Homemade graham crackers recipe

There are some things that I just don’t think are worth making from scratch (like puff pastry) and then there are some things I can’t believe can be made from scratch and taste good, like graham crackers.  Wait, not just “good,” but amazing!   Who doesn’t remember eating graham crackers as a child?  But you always got them out of a box, right?  Not anymore.  Be prepared to have your life changed!

Even though my mom didn’t allow many over-the-top sweets in the house, graham crackers sometimes made the cut.  Whereas Ho-Ho’s and Twinkies were definitely taboo, graham crackers seemed relatively benign and not overly sugary.  My mom bought Honeymaid, which we used to smear with peanut butter or cream cheese or just dunk in milk.  My kids would like to do the same, but I rarely buy packaged cookies.  First of all, I think that homemade always beats store-bought.  And it’s hard to find treats made with unrefined ingredients and without lots of scary chemicals.

Last June and July my summer intern Hannah and I went graham cracker crazy, making a new batch or two every week.  I finally settled on this recipe here which my friend Cheryl helped me with.  These graham crackers have just the right amount of sweetness, which makes them a perfect snack for your little guys and for s’mores.  I like using a combination of whole spelt or wheat flour and brown rice flour.  Rice flour is very light and has a grittiness that I think is ideal for graham crackers.  If you don’t have it, just use all spelt or wheat flour and they will still be delicious.  But I think the key with graham crackers is to ask yourself how perfect you want them to look. I so admire people who have the patience for making things look like they popped out of Martha Stewart Living because I don’t.  I will admit, I did my best with the batch I photographed for this post, but normally I leave my ruler in the drawer.  If you are giving these as a gift, using them for s’mores, or offering them to a large group of children, you may want the crackers to be as uniformly sized as possible so it might be worth the effort to measure out the dough and where you cut your lines.

This recipe is otherwise crazy simple,  but makes a great impression.  Last summer my go-to dessert for entertaining was a s’mores bar with these homemade graham crackers which Mr. Picky helped me bake on more than one occasion.  To me, having my kids helping me in the kitchen is the best part of making your favorite treats from scratch.   I also love that you can put into them what you want.  All organic ingredients?  No problem!  Half the sugar of their traditional counterparts?  Go for it!  Lots and lots of love?  Always!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Homemade Graham Crackers
Author: 
Serves: makes 24 3 x 3½ -inch crackers
 
Ingredients
  • 1 ¼ cups whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, white whole wheat or spelt flour
  • 1 ¼ cups brown rice flour (or just use all wheat/spelt flour)
  • ½ cup coconut palm sugar, sucanat or brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ¼ cup milk, non-dairy milk or water
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In the bowl of a food processor or mixer, pulse or stir the dry ingredients until combined.
  3. Add the butter pieces to the dry mixture and pulse or process until it looks like coarse meal.
  4. Add the honey, water, and vanilla and process until a ball of dough comes together. Pull the ball of dough out of the food processor and cut it in half. It is a very soft dough. But if it’s super sticky or if your kitchen is warm, refrigerate the dough 30 minutes.
  5. Roll out one ball of dough between two sheets of parchment paper to a 10 x 12” rectangle or about ⅛” thick. Remove the top sheet of parchment and slide the bottom sheet of parchment with the rolled out dough to a baking sheet. With a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into rectangles. If desired, prick the dough with the tines of a fork to create the classic graham cracker “dots.” Repeat with second ball of dough.
  6. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the edges are starting to turn brown. Remove from oven and cut crackers again along the same lines with a pizza wheel or knife. Allow to cool on the pans for about 2 minutes. Separate crackers from each other and cool on racks. If some crackers seem a little thicker than others, put them back in the warm oven with the heat OFF for 10 more minutes and up to an hour. This will dry them out a bit and ensure that they will be crispy.
  7. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Notes
To make gluten-free graham crackers, use 2 ½ cups all-purpose gluten-free flour blend, such as King Arthur plus ½ teaspoon of xanthan gum in place of the wheat and rice flours.

 

No-Sugar, No-Egg, No-Flour Breakfast Cookie Recipe

Most people are not mind readers, so if you have a wish for the perfect Mother’s Day, you may need to drop a few hints.  I used to dream of a day where I could relax in my bed for a few extra minutes, maybe with the newspaper and a fresh cup of tea.  Then off to a rare workout or walk along the beach.  I would wish for a little extra time to do my hair before having a yummy and healthful brunch with my favorite people in the world, my husband and my kiddos.  Ha!  Sometimes we moms keep doing for others and feel guilty about taking time for ourselves.  You know what?  We run around at 90 miles an hour every day of the year, it’s OK to have one day where you get put on a pedestal and your loved ones spend the day worshipping you.

But I’ll admit, I’ve never been very good at asking for things.  Year after year, we would go out with my husband’s family for brunch to a crowded restaurant or hotel.  The men spent a lot of money for average food and lots of noise and this wasn’t dreamy to me.  Then two years ago my good friend Melissa told me that her Mother’s Day is spent at the home of her in-law’s and all the guys get together in the kitchen to make lunch for the ladies.  LIGHT BULB!  So last April, I made a few subtle suggestions and guess what?  My husband can take a hint!  He organized the troops to cook the loveliest lunch at our home.  Never mind that the kitchen looked like something exploded in there, I didn’t have to lift a finger and my hair looked great.

This year we’re doing the same thing and I am totally excited.  If this sounds good to you, but there isn’t enough advance warning for your family to mobilize, you can at least make a few suggestions for breakfast in bed…like these breakfast cookies!  You can whip them together the day before and suggest that they be delivered bedside on a silver platter with a coffee or tea and some fresh fruit.  A little bud vase with a beautiful flower would be nice too, but maybe we shouldn’t push it.  These “cookies” are like having your oatmeal and toppings in a tasty and neat little package, and it kind of feels like you’re eating a cookie.  Splurge!  But look at the ingredients — totally clean and won’t offset that workout you’re going to get in!

If breakfast cookies aren’t your thing (really?), here are a few other ideas to give your family a little help:

Happy Mother’s Day to all you beautiful women.  I wish I could jump through the computer to give you a big hug.  The world is a better place for all you do.

5.0 from 4 reviews
Breakfast Cookies
Author: 
Serves: makes 12-16
 
Ingredients
  • 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
  • ¼ cup almond meal or sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • ½ cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts and almonds, but pecans are great, too)
  • 1 cup unsulphured dried fruit, chopped (I used dried dates and blueberries)
  • 3 ripe bananas or 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, coconut, almond meal, cinnamon and salt. Add the nuts and dried fruit combine with the mixture, breaking up the dried fruit so it doesn’t clump together (I use my hands to mix this.)
  3. In a medium bowl, mash the bananas and stir in the oil and vanilla.
  4. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir to combine.
  5. Take scoops of the batter either with a ⅓ cup or ¼ cup measuring cup and drop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets. Flatten with your hand to about ¾-inch thick. Bake for a about 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in the fridge after a few days or wrap and freeze.

Chocolate coconut macaroons recipe

Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

If I am going to eat dessert, it better be good.  It better be worth falling off the wagon for.  Usually Passover desserts do nothing to tempt me from my sugar abstinence and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  But I cannot in good conscience be the bringer of a sticky, heavy honey nut cake or one of those Maneschewitz Passover cakes from a mix.  I want to share a dessert that I would be happy to eat any time of the year, not just on this 8-day hiatus from flour and other ingredients crucial to baking.  Enter coconut macaroons!

I have tried more coconut macaroon recipes than I care to admit (about 5 pounds worth on the hips and thighs), but this is truly the best.  This recipe is adapted slightly from pastry chef and cookbook author, David Lebovitz.  It is exactly what I want in a macaroon — toasted on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside, but not so sweet that it will make your teeth ache (probably because I cut the sugar a bit.)  I use almond meal instead of flour so that they are Passover-ready and gluten-free, because these days everyone knows someone who is not eating gluten.  I have a news flash — don’t be put off by the use of almond meal.  It’s nothing more than blanched almonds ground up (in the food processor, if you wish) to a fine meal.  My natural foods supermarket even sells almond meal in the bulk bins.

I happen to love coconut and I am a believer in all the health benefits that coconut has to offer.  It is rich in good fats, especially lauric acid which is an immune-boosting fat otherwise only found in breast milk.  The key is to start with unsweetened, shredded coconut which you can find in the bulk bins at the natural foods supermarket or in bags.  I try my hardest to use unrefined sweeteners whenever possible, but only if it makes for the best result.  In this case, granulated sugar is best here, so let’s make these cookies small, ok?

If you would like to bake these for Passover, or for your child’s mock Seder in religious school this week, then you can start cooking lickety-split.  You all know how I love a do-ahead!  You can make the macaroon batter a week ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator or even freeze it.  The cookies can be baked a few days in advance and kept in an airtight container far away from recovering sugar addicts, especially if they’re dipped in dark chocolate.  Stay tuned for another fabulous Passover-appropriate or all-around yummy dessert later this week!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
Author: 
Serves: makes 30 cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 2 ½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon raw honey or Grade A maple syrup
  • ¼ cup almond meal or flour
  • ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • 4 large egg whites
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 ounces, bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (optional)
Instructions
  1. In a large skillet combine coconut, sugar, honey, almond meal, salt, and egg whites. Please do as I say and COMBINE everything BEFORE placing over heat, otherwise you will end up with a coconut frittata. I'll give you one guess how I know this. Place over medium-low heat on the stove, stirring constantly. When the mixture just begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, almost about to scorch, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. You are going for sticky, not dry and pasty.
  2. Transfer to a bowl to cool to room temperature. You can refrigerate the dough for up to one week or freeze up to one month.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  4. Using a small ice cream scoop, form the dough into little mounds and space them evenly on the prepared sheet pans. Shape them into little pyramids, if desired.
  5. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  6. If desired, melt chocolate in a heat -proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, aka a double boiler. Dip cooled macaroons in chocolate (wherever you like -- tops, bottoms, sides) and allow to cool completely on cooling rack or on a parchment-lined baking sheet if you dipped the bottoms. If history repeats and you need to make like an Isrealite, stick the chocolate covered macaroons in the fridge to harden the chocolate quickety-quick.
Notes
You can also add some mini-chocolate chips to the cooled macaroon batter, then shape and bake.

 

Almond butter and chia seed cookie recipe

Remember the commercials for Chia Pets, the clay animals with a green furry layer of sprouted chia seeds covering their bodies?  Did your parents let you have one?  I SO wanted a chia puppy!   I can’t help but chuckle at the fact that 30 years ago chia seeds were popular as an arts and crafts project and now they are the latest super food.  Chia is giving flax and hemp a run for their money.  So what’s all the hype?  Chia seeds are a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids, contain lots of protein and fiber and are rich in antioxidants.  Unlike flaxseeds, chia seeds do not need to be ground up or soaked for you to be able to benefit nutritionally.  What’s kind of cool about chia seeds, though, is their gelatinous quality.  If you add them to a smoothie or yogurt, they swell up and thicken whatever they’re in.  My Whole Foods sells them in the bulk bins if you just want to buy a few spoonfuls and play round with them in your oatmeal or salad dressing.

But chia seeds are not in these cookies because I think they will magically turn this dessert into a healthful food — it’s still a cookie, or as my husband calls them — the “Chia Pet Cookies.”  Nutrition aside, chia seeds just add a really fun crunch, almost like a poppy seed.  You can add more crunch and texture if you like by adding finely chopped almonds, dried cranberries or chocolate chips.  No matter how you make them, these cookies are really quite tasty and a nice change from peanut butter, which Mr. Picky eats enough of.

My friend Peggy invited me to a large dinner at her house a few weeks ago and asked if I would bring a dessert.  The dinner happened to fall on a busy day for me (whom am I kidding?  Everyday is a busy day, isn’t it?), so I whipped up two batches of batter the night before and hid them in the fridge way back there so certain people who can’t keep their fingers out of raw cookie dough wouldn’t see them.  The next day while I tested someone on vocabulary words, I scooped dough onto cookie sheets and baked them off.  Everyone at the dinner asked, “what kind of cookies are these?”  “Almond butter and chia seed,” I replied.  “Like the Chia Pet??!!”  Never fails.

 

5.0 from 1 reviews
Almond Butter and Chia Seed Cookies
Author: 
Serves: makes 20 3½-inch cookies
 
Ingredients
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup natural cane sugar (e.g. Sucanat) or regular granulated sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup raw, unsalted, creamy almond butter
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ teaspoon 100% pure vanilla extract
  • 1 ¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour or gluten-free oat flour*
  • ¼ cup ground almond meal (buy this already ground or make your own by processing blanched almonds in a food processor until powdery)
  • ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • ¾ teaspoon aluminum-free baking soda
  • 2 Tablespoons chia seeds (optional, but fun!)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Cream the butter, sugars and almond butter with an electric mixer until light in color, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat until well blended.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal, sea salt, baking soda and chia seeds. Add to the mixing bowl and stir until just combined.
  4. Using a 1 ¾ -inch ice cream scooper, drop batter onto prepared pans. Press down lightly on the cookie with the tines of a fork, making criss-cross marks. Bake 14-15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.
  5. Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute and then transfer to a cooling rack.
Notes
To make a smaller cookie, use a 1 ¼-inch scooper and bake for 9-10 minutes.

If you like a thicker cookie, refrigerate the dough for a few hours before scooping.

*Oat flour results in a more tender, cake-ier cookie.

 

Vegan chocolate chip oatmeal cookies recipe

A funny thing happens when people start cooking healthful food for family and friends.  They feel the need to announce that fact to everyone before serving it.  “Ok, guys.  Wait until you try this muffin!  It’s made with flaxseeds and almond meal and it has no sugar!  It’s unbelievable!”  Of course everyone else is thinking it’s probably unbelievably bad and unbelievably tasteless.   Or students will come to my class and go home very motivated (a good thing) to overhaul the pantry, the refrigerator and the family diet.  And even though I urge them not to, they feel compelled to sit the family down and tell them how “things are going to change around here!  There will be no more sugar!  Or processed snacks!  Suzy, spit out that gum.  Don’t you know aspartame is the number one food-related complaint to the FDA?”  Unfortunately, despite our well-meaning intentions, this strategy rarely elicits a positive response.

On the other hand, I love being able to share recipes that are delicious, easy, and just so happen to be good for you.  Take these chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, for example.  Using a base of walnuts, maple syrup and a touch of coconut oil in place of butter and eggs, these are just darn tasty and not-so-shabby, nutritionally-speaking.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and if your school or office allows treats to be brought in, why not make a batch of these?  Like many cookie recipes, you can make the dough several days in advance and keep it covered in the refrigerator.  Take it out when you’re ready to bake and scoop it onto your cookie sheets.  You can even freeze the cookies unbaked.  Arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet and place the pan in the freezer.  Once the cookies are frozen solid, transfer them to an airtight container and keep them frozen until you’re ready to bake.  Then just place them on a prepared baking sheet directly from the freezer and add another minute or two to the baking time.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Yes, I know it is so very exciting that they are full of fiber and contain no refined sugar.  No animal products either, if that’s important to you.  You can even make them gluten-free by using gluten-free oats.  But no need to go around saying, “OMG!  Try these cookies!  They’re gluten-free and they’re VEEE-GAN!”  Unless your motivation is to discourage any takers and to keep them all for yourself. Hmmmmm……

4.8 from 16 reviews
Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Author: 
Serves: makes 30 2½-inch cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 1 ½ cups oat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 cups raw walnuts
  • 3 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
  • 1 cup 100% pure maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 12 ounces or 1 ½ cups chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. *If you need to make oat flour, place 1 ¾ cups rolled oats in a food processor and process until powdery.
  3. Place oat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl and whisk together.
  4. Place walnuts in a food processor and blend into a fine meal. Add oil, maple syrup and vanilla and process until mixture has the consistency of natural nut butter.
  5. Stir walnut mixture into flour mixture. Fold in 2 cups rolled oats and chocolate chips.
  6. Use a 1 ¾ -inch ice cream scooper to form dough into balls, and place on baking sheets. You can fit 12 on a sheet. Flatten cookies slightly with a damp hand. Bake 13-15 minutes or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry.
  7. Cool a few minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Molasses-ginger cookies recipe

Molasses-Ginger Cookies | Pamela Salzman

Just in time for your cookie exchange!  These cookies are chewier than a gingersnap, but still wow you with that sweet and spicy kick.  I love rolling them in unsweetened, shredded coconut instead of the traditional granulated sugar, but they are just as good without the additional adornment.

Molasses-Ginger Cookies | Pamela Salzman

Let’s discuss some of the sweeteners used in this recipe.  I used organic brown sugar as my first sweetener.  I wouldn’t call brown sugar a high-quality sweetener, but it provides the flavor and tenderness I am looking for.  I choose the organic version to avoid the high concentration of pesticides found in regular brown, but this ain’t health food.  The other sugar is called Rapadura or a similar product goes by the name Sucanat, short for sugar cane natural.  These are minimally processed organic cane sugars which still contain the vitamins and minerals naturally found in the sugar cane plant.  The molasses is still present in these granules, which make it a perfect sweetener for these cookies.  If you can’t find them, use all dark brown sugar.  Lastly, I have used blackstrap molasses in the past, hoping my family will like it as much as regular unsulphured.  But alas, we will sacrifice less iron for less bitterness.  If you enjoy the stronger flavor of blackstrap, by all means use it.  You will be rewarded with a much more mineral-rich cookie.  But the end of the day, we should enjoy what we make and my family and friends adore these cookies with regular unsulphured molasses.

As with most cookie dough, this can be made several days in advance, if kept refrigerated and well covered.  You can just bake the quantity that you need when you need it.  This is especially helpful when your daughters tell you their charity league cookie exchange is on Friday at 4:00 pm and school gets out at 3:00 pm.  Grin (and bake it!).

Molasses-Ginger Cookies | Pamela Salzman

molasses-ginger cookies recipe
Author: 
Serves: 4 dozen 2½ inch cookies
 
Ingredients
  • 2 cups whole grain pastry flour, all-purpose flour, or spelt flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ⅔ cup chopped crystallized ginger (optional)
  • 1 ½ sticks unsalted, organic butter, room temperature
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup Sucanat, Rapadura (whole cane sugar) or dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup dark unsulphured molasses (not blackstrap)
  • 1 large, organic free-range egg
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup dried, unsweetened shredded coconut or turbinado sugar
Instructions
  1. Mix together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Add crystallized ginger.
  2. With an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add molasses, vanilla and egg and beat until well blended.
  3. Add flour mixture and mix until just blended.
  4. Chill, covered, until firm, at least several hours.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  6. Place the coconut in a small bowl. Form the dough into 1 to 1 ¼ inch balls (an ice cream scooper is helpful) and roll them in the coconut or turbinado sugar. Place them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. You should fit 12 per sheet.
  7. Bake the cookies in the lower third of the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire racks.