the grahams

I made the graham crackers from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking. I thought the book/website used the same recipe I linked to last week, but it's totally different. (My bad. I mentioned this in the comments.)

I just saw a great looking recipe at bread & honey, and of course there's the smitten kitchen one here, but I have to say, these were so good I'm not sure if I want to try another recipe. These call for barley flour which is really tasty and gives them a nice snap. I had to increase the milk to make the dough wet enough to work with and I also increased the cooking time by almost 10 minutes and used only brown sugar. I do want to try the chocolate version. You can't see it very well, but there is heavy dusting of cinnamon-sugar on these.

Here's the recipe with my changes included:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup whole barley flour
• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 cup chilled butter
• 1/3-1/2 cup milk (you might not use all of this)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and mix the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter (I use a Cuisinart) and then add the milk until a sticky dough forms. Then knead it smooth by hand. This is just like making a pie crust, so only add enough milk to make a dough, but make sure you can handle it and that it's not too dry to roll out. Chill for about an hour. Roll out about 1/16" thick and cut with a pizza cutter into squares (mine here are about 3" x 3") and prick with dots if you want to. Sprinkle with a bunch of cinnamon sugar. Transfer to a sheet and bake 15 minutes-25 minutes, depending on how thick you rolled them and how much milk you used. I actually decided mine weren't crisp enough about 6 hours later and popped then in an extra 5 minutes later in the day and they were perfect. They keep great in a air tight container.

Everyone in the house gives these a thumbs up—which was surprising because they are definitely more natural and less sweet tasting than the store bought kind. So, I am thrilled. They even suggested using them for s'mores. Little geniuses, I say. Another reason to bust out the homemade marshmallows. Twist my arm!