Graham Crackers – Rounds 1 and 2!
Last year I bought my cousin the Miette cookbook for her birthday. Naturally, I had to get a copy for myself as the book is simply beautifully produced and filled with stunning photography of sugary goodness!
Some of the recipes call for Graham crackers as a base in crumbed form or as a crust and since we don’t have Graham crackers here in Ireland, I decided to make them from the recipe in the book. Graham crackers are a thin crispy biscuit that have a lovely nutty, caramel flavour and form the basis of s’mores, a simple dessert that includes marshmallows and chocolate.
DAY 1
The recipe uses white and whole wheat flours, brown sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon and honey. Isn’t that a wonderful list of ingredients? The mix is lovely and glossy, and even tastes great raw! The recipe states putting the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and then rolling it between sheets of waxed paper. I only had parchment paper in the press so I used that. I have to say that I’ve never rolled dough that way before and found it quite difficult but I persevered!
I cut the biscuits with a scalloped cutter but couldn’t get them off the paper. After two more failed attempts, I ended up rolling the dough into a log and placing it into the fridge to chill again. Then I cut the log into thin slices, rerolled each slice and flattened it into a round biscuit shape. I placed them on a parchment-lined cookie tray. Into the preheated oven. Like a GBBO pro, I sat on the floor and watched in horror as my biscuits spread, totally losing their shape and browning unevenly. NOooooo!
1st attempt – biscuits have spread!
What was wrong? Not sure but I had a couple of ideas as we ate the biscuits which were lovely despite their odd shapes.
DAY 2
Determined to improve on the previous days baking, I made the dough again. This time, I rolled the dough on a floured board and cut the biscuits but with a smaller cutter {you can hear the ‘crisp’ as you cut into the dough}. Then I put the biscuits on the tray and pricked them with a fork. I put the tray to chill in the fridge for an hour as I remembered Paul Hollywood saying to do that with the dough for the GBBO marshmallow biscuits to ensure they don’t shrink or spread. Again I adopted my GBBO pose and cut the baking time in half {obviously with smaller biscuits}. Then while the biscuits were still warm, I sprinkled them with sugar.
MUCH, much happier with Day 2’s biscuits. These more resembled the photo in the Miette book and were a complete hit with the family.
ANALYSIS
Definitely the changes I made to the method worked but the finished biscuits were still not perfect as I found it hard to keep the shape while transferring them to the cookie tray. I think the dough lacks that firmness you need to ensure a uniform biscuit. Since making them, I’ve found other reviews of the recipe online and see that I’m not alone. It seems that chilling or even freezing the rolled out dough makes all the difference and that cooking from frozen is possibly the answer to the biscuit keeping its shape. So next time, I’ll try that as I’d really like to use this recipe as the base for cheesecakes and other desserts because of its lovely nutty taste and crisp texture.
If anyone has a fail proof recipe or other suggestions for Graham crackers, do let me know as I’d really like to perfect this recipe!!
Xx Paula
2 comments on “Graham Crackers – Rounds 1 and 2!”
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Salt, Pepper and a Dollop of Cream 
These sound like a challenge which makes me desperate to try them! They do look tasty though! A xx
They are so tasty! Would be much better for cheesecakes than digestives. My youngest loves them and he is extremely picky!!! Give them a go but for sure chill or freeze the cut biscuits before baking! Let me know if you make them and how you find them.