These gluten-free graham crackers are better than the ones from the box. This easy recipe makes graham crackers that are perfect for snacking, s’mores or the crust of your favorite pie or cheesecake.
Graham crackers are one of life’s perfect foods. And, to be honest, I have’t found a store-bought gluten-free version that I like. The few that I’ve tried have been too thick and dense. That’s not what I want in a graham cracker. I need my graham crackers light and cruchy–and not too sweet.
This recipe hits all those notes. The graham crackers, which are sweetened with honey and brown sugar, taste great enjoyed as a snack or used for s’mores. But why stop there? Grind them up and use the crumbs to make a wonderful crust for your favorite pie or cheesecake.
The recipe requires a bit of special care. In my opinion, it makes for a great weekend baking project.
How to Make Gluten-Free Graham Crackers: Use a Food Processor (Or Not)
The nice cracker-like texture of a graham cracker comes from both the baking powder and the way the fat is cut into the dough. Kind of like a pie crust, you want to work the fat into the dough quickly. I think a food processor is the best tool for the job. If you don’t own one, use a pastry cutter or two butter knives. Be sure to keep the fat, butter or shortening, cold before adding it to the dough.
Use Parchment Paper
You want to roll this dough out nice and thin. The easiest way to do this is to place the dough between two pieces of parchment paper. After rolling, peel the top piece off, slide the bottom piece, along with the dough, onto a baking sheet. Done!
Cut Before You Bake
This one sounds a little weird but you want to score your graham crackers before you bake them. Then, once they are baked, you go over the score marks with a pizza wheel or sharp knife. The crackers break easily apart!
Make ’em Holey
Have you ever noticed that all crackers are holey? Not holy but hole-y. Small holes dot the top of all crackers. These holes allow steam to escape as the crackers bake, keeping them light and crisp. For graham crackers use a fork to prick the surface of the dough.
The Best Gluten-Free Graham Crackers
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (7 1/2 ounces/ 212 grams)
- 1/2 cup cornstarch (2 ounces/ 57 grams)
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar (2 2/3 ounces/ 75 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons butter or dairy-free shortening, cold (2 1/2 ounces/ 70 grams)
- 6 tablespoons milk, traditional or dairy-free (3 1/4 ounces/ 90 grams)
- 3 tablespoons honey (1 ounces/ 30 grams)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a food processor, combine brown rice flour, cornstarch, dark brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pulse to combine. (If you don't have a food processor, whisk dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.)
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Add the butter. Pulse until flour mixture is coarse. No large pieces of butter should remain. (Or cut cold butter into flour mixture with a pastry cutter, two knives or by rubbing the butter between your fingers.)
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Add milk and honey. Pulse until dough forms. (Or stir using a wooden spoon.)
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Turn dough out onto a lightly rice floured piece of 12x16 parchment paper. Pat dough into a rectangle. Dust the top of the dough lightly with rice flour.
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Place another piece of 12-by-16-inch parchment paper on top of the dough. Roll dough out until it covers all of the paper. Dough rectangle will be about 1/8 inch thick.
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Carefully remove top piece of parchment paper. Transfer dough, with bottom parchment paper, to a 12 x 18 baking pan.
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Using a pizza wheel, score the dough into rectangles. (The rectangles should be 6 x 2 3/4 inches large for "standard" graham crackers and 3 by 2 3/4 for a "s'more" size graham cracker.) The graham crackers will break apart after baking. Do not worry if the dough seems to still be touching after scoring with the pizza wheel.
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Prick dough all over with a fork.
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Chill dough for 10 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes or until evenly brown.
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Remove graham crackers from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool. (I slide the parchment, with the crackers, directly onto the cooling rack.) Allow crackers to cool completely. Break along scored lines.
Anne says
These have good flavor, but are a bit crumbly. I wonder if xanthan gum would help. Something needs to act as a binder.
Elizabeth says
Hmm…I haven’t had an issue with these crumbling. You could add 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum to the recipe and see if that helps!
Chris says
Eggs are a good binder, might help here
Alyssa says
Hi, would these work if I used cane sugar vs brown sugar? Would I just need to add a bit of molasses for the flavor? Thanks!
Elizabeth says
Yes. I’d add a little molasses for flavor and texture. Maybe two teaspoons? Have fun!
Alyssa says
Thankyou! I did make these and they turned out great! My 18 month old loves them 🙂
Elizabeth says
Yay! Glad you enjoyed them!
Sarah says
Hi,
Your Gluten Free Graham Crackers recipe is great, however I had to tweak it a bit as I am Diabetic as well as Coeliac so I had to substitute the brown sugar for brown granular sweetener but it worked very well and the result was absolutely fabulous!
Elizabeth says
Thank you for sharing this! Glad it worked!
pat marino says
I am new to baking gluten free. my question is I followed your recipe but the wet ingredients did
not make the dry ingredients wet enough to form a dough. I cannot figure out what went wrong.
I did not use a food processor. thank you. pat.
Elizabeth says
Sometimes gluten-free flours are a little dry. Next time, add a little extra milk until the dough holds together.
Krista says
These days we are trying to omit as much sugar as we can. In the dry ingredients, how could we omit the brown sugar? We use honey and maple syrup in our home (in small amounts), but I am wanting to make some baked goods for Christmas and one family recipe calls for graham wafer crackers. Thank you so much!
Elizabeth says
I don’t this this recipe would work without any (or limited sugar). Sorry.
Katie says
I used coconut sugar instead of brown sugar. They were divine!
Natalie says
Try Swerve brand sugar substitute for baking…same amount as the sugar the recipe calls for.
Diana R. says
I love these crackers they are great I have made them at least 5 times. It’s great just as is but also tried substituting some almond flour for the rice flour and they were a bit softer but still very good. I added cinnamon once and they were also great. I love that this is low in sugar compared to so many other cookies and that no gum is involved. Great work with this recipe. Love this recipe.
Elizabeth says
Glad you enjoyed them!
isabella testai says
Hi!!! I have just tried this recipe converting in grams via internet but when I put in the food processor it remained super dusty flour-like and no dough at all…. so I needed to add more liquid but it was like gummy crumblish dough, and after I baked, it ended to be more like a big pancake than gram cracker 🙁
Next week I will go on a trip with my daughter and I wanted to bring this cracker as a snack..
could you help p with the conversion?
What I found was:
250 gr for brown rice flour
65 gr cornstarch
1 teaspoon Bp
1/2 teaspoon salt
70 gr butter
90 gr mik
45 gr honey
thank you in advance!!!!! isabella
Elizabeth says
Hello. I’ve updated the recipe with the weights. It looks like the brown rice flour and cornstarch weight were a little off. In addition, I noticed that brown sugar was not included in your list. Be sure to include it for success. 🙂 Enjoy!
isabella testai says
dear Elizabeth thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Michelle says
I can’t wait to try these for s’mores this summer! Will this recipe work with Bob’s brown rice flour, or will it be too gritty?
Elizabeth says
It will work with Bob’s flour!
Traci says
Substituted potato starch in place of corn starch. Additionally added one teaspoon of molasses.
Mine took 35 minutes in order to obtain a crispy cracker texture.
Absolutely fantastic! Better than every gf store brand I’ve tried, and even the regular varieties.
Elizabeth says
Yay! Ovens and humidity does affect baking time to get them crisp. Glad you let me hang out in the oven for a bit longer.
Linda Adams says
Great! Thanks.
Pam says
We are new to the gluten free eating the only problem I had with these is they cracked a lot! Any suggestions, they are very good despite the cracking!
Elizabeth says
If the dough cracked, try adding an additional tablespoon of milk the next time. Hope that helps!
Lauren says
I’m just wondering how long these last? Are these a serve right away item or can you get a few days?
Elizabeth says
About a week. If it’s very humid, they’ll get soft.
Michele says
I added an extra tablespoon of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough and it was perfect. I will add mini chocolate chips next time. I buttered my baking sheet which made the graham crackers soft and golden on the bottom. Thanks for this recipe. I bet maple syrup would also be great instead of honey…
Karen says
I’ve made this recipe twice and both times were yummy! The first attempt, I followed the recipe but I don’t have a food processor, so I used my pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry ingredients by hand. I then place the dry mix in my Kitchen Aid mixer and added the milk and honey. The dough came together beautifully and I rolled the crackers out to 1/8” thick. They turned out soft and not crisp like a cracker. Still delicious and the family, from small to big, really enjoyed them. My second attempt, I again followed the recipe but this time, I decided to roll the dough thinner. It was thinner than 1/8” but not as thin as 1/16” (somewhere in between). From my first attempt, I discovered this dough was easy to work with and held together well so I decided to flour my surface with brown rice flour and use a cookie cutter (2” circle) to make my crackers. I used a thin metal spatula to lift from counter to parchment lined cookie sheet without any problems. As these were so thin, I reduced cooking time to 13 minutes and kept a close eye on them. Success! Once cooled, the crackers were crunchy and perfect for eating on their own or making s’mores. If I could share a picture of the final product, I would but there doesn’t seem to be an option here.
Thanks so much for such a great recipe!
Elizabeth says
Glad you enjoyed it!
Cindy Burton says
I am planning on making crumbs out of this recipe for cheese cakes. How long would it last if stored in the fridge?
Elizabeth says
You don’t need to store them in the refrigerator. They keep nicely at room temperature for about a week.
Gayle Wilburn says
Could you use gluten free all purpose flour for these graham crackers?
Elizabeth says
Hi Gayle! I haven’t tested the recipe with an all-purpose blend but I believe it would work!
Anna Bernstein says
Curious if you tried this. I want to make these, but only have gf AP flour (with xanthan gum already mixed in).
Eemie says
So glad i found this recipe for graham crackers. I have so much brown rice flour and it worked out this recipe uses brown rice flour. I wanted Graham Crackers with clean ingredients. I tried your recipe and it is fabulous. So crispy good. Followed your recipe and added some cinnamon & molasses as others posted in the comments. Turned out really well – crunchy, that is what i was looking for! Great flavor too! will be keeping this recipe.