Holiday chocolate graham crackers
Today, I am creating my chocolate graham crackers ahead of the winter holiday season. After they've baked and cooled, I will place them in Ziploc bags and freeze them. This will keep the graham crackers fresh and save time later on. (Once I begin my other holiday baking.) I use graham crackers in various dessert recipes, especially for creating homemade graham cracker pie crusts. Chocolate graham crackers can also be used to make homemade s'mores by the fireplace and used to create homemade ice cream sandwiches. They're delicious and can be made sugar-free, or with sugar. The choice is yours. After my crackers cool, I dust them with sugar-free powdered sugar to add a touch of added sweetness.
Ingredients:
½ cup of butter, softened
1 cup of Splenda brown sugar substitute, or light brown sugar
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
2-½ cups of self-rising whole wheat flour, or graham flour for traditional graham crackers
½ cup of all-purpose flour
½ cup of milk
2 tablespoons of honey
¼ cup of white granulated Splenda, or sugar
Optional:
Sugar-free powdered sugar (used for dusting the crackers once they're baked and cooled)
Instructions:
In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter, ground cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, honey, and Splenda brown sugar together, until incorporated well.
Add in both the wheat flour and all-purpose flour, then the milk gradually. Mix well until your dough is formed. Now, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for six hours or longer.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a cookie tray; set aside.
Thinly roll the dough out, on a lightly floured surface. Using a knife, or cookie cutters, cut the dough into your preferred shapes (rectangular, circular, squared, heart-shaped, or holiday shaped). I made half of the batch with holiday shaped cookie cutouts and used the other half of the dough to make them into squares.
Next, sprinkle the granulated Splenda, or sugar evenly onto the cut dough. Poke holes with the tines of a fork, or toothpick through the top surface of each. Transfer the cutouts onto the prepared baking sheet one inch apart.
Bake for about ten minutes, or until the edges of your graham crackers are lightly browned.
Allow your chocolate graham crackers to cool before storing them in an airtight container. Lightly dust with sugar-free powdered sugar (optional).