Tuesdays with Dorie (Dorie’s Cookies): Graham Cracker Cookies

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Graham Cracker Cookies. Dorie says:

It only takes a tiny nibble to know that these are very special graham cookies. They’re not exactly like the packaged cookies (they’re decidedly better), but they have that particular graham cracker texture — both crisp and crumbly. They’re pleasantly brittle (the  effect of the baking soda), yet meltable when dunked in milk or tea. They’ve got that distinctive graham flavor — it comes from whole wheat flour, which in earlier times was referred to as graham. I don’t understand why I get such a kick out of creating homemade versions of boxed cookies, but I do, and I think you will too. Just be sure to keep the dough thin. These have a tendency to rise and puff in the oven, and if they start out thick, they’ll end up too thick. Part of the pleasure of the texture comes from their being slim.

If you’ve ever eaten a store-bought graham cracker (Edited to add: If you haven’t heard of graham crackers or graham flour, the name graham” comes from Sylvester Graham – an early advocate for dietary reform who disliked the process for making white flour where much of the nutrient value was discarded (more here), you’ll know exactly what she means about the “particular” texture (crisp and crumbly) and it’s something I was dubious about being able to recreate this (though if anyone can, Dorie can!). The dough is fairly sticky to work with and even rolled out between parchment with plenty of flour, it’s hard to work with. Dorie calls for these to be 1/8 inch thick which would appear, after making them, to be the exact right size – only problem is, my rolling pin with different sized disks for rolling different thicknesses of cookie dough doesn’t have a disk that size so I had to guesstimate (which is not my strong suit).

Dorie calls for the dough to be cut with a pizza cutter and a ruler for a more unfinished look but since there were two sheets of dough, I decided to cut one with cutters and one freestyle. I really liked the look of the cookies made with the cutters but to keep their shape, they had to be a little thicker than, what I suspect was 1/8 inch.  Also, because they were smaller than Dorie called for (these are about 1.5 inches), I think I underbaked them (I tend to err on the side of not enough time in the oven as opposed to overbaking) so they weren’t *quite* crisp enough. They still got a lot of votes from the neighbours on the porch yesterday afternoon who were excited to take part in the taste test!

The next sheet of dough, I rolled thinner and cut freestyle with a pizza cutter. Because they were thinner, they also baked for the correct amount of time (for their thickness) and *most* of them had the requisite crunch/ crisp factor.

A few of these were a little too thick (the ones in the centre of the sheet of dough) but hey, not bad.

And the flavour? Spot on! Dorie, you’re a genius! I’ll definitely have a go at making these again, knowing I DO have to roll them fairly thin and that the better way to cut them is freestyle with a pizza cutter. But what a fun project!

Get the recipe for Dorie’s Graham Cracker Cookies on p 209 of Dorie’s Cookies.

 

 

 

Want more cookie recipes? Order Dorie’s Cookies for yourself on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store in your country) or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us over on Tuesdays with Dorie and bake your way through the book!

 

 

Please note: This post contains product links from Amazon and The Book Depository which are affiliate links, meaning if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you) which goes towards maintaining eat. live. travel. write. Thank you in advance!

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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Dorie’s Cookies” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.