It wasn't long ago that I first learned that graham crackers are not available in the UK. "What do you mean?!?" I sputtered. But sure enough, I can't find them anywhere. And when someone tells me that I can't have it, well, it makes me want it all the more. So since then, I have had a huge graham cracker craving. Even though I probably only ate them twice in the past year when I was in the US (once on a s'more and once as a cheesecake crust), I would have had them for breakfast every day this week if it were possible.
"So how do you make pie crusts?" I asked. More importantly, "how do you make s'mores?" From what I can gather, digestive biscuits make great pie crusts. I'll have to try that soon. And as for s'mores, I get an equally puzzled look from the Brits, "what's a s'more?" One friend even offered that his knowledge of graham crackers came only from the fact that Stewie from Family Guy loved them. But, "what's a graham cracker?" they asked me.
I could only answer that it's crunchy. Slightly sweet and sort of bland. It's dry and it breaks easily. It also goes stale when you don't eat it shortly after opening the pack. But while none of that may sound appealing, it's a taste of home that I miss. I have checked every grocery store I have walked by with no luck. I even made a trip to Whole Foods, because that's the best place to find American goods here. But no luck. In the end, though, I realized that I may just have everything I need in my kitchen to make myself a batch of them.
While these don't taste like the Honey Maid graham crackers, they are definitely tasty and close-ish to the original thing. They have temporarily satisfied my craving for graham crackers, and I can't stop eating them, even as I type. I got the recipe from Sketch-Free Eating, but made a few adjustments since I didn't have all of the original ingredients on hand. The dough was really easy to make and only took about 5 minutes. But instead of making slabs of graham crackers as instructed in the original recipe, I used a cookie cutter to make individual fluted square cookies. It ended up being quite difficult using the cookie cutters since the dough was too sticky. So as an experiment, for the last few cookies, I added extra buckwheat flour to the dough so it was easier to roll out and cut. It didn't work. The cookies ended up being much too dense and hurt my teeth. So as a warning, if you decide to use cookie cutters, don't be tempted to simply add more flour to the recipe!
Graham Crackers with Buckwheat Flour Recipe (Gluten Free and Vegan)
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 3 tbs light brown sugar
- 2 tbs demerara (turbinado) sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- approx 3-4 tbs water
Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix in the sunflower oil and vanilla extract. Slowly mix in the water, being careful not to add too much. At this time, mix the dough with your hands so you get a feel for the consistency.
Flatten the dough into a round disk. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably longer.
Preheat oven to 177C (350F). Roll out the dough on a silicon baking mat by placing a plastic wrap on top of the dough and rolling on top of it with a rolling pin. The dough should be about 3 - 4 mm thick. Cut into rectangles and poke holes on top with a fork for decoration. Sprinkle with extra demerara sugar if you wish. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
mabel says
Hi! I'm curious if we can make this without sugar?
Karen says
If you use coconut sugar, it has a taste similar to graham crackers!
Sarah says
Hi, did you use coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar AND turbinado sugar? Thanks!
Justyna says
I replaced brown sugar with coconut and demerara with maple syrup. Still in the oven :)
jakki says
Re: smores - forgot to say the girl guides and scouts over here make smores with digestives, marshmallow and for an extra treat a square of cadbury's dairy milk chocolate!
jakki says
hi, well I lived in LA for 7 years (pasadena) but am back home now. I was intrigued that you could buy pie crusts ready made in LA! Trader Joes my favourite shop. Found your recipe as I am having some girl friends for lunch next Thursday and realised it will be Thanksgivng in USA. So, I thought I'd make pumpkin pie for desert but one friend is gluten free. I was over in FL visiting my bro and bought a bag of buckwheat flour in whole foods over there (I live in middle of no-where Scotland) so I am going to give these a try with my Floridian flour. Have you used these to make a pie crust or just eaten them?
Tina Jui says
Hi Jakki! Sorry for my delayed response... Thanksgiving has already past, so I hope you were able to find a pie crust suitable for your friend! I haven't tried to make these graham crackers into pie crusts. Did you try it? I would be curious to find out how it turned out. Hope you are able to find some buckwheat flour over there when you run out :)
Sketch-Free Eating says
So cool! Your grahams look amazing! I wish our dough was cookie cutter friendly! And I can't believe they don't have smores in the UK, that is a downright shame! lol Thanks for featuring us!
Tina Jui says
Thanks for visiting and checking out the site! And I know, too bad about the s'mores. But I've brought some grahams back here from the US, so I'm slowly introducing s'mores here to friends :)
Galina V says
Your crackers are very pretty. I do use the buckwheat flour to make blini and pancakes, but never thought of making biscuits with it. Will need to add this recipe to my favourites and make them when we have friends on GF diet coming over.
Thank you for visiting my blog! Glad to discover another fellow foodie!
Rachel says
The intro to this post made me laugh SO much! And I can imagine when it comes to making a pie or cheesecake crust for the first time you are going to approach the packed digestives with the same trepidation that I had opening my first ever pack of Graham Crackers I'd picked up in Trader Joe's to bake with. A few tips for them, buy the McVities ones in the red tube as cheaper ones don't have the structure to hold up as well to baking. Second, they have a slight salt aftertaste to them, therefore more salt than a graham cracker, so when making a crust, always use unsatled butter so it does not come out too salty! If you find a place to buy graham crackers or a good supermarket alternative let me know. I never actually had the chance to try a proper s'more when I lived in Los Angeles, but I feel the world is a less bright place without Trader Joes's s'mores bites. And their powerberries, salted butterscotch balls and pitta chips, but those are totally other kettles of fish!
Tina Jui says
Thanks for the tip, Rachel! I'm looking forward to making a McVities pie crust for the first time. I'm also going to have to try making a s'more with it too at some point. And by the way, if you ever do attempt a s'more on digestives, the Haribo Chamallows are the best for roasting. No corn syrup added to it, so it browns and burns so nicely.
Rachel says
Thanks for the tip. The only mallows I've ever toasted have been quite drippy. Here in the UK we put them on sticks, sometimes with chunks of Cadbury Dairy Milk around a camp fire!