Monday, August 30, 2010

Graham Crackers!

Dear Readers! I apologize for my absence and lack of posts lately! I have been enjoying the summer heat and since we don't generally have central air in our houses here in Seattle, baking is sometimes far from my mind!

I finally did the drawing for the July comments and the lucky winner is bubblebobble or as I know her, Aimee!! Congrats! Drop me a line at my email address and let me know what your mailing address is so I can get some baking goodies in the mail to you!

Now, on to the good stuff!! I went camping on the Oregon coast in July with my husband and two dogs! You have to make s'mores when you camp, it is a written rule somewhere! As a pastry chef, I wasn't happy with store bought graham crackers and cheap Hershey Bars. I could have gone all out with homemade marshmallows, but I wasn't feeling that ambitious! Instead, I settled for homemade graham crackers and we did Special Dark Hershey Bars, still cheap chocolate, but it was better than a regular old Hershey Bar at any rate. The graham crackers were quite delicious and my husband and I found ourselves snacking on them because they were so good! You could also use this recipe as a crust for a cheesecake, something I will cover on my next post!

Before the official close of summer on Labor Day weekend, make some graham crackers for that last camping trip of the season!! I should mention that I got this recipe from the one and only Martha Stewart, the woman we all love to hate.

The Cast:

Rolling pin
cookie sheets
mixing bowls
preferred method of mixing: hands, hand mixer, kitchen aid, etc.
parchment

The Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 cups graham flour (I found this in my health foods section at the grocery store, Bob's Red Mill makes it)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter at room temp
2/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If my faithful readers aren't familiar with the creaming method, I refer to it a lot! As a pastry chef, this is something you should know by heart!! The creaming method is when you beat your fats with your sugars, so at this point that would be your butter with the brown sugar and honey. Beat them until they are nice and fluffy! Add the dry ingredients and combine until they just come together.

Once the dough comes together turn out of the bowl onto a floured surface, rolling in a plus sign. Yes, a plus sign! First you do the vertical line of the plus and then the horizontal until you get the graham crackers the desired thickness. I like them thinner, but the thinner they are, the more delicate they become.

Now dear Martha says to cut them like you see them in the grocery store, I found the dough too delicate for that and I just took a really big circle cookie cutter! I liked the end result. Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes when they are a deep golden brown.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!! And happy trails to you.....

1 comment:

  1. We made s'mores on Saturday night in Yosemite! You're absolutely right about it being a camping requirement. I almost used my bar of Milka chocolate with hazelnuts but I thought it might be a little weird.

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