Graham Crackers

One of my market ideas is to make homemade s'mores, using handmade graham crackers, marshmallows and to offer different add ins like peanut butter or various jams or nutella or high quality chocolate.

Step one is to work on the graham crackers. Last weekend, I made my first attempt using a recipe from King Arthur Flour (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/graham-crackers-recipe). It is simple enough and all the ingredients are staples in my house.

Making the dough was a snap and it was quickly together and into the fridge to set up. I tried to roll out the dough on my dough mat, but it was sliding all over the place. So I broke down and washed the counter top, which is such a pain. And I always worry that I don't get all the soap up so I spend three times longer than I really need to rinsing and I dread cleaning up the flour that seems to find its way into every nook and cranny in the kitchen. But it made the process of rolling out the dough so much easier.

I baked the graham crackers for 10 minutes, intending to swap the pans around in the oven before the recommended 15-20 minutes was up. But by this point, they were already starting to burn, so I took them out from the oven. As you can see from the pictures, the bottoms are a little dark. Perhaps I rolled the crackers a bit thinner than I was supposed to. That would account for the quicker baking time.

I still tried to make s'mores out of the. I didn't have any homemade marshmallows yet, so I just used the mini ones I had on hand. It was a good enough test. I was worried that the crackers were too burnt, but I really didn't notice the taste. And the thickness seemed to work out alright.

In the end, it was a good start. Rolling out cookie dough (And all the cleanup involved) is a bit time consuming and I can see how it would get to be crazy if I needed to make lots and lots of graham crackers. I have been toying with the idea of using sugar cookies or snickerdoodles as the outsides of the s'mores. Perhaps that would decrease the hands on time, but only a trial will tell. I made some homemade marshmallows this morning, and am hoping to make some cookies tomorrow to give it a shot.