Description
Crispy, sweet, classic--these Vegan Graham Crackers are made from whole wheat flour and contain no oil, so they’re healthy but delicious.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2+1/2 cups (about 410g) whole wheat flour (see note 1)
- 3/4 cup organic brown sugar
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup cold coconut cream or vegan butter
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup water
Topping, optional
- 1/4 cup organic cane sugar or raw sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Make the Dough: Add all your dry ingredients to a large bowl: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and ground cinnamon. Mix them together with a fork or whisk. Work in the coconut cream or vegan butter with a fork, pastry cutter, or I prefer my hands. The warmth and pressure from my hands softens the coconut cream up and helps it blend into the flour. Blend until all the large chunks have been incorporated. The texture should resemble a coarse meal.
- Now, add the water and maple syrup. Mix it until the mixture has darkened from the moisture and no super dry parts remain. Add an extra tablespoon of water if you need to--I did because I used whole wheat flour, but 2 tablespoons was too much and it got too sticky. It will come together more later, if you’re worried about how crumbly it is.
- Mix until smooth and turn out your dough onto your work surface. It will look pretty crumbly at this point. Using your hands, pat the dough together into one mound. Using a dough scraper if you have it (or cut with a knife), cut the dough in half and place one half on top of the other and push it down. Repeat this process 5 or 6 times until the dough is more solidly together.
- Now wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least an hour or up to 24 hours. I know, I know, using plastic wrap sucks. But I will reuse this plastic wrap a lot during the next process, so I’m trying not to be wasteful!
- Roll Out the Dough: Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F or 149 degrees C. Let the dough warm up a bit for 5-10 minutes, then turn it out onto your work surface. Save the plastic wrap! Using your dough scraper or a knife, cut the dough into 4 equal chunks and set 3 of them aside.
- TIP: use a piece of parchment paper beneath each piece while you work on it. Once the crackers are rolled out, it may be tough to remove them from your work surface to put them on the pan. You can easily just pick up the parchment paper and put it right on your baking tray and bake!
- TIP: You might find that the dough sticks to your rolling pin. I recommend taking the plastic wrap that you rested the dough in and placing it over the ball of dough as you roll it out. This keeps the dough from sticking.
- Roll out the dough till it’s about a quarter of an inch thick. It might look like a blobby shape, rather than a rectangle. Remove the plastic wrap temporarily (I used one piece of plastic wrap for this whole recipe, you can keep using even poor quality plastic wrap) and even out the rectangle by taking some of the outer pieces and filling in the gaps. So if I have a litte peninsula of dough on the bottom but I’m missing some in the top right corner, I can pull off some extra and press it up there. Then replace the plastic and roll in that area. When it’s mostly rectangular, remove the plastic and use a knife or a pizza cutter to trim the edges so you have a nice straight rectangle. I used a ruler to help me get an even rectangle but you don’t need to.
- TIP: Save the scraps! You can make a whole nother dough ball just by saving all your dough scraps. I just pile them in the corner of my work surface. Because I saved my scraps, I was able to roll out 5 balls of dough total which enabled me to make more crackers than I otherwise would have been able to!
- Now use your knife or pizza cutter to section your rectangle into even smaller rectangles, but don’t separate the pieces. Finally, use a fork to poke holes in the crackers, aim for a set of holes every half inch. This keeps them from puffing up in the oven.
- Place the piece of parchment holding the crackers on your baking tray and repeat the process with all remaining balls of dough.
- Bake the Crackers: Bake your crackers at 300 degrees F (or 149 degrees C) for about 15-20 minutes depending on how thick the crackers are. Check on the crackers every 5 minutes and rotate the trays so they are cooking evenly. IMPORTANT: The crackers will not feel fully hard while they are still in the oven. They should be firm, but not hard. They will harden as they cool so don’t over bake your crackers! Carefully peel up one of the corners. If the bottom seems mostly hardened or lightly browned, they’re done. Take ‘em out! Let your crackers cool COMPLETELY before removing them from the baking sheet or separating them from each other. Otherwise they may bend, curl, or throw a temper tantrum.
- Store the Crackers: If you’re not promptly storing all these crackers in your face, I recommend storing them in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Note 1: I used whole wheat flour but all purpose flour will also work (it will use a tad less moisture, so add water a little at a time). To make these gluten-free, I recommend using a high quality cup for cup replacement like King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluten-Free Flour or Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour.
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Snack
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Vegan, Oil-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, Vegan Graham Crackers