough that worked better. I will send you the original recipe via email. Again, I’m very sorry about that. -Meggan
I love graham crackers for a snack. I’m excited to try this because I prefer real food ingredients. Just curious though – why not maple syrup?
Hi Trudy, it’s because of the unique water content and pH of maple syrup. It just doesn’t work in graham crackers. Thanks for your question! -Meggan
Brigettes birthday
Why whole wheat flour and not graham flour?
Hi Jocelyn, graham flour is really hard to find so I started with a recipe that used whole wheat flour. I plan to try to a version with graham flour though, to see if it’s any better. It might make all the difference and be worth hunting down to the people who really want to make these crackers from scratch! Thanks – Meggan
This is clearly the recipe from BraveTart by Stella Parks and is available with appropriate credit given on a number of other sites. I wish you’d follow that lead and acknowledge where you got the recipe from. Not so interested in browsing other recipes here if that’s your typical MO.
You’re right, this is Stella’s recipe. My policy is to cite sources although clearly I didn’t here, and I’m sorry about that. I would never be able to conjure a graham cracker recipe out of thin air. Her recipe is actually really problematic, many readers have had trouble with it and I have too. I’ve tried some of the other top results in Google too and the dough is always so crumbly (chilling helps, but not entirely). I have added the citation, thanks for pointing that out, and I’m still on the hunt for a better recipe that never fails. Thanks and sorry again. -Meggan
Calm down, Karen. They’re just graham crackers.
Other than that, so thankful for this recipe as I am living in India and cannot find graham crackers anywhere. Thank you Meggan!
Thanks abbk, so glad you enjoyed them! – Meggan
I tried desperately to get this dough to come together and I couldn’t. I’m a novice Baker and this was something new but with 2 toddlers running around and being pregnant I couldn’t give it more time and had to chuck it with tears from everyone. Any tips would be greatly appreciated
Hi Toni, I feel terrible. You are living my life – 2 small children and pregnant (congratulations on that!). The last thing you need is a graham cracker recipe to fail for you! I have made it before without issue, so I’m really sorry the dough didn’t come together for you. With baking, the most important thing is to measure the ingredients correctly, but I’m fairly confident you did that. I should add more notes in the recipe about the ingredients. For example, blackstrap molasses does not work as well but I don’t think i wrote that anywhere. Did you use that, by any chance? I hope not. Also, the flour should be whole wheat but not stone-ground or white whole wheat. Is there any chance you used one of those (I hope not since I didn’t explain this clearly). Other than that, everything should be fine. I’m going to make these crackers again next week and see what I can figure out. In the meantime, I am so sorry for ruining the day. I feel terrible. Take care. -Meggan
Can this be modified to make chocolate graham crackers?
Hi Erin, yes! Reduce the whole-wheat flour to 2 1/4 cups (10 ounces), and sift it with 1/3 cup (1 ounce) of cocoa powder (natural or Dutch processed are both fine). Instead of rolling out the dough with flour, roll it out with extra cocoa powder to keep the dark brown color. Otherwise everything else is the same! Thank you and good luck! :D -Meggan
Using baking soda as a leavening agent what does it react with, is it the molasses?
Yes, exactly. Baking soda will react with the molasses. -Meggan
Great recipe!! I only need graham crackers for making crusts (cheesecake) and prefer to make my own. This is the best recipe I’ve found.
Is there a big difference if I use honey instead of the molasses?
Can’t wait to add them with homemade marshmallows And dark chocolate truffle sauce, oh yum!
Yes!!! What time should I be there? LOL!!
Graham crackers are my absolute favorite but I’ve never tried making them at home. Definitely making this!
Hi Mary, sorry you didn’t enjoy the recipe. – Meggan