Sourdough Chocolate Graham Crackers
Nothing beats homemade honey and chocolate graham crackers (except maybe honey cinnamon graham crackers)! Once you try homemade sourdough chocolate graham crackers, made with wholesome ingredients, you’ll never want anything else.
The most popular store brands of graham crackers are made with enriched flours, canola oil, soybean oil, and artificial flavors. In contrast, my homemade chocolate graham crackers are made with butter from grass-fed cows, raw honey, organic whole-grain flour, and real cocoa. And who needs artificial flavors when you can long ferment the dough overnight, developing the flavors?
Sourdough Chocolate Graham Cracker Recipe Tips
Here are my top tips to remember when making this recipe:
- Don’t overwork the dough: When you combine the wet and dry ingredients, you only need to mix until the dough looks evenly combined. Don’t knead it or overwork it; if you do, gluten may develop and ruin the texture.
- Ferment overnight in the fridge: Don’t skip the overnight ferment! Chilling and fermenting the dough overnight is essential to developing the best flavor and texture.
- Keep the dough chilled: Work in batches when rolling out and cutting the dough into crackers. Cut the dough in half, wrap the other half, and place it back in the fridge. When you cut away the extra dough around your rectangular crackers, you can re-roll it out for more crackers, but refrigerate it first!
- Chill the dough again before baking: This is the most important tip for a good graham cracker texture. Chilling the dough thoroughly before baking ensures the crackers don’t spread out in the oven.
How to Store Chocolate Graham Crackers
Here’s how to store your homemade sourdough chocolate graham crackers, how long they last, and how you can freeze them for later use:
- Storage Method: Store baked graham crackers in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Shelf Life: They will stay fresh for about 1-2 weeks at room temperature.
- Freezing: Yes, you can freeze baked graham crackers! This method will help extend their freshness and allow you to use them later for various recipes.
- Freezing Instructions: Place the graham crackers in a single layer on a baking sheet to freeze individually. Once frozen, transfer them to an airtight container or a freezer-safe bag.
- Frozen Shelf Life: They can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Usage: Frozen graham crackers can be thawed and used for snacking, s’mores, or crushed for pie crusts, cheesecakes, or other desserts.
Sourdough Honey Chocolate Graham Crackers
These sourdough chocolate graham crackers are fermented overnight for easier digestion and fantastic flavor. You can use sourdough discard or an active starter. Kids love these perfectly crispy, wholesome, and delicious chocolatey graham crackers!
- Prep: 15 minutes
- ferment: 12 hours
- Cook: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 250 grams organic whole wheat flour
- 50 grams cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 113 grams salted butter, melted/room temp
- 70 grams light brown sugar
- 70 grams raw honey
- 150 grams sourdough starter (active or discard)
Instructions
- Combine the whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, cream the honey, brown sugar, sourdough starter, and butter together.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until evenly combined. The mixture should be thick, like cookie dough.
- Shape the dough into a small slab and wrap it tightly in parchment paper. Ensure all the dough is wrapped and covered.
- Refrigerate overnight, and then proceed to the next step.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Cut the cold dough in half to work in batches.
- Lightly flour your countertop and the top of the cold dough. Using a rolling pin, evenly roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick.
- Cut the dough into even 2×2.5-inch rectangles. (Any dough you trim off can be combined, re-chilled, and rolled out again for more crackers; You can wrap, bag and freeze left over dough to bake more crackers later).
- Transfer the cut cracker dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 1/2-inch space between the crackers.
- Poke holes in each cracker using a toothpick to prevent them from puffing up too much. Place the sheet pan of crackers in the freezer for 10 minutes before moving them directly from the freezer into the preheated oven. (this pre-bake chill is important for proper texture)
- Bake the crackers for about 15 minutes until they brown around the edges. Midway through, rotate the baking sheet.
- When browned and crisped to your liking, remove the crackers from the oven and allow them to cool completely.
- Store crackers in an air-tight container at room temperature for about two weeks.
Delicious! After falling in love with Annie’s bunny grahams I was looking for a way to replicate them and this is it! Perfectly crisp and not too sweet!
yay! I’m happy to hear they compare and you love them!
Can I make this with fresh milled flour? If so, soft or hard?
yes, absolutely! you can use fresh milled for graham crackers. I suggest soft.
I love the intense chocolate flavor! Bonus that it has an overnight fermentation. 🤩 I had a graham cracker mold that I have been wanting to use and it worked perfectly with the consistency of the dough using your tips!
Any ideas for making these dairy free?
I’ve never tested a dairy free version, but I think vegan butter and maple syrup should work great instead of butter and honey!
Can unbleached all purpose flour be used instead of whole wheat?
I think it’s doable, just might have a different texture since whole wheat absorbs more liquid.