Graham Crackers

My son loves graham crackers, you know, the crunchy store bought rectangle ones. For months I have been telling myself I have to try making my own but of course, something always comes up that keeps me from actually doing it. Today, I finally got around to making them, and something tells me that there is no way my little guy will touch a store bought graham cracker again! These come out of the oven soft, but after a few minutes of cooling, they crisp up perfectly. I'll be making more of these very soon - the first batch is almost gone already!

Graham Crackers (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
  
• 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
  
• 1 tsp Salt (4 grams)
• 7 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen
• 1/3 Cup Honey
  
• 5 Tbsp Milk
• 2 Tbsp Vanilla

Directions:

Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer (or use hand mixer with large bowl). Mix on low until well combined. Add the butter and mix on low, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and mix on low until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and dust it lightly with flour, then turn the dough out onto it and pat it into a rectangle about 1-inch thick. Wrap it, then chill it until firm, about 2 hours.

Divide dough in half, return other half to the refrigerator. Spread a thin layer of flour over work surface and roll dough out into a rectangle, about 1/8" thick . Cut into 2" squares. Place crackers on parchment lined baking sheet(s). Repeat with other half of dough. Place sheets in freezer for about 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove sheets from freezer and decorate each cracker with a toothpick by placing 3 rows of 3 dots on each cracker. My 3 year old did the cracker decorating for me and she had a wonderful time doing it, and each cracker has it's own "personality" as she made smiley faces and other pics with the toothpick on the crackers instead of following my 9 dot example. If desired, you may sprinkle the crackers with cinnamon sugar at this point - we did half with cinnamon sugar, half without.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Crackers will be slightly spongy/soft when they come out, but they will crisp up after a few minutes of cooling. I got about 40 2" squares from this recipe.