Hi! It’s Steffi again from Don’t Fear The Vegan here to share another recipe to celebrate Vegan Month of Food. It has been a lot of fun writing these posts and I am honored that Vegan Mainstream asked me to participate.
This last post was a little more difficult to decide on than the previous three. I wasn’t sure what to make, or what to talk about. I was doing some research in a whole-grain cookbook for a topic I am considering for my own blog when I came across a recipe for Graham crackers. Graham crackers have a special place in my heart because my maiden is Graham. As a shy, nerdy child I hated my last name and these little crackers with the same name because people would endlessly tease me about being a Graham cracker, especially as I got older and was slow to develop. Instead of being “as flat as a board” I was “flat as a Graham cracker.” Needless to say I couldn’t wait to get married and change my name. No hyphen for this girl!
As I became an adult I grew to love these simple little crackers, especially with cinnamon. After becoming vegan and finding it very difficult to find a vegan variety I loved, I craved them even more. So if you have trouble finding them too, here is a recipe for you with a slight twist.
A few things to note. Mine were a little thick so you make sure to roll the dough out until it’s 1/8″, unless you are okay with them being more cookie-like. The pumpkin softened the texture so it may be hard to make a graham cracker crust out of these, though I had visions of this when I started. I highly recommend a hot chai, soy nog or our favorite Chai Nog to dip them into!
Dough:
1 3/4 cup Graham flour or coarse whole grain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup pumpkin purée
1/4 cup vanilla almond milk
6 tbsp agave syrup
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
oil
Topping (mix all these ingredients together):
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Mix all dough ingredients together until it forms a ball. Dough should be satiny (not crumbly or sticky.) Knead dough for three minutes and form back into a ball. Cover a bowl lightly with oil and put dough in it, cover with a towel and let sit overnight at room temperature.
The next morning, roll the dough out into 1/8″ rectangle. I found it easiest to cut the dough in half and roll it between two sheets of parchment paper. If you opt to not use parchment paper I read that you should use oil on your surface rather than more flour. Once it is rolled out use a pizza/pastry cutter to cut it into the shape you want. My specialty is not uniformity so the fact that I got three dozen cookies out of the recipe may not mean much, especially if you are going for a larger, more traditional shape.
Place cut-out dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Cover each cracker with the topping mixture and gently press in. With a fork gently poke holes on each cracker being careful to not poke all the way through. Once done with these steps place in freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
After it has been in the freezer for 15 minutes place in oven. Bake between 15 & 20 minutes (mine took 16) turning the pan 180 degrees half way through cooking time ( I turned at 8 minutes.) Leave on cookie sheet to cool. They will harden as they cool down.
Steffi DeRobertis writes the food blog Don’t Fear The Vegan with the help of her husband and daughter. On their blog they share recipes, give out information about vegan places and products, and put some topics out there about the vegan movement too. This is her fourth post as a guest contributor to Vegan Mainstream’s Vegan MOFO posts.
