Once you try these 100% whole wheat vegan graham crackers, you’ll never go back to store-bought!
First of all, we have to talk about the history of the graham cracker. In 1829, Reverend Graham invented graham crackers to help suppress “unhealthy carnal urges.” Yeah. The original graham crackers were apparently quite bland and it was thought that bland food could curb ones desires. Dr. Harvey Kellogg and his brother held the same beliefs and went on to invent cornflakes. Fun stuff! [source]
I was never really into graham crackers. I used them in pie crusts but that was about it. We don’t have graham crackers over here in Germany and my lazy self picked them up every time I visited the US to bring them back with me. Lame, right? I wish I had known the wonders of homemade graham crackers prior to all that hauling over! Y’all have no idea how valuable that luggage space is. ;)
Graham crackers are so, so easy to make. You pretty much just dump everything into a bowl and mix it together. The time consuming part is the rolling out of the dough and then if you’re like me, you’ll waste a lot of time watching your crackers bake. I burned way too many of these bears at the beginning of my graham cracker baking career and I won’t let it happen again!
I’m kind of bummed it took me so long to try homemade graham crackers because they are honestly SO much better than anything you can buy. I only made them from scratch because I needed a graham cracker recipe for my book. I had a few recipes with graham cracker crusts and I didn’t want to call for store-bought graham crackers since I wanted to avoid processed ingredients.
Kelly from Hidden Fruits and Veggies tested these graham crackers out (along with several other recipes!) while I was having the cookbook recipes tested. When I asked her how they compare to the kind from the store, she told me that mine are more shortbread-like. Since then, I’ve gotten my hands on some store-bought graham crackers and she was right! These are more flavorful, have a better texture, and are terribly addictive.
This vegan version is a bit different than the one in the book. One of my graham cracker-loving friends recently had a baby and I wanted to make her a treat. She’s dairy-intolerant so I used coconut oil instead of butter (and reduced the amount) and since I was halfway to veganizing the recipe, I swapped out the milk for water and honey for brown rice syrup. Taste-wise, the only difference between the two versions is that the original version with honey has a slight honey taste. The brown rice syrup version obviously doesn’t. ;)
In the book I used a mix of white whole wheat and traditional whole wheat but as I have one remaining bag of white whole wheat (another thing we don’t have in Germany!) to last me until January, there was no chance I was going to use such a precious commodity on graham crackers. You can tell that the crackers are made with whole wheat flour but there’s so much cinnamon in them that I think any kid will love these, even if they generally dislike whole grains!
And aren’t these bears cute?! I feel so guilty whenever I burn a few or toss them into the food processor to make crusts. It just feels wrong.
Another thing I love about this recipe is how long the graham crackers stay fresh. If you keep them in an airtight container, they should stay crisp and delicious for a few months! I read that it’s almost back to school time in some Southern states so I recommend making these homemade graham crackers now so you’ll have one less thing to worry about when it comes to school lunches. :D
Whole Wheat Vegan Graham Crackers
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 15 crackers
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (313 grams) whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup (28 grams) wheat bran
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) raw sugar or granulated sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons (60 grams) brown rice syrup (or honey for a non-vegan version)
- 1 tablespoon (22 grams) molasses
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (169 grams) room temperature coconut oil1
- 2 tablespoons raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dough:
Cinnamon sugar coating:
Directions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater blade, mix together the dry ingredients (flour through salt). Add in the brown rice syrup, molasses, water, and vanilla. Gradually add the coconut oil.
- Mix on low until thoroughly combined and a dough forms.
- Divide the dough in half and form each half into a disk. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. If you refrigerate it longer, the dough may get very hard due to the coconut oil. If this is the case, let the dough sit at room temperature for a few minutes until easier to manage.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. While keeping one disk refrigerated, roll the other disk between two pieces of parchment paper until 1/4-inch (2⁄3 cm) thick. You'll have to use quite a bit of force the first few rolls as the dough will be very firm. You shouldn't need to flour the parchment paper if the dough is cold enough. Try to roll the dough as evenly as possible so that some parts don’t bake more quickly than others. Cut the dough into 5 × 2 1/2-inch (12 2⁄3 × 6 1⁄3 cm) rectangles or use a cookie cutter to cut into your desired shapes. If using cookie cutters, it's best to use one shape per pan so that the crackers are all of similar size and shape (teddy bears on one tray, ducks on another, etc.)
- Mix together the cinnamon sugar coating and sprinkle some over the crackers.
- Place the crackers on the prepared baking sheet.
- Prick holes in the crackers with a fork, if desired.
- Bake for 12 to 16 minutes or until the crackers have lightly and evenly browned. The time will depend on how thick you rolled out the dough and the shapes used. Pay close attention towards the end as they go from underdone to burnt in only moments. Let the crackers cool on the baking sheet for about 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. The crackers will harden as they cool, but if they’re still soft when they’ve totally cool, return the tray to the oven and bake for another 2-3 minutes.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 2 months. If you leave the crackers out for too long before placing in a container or forget to close the container, they might get a little bit soft. Bake them at 350°F (175°C) for about 3 to 7 minutes to crisp them up again.
Notes
- If using refined coconut oil rather than unrefined, these graham crackers may have some coconut taste to them.
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37 comments on “Whole Wheat Vegan Graham Crackers” — Add one!
Hi Erin,
This week I tried your WW Vegan Graham Cracker recipe. I followed it carefully except substituting half of the wheat bran with wheat germ. It seemed to go fine until I added the 169 grams of coconut oil. With that added it turned out to be like soggy sawdust. No way one would be able to roll it out even after refrigeration. I think the flaw is in way too much oil. I almost never throw things out so I added an adequate amount of water to make it workable then refrigerated the disks over night, let them warm up later and made cookies out of them. They’re still on the cooling rack so I can’t report on the flavor yet.
Hi Carl! Unfortunately wheat germ and wheat bran aren’t interchangeable and it was most likely the cause of your issues. :( I’ve made these crackers so many times and they work perfectly with bran! I hope they turned out okay.
Hi Erin,
I would love to bake these crackers. Is there a substitute for wheat bran? Can I use 1/2 cup whole wheat flour insteadof the wheat bran?
Thanks in advance!
Hi! I’m guessing you could try oat bran or maybe wheat germ but they all absorb a bit differently so I’m not sure. Same with whole wheat flour. Sorry I can’t give you a better answer! If you try it out, I’d love to hear how it goes. :)
Thanks much for the reply, Erin!
Can you give me a calorie and carb count?
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. :)
I am throwing a party this weekend and most of my friends are vegan. So, I definitely needed these graham crackers recipe!
I hope they’ll enjoy the crackers! :)
These sound amazing. I’ve been looking for a vegan graham cracker so my family can make smores while camping but it’s hard to find anything vegan around here. So here I am but I was wondering if there’s any way to make these from cinnamon to chocolate graham crackers?
Thanks!
I’m sure you could replace some of the flour with cocoa powder but I’m guessing it’d require a whole bunch of experimenting. I don’t recommend trying it if you don’t want to waste a lot of ingredients. ;) I actually have no idea of how much cocoa to add / flour to reduce. Sorry about that! I really can recommend the cinnamon version, though. :D
I just made these but had a bit of trouble with the recipe from the beginning. I could never get a dough formed while mixing so ended up adding a few more tablespoons of water in order to be able to gather and shape into disks. I found it just as crumbly while struggling to roll it out and the outcome was ultimately dry. Bummer! The overall taste was good however (yes, more like shortbread). Any suggestions?
I’m sorry that they didn’t work out well for you! Did you make any subs (especially to the type of flour or fat?) or any kinds of changes to the recipe? And did you use a scale or use measuring cups when measuring the flour? If you had a little too much flour, that could explain them coming out dry. The dough does take a little time to come together, maybe 30 seconds, but it shouldn’t have been crumbly. I’m happy that they were at least tasty. :)
Wow, It looks very delicious. Thanks for sharing such an wonderful recipe. I will cook this dishes for my family. I love your blog very much, you often have useful post. I will follow your site everyday to get good recipes
Aww, thanks! I’m so happy you like the blog and the recipes. Thanks for stopping by! :)
You’ve just convinced me to make my own graham crackers! Yours look more than perfect and the bears are so cute! :-)
xoxox
Thanks so much, Gemma! I hope you’ll love the crackers. :)
I didn’t know the story behind the Graham crackers, hilarious!! And these little bears are just too cute :)
Right?! Such an interesting history. :D And thanks!
I still haven’t gotten around to making my own graham crackers! I really need to get on it!
You have to try them! They’re so worth it. :)
That history is awesome! Who knew that graham crackers could have such a powerful effect?! :) Anything that’s described as “more shortbread like” gets my vote. Now I need to make these, for certain.
Hey, someone commented on the history! Thank you. I thought it was so interesting. :D
Those shortbready crackers are my favorite — I keep a stash in my freezer at all times. I keep telling myself I’ll share them with my friends to make smores at a bonfire, but fat chance of that happening. Too delicious. This vegan version looks great, too!
Really?! I’m so happy you keep a stash! Do you add cinnamon sugar? I don’t think I included that in the original version you made. They’re SO much better with it! :)
Erin,
It’s official; you are my hero. ; p I never had room for graham crackers in my suitcase because of all the jars of salsa! I actually picked up a bag of ‘graham’ flour here in Germany thinking to making graham crackers but as you know, not the same thing.
I keep saving recipes with graham cracker crusts thinking some day I’ll get some but now I can just make my own. And as always, thanks so much for the vegan option. Oh and for not using white whole wheat which is another thing I don’t have room to pack. Carla
Haha. Jars of salsa sound heavy! Even heavier than all the flour I bring back. ;) And aww. Your story about buying graham flour in Germany makes me sad. That must have been the biggest disappointment ever (I can’t even stand the smell of chickpea flour!) I hope you’ll get the chance to make these! And sorry for my love for white whole wheat. It’s really the only good option sometimes!
Homemade graham crackers are one of the few things I’ve never tried. Putting this recipe on my to-make list right now! They look delicious.
Thanks, Lana! I hope you’ll get to try them out one day. :)
Wow those look perfect!! I will have to try these, they look just fantastic. Love that they are vegan :)
Thanks so much, June! I hope you’ll love them as much as we do. :)
If I’m not concerned with them being vegan, how much butter would I use?
14 tablespoons. I hope you’ll enjoy them!
Yummy!! These would have to be delicious. I have made whole wheat graham crackers on time years ago. I like the looks of yours with the sugar on top.
Right?! The cinnamon sugar was actually a tip from one of the recipe testers. I’m so happy I had all that help! Thanks again for that. :)
I’ve attempted to make graham crackers in the past – and failed miserably with the texture! I’ve got to try your recipe!
I hope you’ll get a chance to try them out! They’re so worth the time. :)