Miette's Homemade Graham Crackers

How do homemade graham crackers sound?  Irresistible if you ask me.  That's why I ran straight to the kitchen to make them when I came across the recipe in the Miette Cookbook.   I had a lot of fun making them.  Flavor-wise they're scrumptious, although the original recipe calls for honey and the honey I used was very strong and a bit overpowering so the next time I made them, I substituted my favorite ingredient, Lyle's Golden Syrup, which adds a beautiful caramel flavor.  The dough can be made up to 2 days ahead and the baked cookies can be stored for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

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Roll cookie dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper.  I find a ball-bearing rolling pin does the job best.  To ensure all the cookies turn out the same thickness and bake in the same amount of time, use 1/8-inch wooden dowels as a guide when rolling the dough.  

UPDATE:  Rolling guides work even better than dowels because they don't roll away from your work surface.    

Cut your cookies with your favorite cookie cutters.  I love my set of scalloped cutters and my message cookie cutters.

The message cutters are so fun to play with.

Transfer wax paper to a sheet pan and chill until dough is very firm.

When dough is firmly chilled, slide an offset spatula between the cookie dough and wax paper.

Transfer cookies to a parchment or silicone lined sheet pan OR…

After making several batches, I discovered I could speed the process along a bit faster if I chilled the cutouts in the freezer for about 5 minutes.

Partially freezing the dough firms it enough to peel the wax paper away easily.

And the partially frozen cutouts are easier to transfer to a prepared sheet pan for baking.

Keep cutouts chilled until it's time to bake them.  Before they go in the oven, sprinkle them with granulated sugar.

If cutting round shapes, use a skewer or toothpick to poke a few decorative holes - this will help the cookies bake evenly.  This step isn't necessary if you use the message cutters.

Eat 'em plain.

Or turn them into ice cream sammies.  Fun-fun!!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

• message cookie cutter set https://amzn.to/3yfyB2V

• Lyle’s golden syrup https://amzn.to/3EMJs6F

• heavy duty stand mixer https://amzn.to/3lRzeuz

• rolling guides https://amzn.to/3yh044d

• round dual-sided cookie cutter set https://amzn.to/3IHEzyf

• Miette: recipes from San Fran’s most charming pastry shop https://amzn.to/3h7ZOzQ

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Homemade Graham Crackers

makes two dozen 2.5-inch cookies

Printable Recipe 

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (6 ounces)

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (4 ounces)

• 2 tablespoons Lyle's Golden Syrup (or honey)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)

• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour (1 1/2 ounces)

• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• granulated sugar for sprinkling

Directions

To make the dough:

1. Sift dry ingredients together; set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and golden syrup together for 5 minutes.

3. Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.

To cut cookies:

1. Using a rolling pin, roll dough between layers of waxed paper to 1/8-inch thickness.

2. Use 1/8-inch wooden dowels as a guide.

3. Cut shapes from rolled dough and chill well before transferring to sheet pan.

4. I used these scalloped round cutters and these message cookie cutters.

To bake cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Place chilled cookie cutouts on a cool parchment or silpat lined sheet pan and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

3. Bake in the center of a preheated oven for 10-13 minutes.

4. Cool completely.

5. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Note

• Measuring ingredients like flour and sugar by weight is much more accurate than measuring them by volume so weigh ingredients with a digital scale for the best results.

adapted from the cookbook Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop

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Hungarian Shortbread: Tuesdays with Dorie

TWD Hungarian Shortbread - ButterYum

Today I'm thrilled to be joining the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group for the first time.  This group is baking their way through the book Baking with Julia and today's featured recipe is Gale Gand's Hungarian Shortbread (page 327, Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan).

This shortbread is delicious, but it's very rich and very sweet.  It's different than other shortbread recipes I've tried - the dough contains egg yolks, it's chilled and grated before being pressed lightly into the baking pan, there's a ribbon of jam baked in the middle, and the shortbread is liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar when it's piping hot out of the oven.  Dorie fills her shortbread with homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam, but I had a jar of sugar-free raspberry preserves to use up.  Glad I chose sugar-free because the shortbread is very sweet.  

I reduced the recipe by half and baked it in an 8-inch square pan.  I should also mention that I goofed and set my oven temp 25F higher than I should have - despite my error, the shortbread tasted wonderful although I'm sure it's a bit darker in color than it should have been (easily camouflaged with a sprinkling of powdered sugar).   

The recipe can be found at the following host blogs: 1 Small Kitchen and The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler.  If you're interested in joining this baking group and/or would like to visit other blogs who baked along, visit Tuesdays with Dorie.

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