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These days, it’s not too hard to find gluten free graham crackers at the store. But it’s cheaper to make your own, and it’s as easy as making a batch of cookies.
These graham crackers have been one of my most popular gluten-free recipes since I originally published it in 2014. They have passed all the tests of traditional graham crackers – they have been used for gluten-free s’mores (tons of times). They have faithfully stood up to being dunked in milk. And it’s the perfect recipe for gluten-free graham cracker crust and gingerbread houses.
But the best test of all: my “wheat eating” family members all telling me that they like my homemade graham crackers better than the store bought kind made with wheat.
Jump to:
Why Make Your Own Gluten-Free Graham Crackers?
- You can save money. It’s much cheaper to bake your own graham crackers than to buy them from the grocery store. If it’s your first time baking gluten free it will seem more expensive since you’ll have to buy all the ingredients up front. But in the long run you will save money. And you can use those ingredients again and again, and for other gluten free recipes.
- There’s power in having the skill of baking a basic food from scratch. When you have gluten intolerance or celiac disease, it’s even harder to find what you need at the store when there’s a shortage or prices are just too high. If stores run out of the food you need, it’s reassuring to know you can make a lot of things yourself with a well stocked pantry. For help with that, be sure to read "Best Beginner's Tips for Successful Gluten Free Baking".
- The flavor is so much better! The flavor of the honey and the brown sugar really comes through in this recipe.
- It adds to the atmosphere of your home. What do I mean? Picture coming home after a yucky day, and you enter a warm and cozy kitchen where someone has been baking. You breathe in, smell a hint of cinnamon and just relax. Bring on the glass of cold milk!
Keep scrolling for the recipe ⤵️
Homemade Gluten-Free Graham Crackers - Ingredients:
- Butter: soften the butter before adding it to the mixer. Cold butter won’t work in this recipe. If you need dairy-free graham crackers, scroll down for more info.
- Oil: I typically use avocado oil, but nearly any kind of liquid oil will do. Coconut oil is not recommended in this recipe since it may turn too hard when it’s chilled. Honey: What you need for that classic, honey grahams flavor!
- Brown sugar: coconut sugar is also a great option if you prefer
- Brown Rice flour blend: This is a simple flour mixture of 3 parts brown rice flour + 1 part tapioca starch + 1 part potato starch. The brown rice flour, millet flour, and coconut flour in this recipe all add whole grains and nutrients.
- Millet flour: I like using this flour because the texture is so much like regular all purpose flour. If you can’t locate millet flour in your grocery store, you can also use sorghum flour or corn flour (not cornstarch).
- Coconut flour: I love baking with coconut flour! It adds a subtle, sweet flavor to desserts.
- Xanthan gum: This is a necessary ingredient in a gluten-free diet. It takes the place of gluten in baked goods so gf graham crackers roll out and cut smoothly, not crumbly.
- Cinnamon, vanilla: for that classic, great flavor.
- Baking powder and salt: These regulate the rising of the crackers as they bake - not too much not too little
- Water: The amount can vary just a little depending on the brand of flour used, and even how humid it is in your house. Read the recipe card or watch the video to learn more.
A Note About My Gluten Free Flour Blend
There are a lot of different gluten free flours to choose from. If you are a first time gluten free baker, I know how confusing it is to sort through all the info!
I have a free PDF called Gluten Free Baking for Beginners that can help get you started. In it you will find the instructions to make all my flour blends. Plus more info about flours, where to shop for baking supplies, and beginner-friendly recipes.
How to Make Dairy-Free Graham Crackers
The only change you need to make to this great recipe is to swap the butter for a non-dairy butter substitute. Read the label before buying so you can find a good sub that contains as many fat grams as possible.
Earth Balance buttery spread, or Country Crock Plant Butter are both great options. Both have 11 fat grams per tablespoon, which is the same as butter.
See How I Make This Recipe 👀
How to Make the Best Gluten-Free Graham Crackers
Step 1. In a mixer blend: butter, oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Step 2. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, stir together the flours and other dry ingredients.
Step 3. Pour the dry ingredients into the mixer, adding ½ - ¾ cup water until it forms a smooth dough, like soft playdough.
Step 4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Step 5. After it’s well chilled, cut it into thirds.
Step 6. Roll it out to about ¼ inch thickness. I use a piece of parchment paper and a silicone mat. Cut out the crackers as shown below.
Step 7. Bake at 325℉ for 20 minutes.
Step 8. Upon taking them out of the oven, re-cut the shapes while they're still hot.
Step 9. Cool completely before taking off the baking sheet.
Tips for Cutting Out Graham Crackers
- Use a sharp knife. A non-serrated knife works best. A pizza cutter also works well.
- Use this 5 wheel cutter (my favorite way!). You can cut out a lot of crackers in a fraction of the time it takes with a knife.
- Use embossed cookie cutters. Cut the shape and twist a little to get a clean cut, then press down the inner stamp to emboss the design on the cracker.
- Prick with a fork. This is to get that classic graham cracker look, and to prevent them from puffing up too much as they bake.
- Remove any excess dough that’s easy to remove, but leave the rest in place as you bake so you don’t distort the shapes (se this in the video). You can grind up the extra pieces to make graham cracker crumbs for a crust.
Tools to Make the Job Easy
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Gluten Free Graham Crackers recipe
It’s not TOO hard to find gluten free graham crackers these days. But it’s cheaper to bake them, and it’s as easy as making a batch of cookies. Check out the recipe!
- Total Time: under 2 hours
- Yield: about 60 1 inch x 3 inch crackers 1x
Ingredients
½ cup butter, softened *see below
¼ cup oil ( I use avocado oil)
¼ cup honey
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups Brown Rice Flour Blend *see notes
1 cup millet flour *see notes
½ cup coconut flour
1 ½ tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
½ - ¾ cup water
Instructions
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In a mixer blend: butter, oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla.
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In a separate bowl, stir together these dry ingredients: My Brown Rice Flour blend, millet flour, coconut flour, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.
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Now pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in the mixer, adding ½ to ¾ cup water until it forms a smooth, workable dough. By workable, I mean you can pick it up in your hands without it being too sticky or too dry and crumbly.
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Next, wrap it in plastic wrap or waxed paper and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour, or even a day if you need to.
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After it’s well chilled, take it out and cut it in half or in thirds.
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Preheat the oven to 325℉.
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Next, roll it out: I spray a silicone mat with some cooking spray and sprinkle a little rice flour on it, cover it with parchment paper and then roll it right out on the mat. That way I don’t distort the shape by trying to lift it with a spatula and transfer it to a cookie sheet. It goes a lot faster that way too! Then I peel the paper away, adjust it, and roll again.
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Cut out the crackers with a knife, a rolling pastry cutter, or cookie cutters (watch the video in the blog post for more detailed instruction). Sometimes I try to peel away the scraps, but most of the time I don’t so it doesn’t distort the shape.
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Prick each cracker with a fork and bake them in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. They do cook longer than the average cookie, but they get more uniformly brown and crispy at a lower temperature and longer baking time.
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Then immediately after they come out of the oven, I quickly re-cut them before they cool too much. Then after they cool, they easily lift off the baking sheet. And the baked scraps can be ground up and are ready to be used for a graham cracker crust in the future.
Notes
- If you have a hard time finding millet flour, you can substitute sorghum flour.
- My Brown Rice Flour Blend is this: 3 parts brown rice flour, 1 part tapioca starch, 1 part potato starch.
- Earth Balance Buttery Spread is my preferred dairy-free substitute for butter because it has a similar fat content. If you use a different dairy-free substitute, look for one with the same fat grams as butter or you might not get good results with this recipe.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- chill time:: 30 minutes - 1 hour
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: dessert
- Method: bake
- Diet: Gluten Free
Qs and As:
Break them into smaller pieces and grind them up in a food processor. Then I put them in a freezer bag and store them in the freezer for when I need crumbs for a cheesecake or other recipe.
Basically, it’s 3 parts brown rice flour + 1 part tapioca starch + 1 part potato starch. You will see this in a lot of my gluten free recipes, and it’s one of the flour blends you can find in my free PDF, Gluten Free Baking for Beginners
You really shouldn’t skip it for 2 reasons.
1. This recipe uses a combo of several kinds of flour, and they all absorb the liquids at different rates. Chilling the dough will allow all the flours to fully absorb the liquids in the recipe, making a much better finished product.
2. If you bake these right after mixing the dough, it might be too soft and spread out too much while it bakes. The finished crackers will be too puffy and lose their graham cracker shape.
We don’t want to aerate the dough too much which would make it puff up as it bakes. We want these to be firm and stay kind of flat, which will give you a crispy, crunchy cracker in the end.
Yes you can. Earth Balance Buttery Spread is my preferred dairy-free substitute for the butter because it has a similar fat content. If you use a different dairy-free substitute, look for one with the same fat grams as butter or you might not get good results with this recipe.
Baking graham crackers will make your house smell SO good! Everybody knows when I’m baking a batch of these. Let me just say, there better be some cold milk in the house or I will have a very disappointed family!
Amber Michelle Hibbert
Thanks a bunch! I just sent this recipe to my sister in law. She liked the choc. chip cookie recipe. I will keep sending her the recipes you post... you do such a great job. They look delicious, and make me want to eat a s'more with a tall glass of milk!! 🙂
Kim @ Mom, Can I Have That?
My daughter keeps asking for gluten-free graham crackers and I haven't had time to work on a low carb one yet. I would love to try this some time. She wants to have smores. I can see this happening this school break. I'll buy the ingredients and let you know how they turn out!
beneficialbento
Yes, I would really love to hear how you liked it, and if you have any questions about the recipe, I'll be happy to answer them either here or on my Facebook page 🙂
Ruth
Have you ever tried to make chocolate graham crackers? I like your recipe just wanting to convert to chocolate, any suggestions?
beneficialbento
I haven't tried that yet, but it sounds like something I need to do! I would start by replacing 1/3 cup of the millet flour with 1/3 cup cocoa powder. I'll have to try it - if it works well, I'll update the post. Good suggestion!
LeKeshua
What can be used in place of the coconut flour? We have a coconut allergy. Thank you.
beneficialbento
You could try adding an additional 1/2 cup of rice flour blend, and it should turn out fine. Or try subbing the coconut flour with very fine almond flour - they are similar in density and protein content. Either way, add the water a little at a time until it has the consistency of sugar cookie dough. Let me know if you try it - it could be helpful to others with coconut allergies!
Tina
Can a premade rice flour mixture from Betty Crocker or Hodgson Mills be used instead of having to by the ingredients to make your flour blend? I'm very new to GF baking (haven't started yet) and I'd like to try this for my 14 mo old baby. Are they hard or soft - she's got a full mouth of teeth but I'm wondering if I should cook them a shorter amt of time?
beneficialbento
Yes, I think you could use a premade rice flour blend in place of my rice flour blend, but I wouldn't use it to replace all the flours. I suspect the crackers would be pretty crumbly without the addition of coconut flour. The crackers are crispy and hard like regular graham crackers if you bake them long enough, but if your baby can eat regular crackers I think she would be okay with these graham crackers. I hope this recipe will be helpful to you. I know how confusing it can be to get started going gluten free! Please let me know if you have any other questions - you can find my email address on my about me page, which can be found by clicking on my picture on my sidebar. I'm always happy to help!
Bethany
Could Gluten free all purpose flour be substiuted for all the different flours?
beneficialbento
I don't think you'd get the same results, but it's worth a try. It really depends on what combination of flours are in the all purpose blend. Have you seen my post "Guide to Gluten Free flours"? Maybe that can help you decide what you can substitute. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me - my address is in my about me page, which can be found by clicking my photo on the sidebar.
Jennifer
Your instructions sound like there is something missing. Do we need to cream the butter/shortening with the sugars before adding the dry ingredients? I really want to try this recipe!
beneficialbento
The instructions say to just mix the butter and sugars before adding the dry ingredients. You don't want to cream them together too much because it will aerate the mixture and you will get a texture more like a homemade cookie rather than a crisp graham cracker. I hope you give it a try and let me know how it turned out!