We don’t eat many processed foods in our house. Though treats are plentiful, they are usually in the form of homemade baked goods. One regular exception is the famous blue box that lives in the lowest cupboard of the kitchen where little hands can reach it — graham crackers.
Not long ago, I discovered graham flour in a food catalog and the light bulb went off — I could make my own graham crackers! I ordered a few bags of organic graham flour and my research began.
I come from a family of educators. My parents were the type who encouraged us (as our eyes rolled) to “look it up.” Before the Internet, there were encyclopedias and ours got plenty of use, often finding its way to the dinner table. Because of this, I am in the habit of learning about the history or origin of a food before I seek out recipes.
My search into graham cracker history yielded an unexpected tale from the early 19th century. I learned that the crunchy snacks are named for a minister, Sylvester Graham, who created the biscuits as a healthy addition to a diet he preached to his devoted followers. The base of the cracker, graham flour, is comprised of ground white flour with coarsely ground wheat bran and wheat germ. Today, commercial graham crackers are made with refined, bleached white flour, which was precisely what the Rev. Graham valiantly opposed!
In my search for graham cracker recipes, I found a considerable amount of variation. Some include eggs while others do not, and sweeteners vary between molasses, honey and sugar. Many do not use graham flour, but I decided to stay true to the cracker’s roots and feature the flour for which it was originally named.
After three batches and a number of tweaks to the recipe, my 4-year-old daughter, and best critic, announced that this version was yummy and “just as good as the blue box.”
This recipe was developed for Spice Islands.
Find my recipe for Honey Cinnamon Graham Crackers here on their Flavor Explorer blog.