Homemade Graham Crackers are my tiny toddler’s favorite snack hands down. Best part about them is they easy, homemade and portable.
Snacks. Whether you support them or are against them, they are pretty amazing. I am pro snacking. Can’t help it. I love snacking.
Growing up in Venezuela, snacks were not a thing that people did. Just main meals. You ate a good breakfast, a big lunch and a lighter dinner. Occasionally we would get an afternoon treat like a snow cone (my grade school had no A/C and it was HOT), or slice of homemade cake my mom made, or a merengada. But pretty much snacks were seen as a once in a while treat.
Fast forward to 6th grade, when we moved to the US and everything changed. Snacks where everywhere. At the grocery store, at school, and at my tennis classes. Cheese snacks, chips, fruit gummies, and teddy bear shaped snacks. I mean c’mon it was hard to say no to teddy bear shaped snacks as a kid!
So things changed.
I became a snacker. And now 30 years old (woot woot!), still am.
As a kid and especially as a pretty serious kid athlete, we were encouraged to eat snacks between matches and during tournaments to keep our energy level up. Plus we were burning like a bazillion calories playing in 100 degree weather. At the time I was a big fan of Wheat Thins, bagels, pretzels, muffins, Teddy Grahams… and one time even mini coffee creamers we snatched from our hotel breakfast. In my defense I was 13!
In college, I pretty much lived off snacks. I ate meals, but I pretty much subsisted off of crackers, dried cereal, pretzels, Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids. Looking back I am somewhat surprised I was able to play tennis and survive school on that diet ha! Not surprisingly I did suffer from poor nutrition. In college I was anemic from not getting enough iron in my diet and was sick ALL THE TIME!
My stance now is this: a snack is a healthy protein packed small meal to help me stay energized between meals. That said, I try to limit processed store-bought junk. Although it does take more work, making homemade snacks is my preferred way to go. And that is how I hope to teach my daughter.
Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against a healthy store-bought snack. Store-bought snacks are convenient, easy and honestly nowadays are not even half bad. All natural, simple real ingredients, no weird chemical stuff. There are some really good options out there! My hope, however, is to teach my Poppy to find a good balance, choose homemade whenever possible and that healthy snacking is an important life skill.
Right now my tiny tot doesn’t snack a whole lot. Her main go-tos have been fruit, healthy muffins, occasional healthy cereal (I have been trying to limit this because she could eat cereal all day), some trusted kid brands and of course these delicious Homemade Graham Crackers.
I want to tip my mama hat to my friend Taylor from GreensnChocolate who introduced me to this recipe by Christina, author of Dessert For Two. This mama/food blogger/book author has got it together with these Graham Crackers. They are an amazing snack for babies or toddler just starting to get teeth as well as hungry snacky adults.
When I first started making them, Poppy had only a few teeth so I rolled the crackers out thicker to make them much softer. The fact that kids can hold these and eat them on their own make them awesome for traveling in car, airplane or stroller. Truthfully my favorite thing about them is that they are freezer friendly.
I like to take a little time maybe an hour on the weekend and make a big batch of these. Then pop them in the fridge and only take 1 out if we will be running errands during snack time or a few out if we are going somewhere for the day or the weekend. They thaw out naturally straight from the freezer in a few minutes.
And if you make them, please try them too! Just because you are making them for your kiddo(s) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy some. They are AWESOME! The molasses flavor really comes through and I actually love them with coffee or tea!
Happy Halloween snacking!
Homemade Graham Crackers
My slight changes and tips for this recipe:
- I use white whole wheat flour for mine because I find it less dry.
- Throw the stick of butter in the freezer while preparing the dry ingredients. That way when the butter, really really cold you need it.
- I would strongly recommend that you stick to using molasses because it really adds a depth of flavor to these crackers.
- Try to work quickly when you roll the dough out because it gets sticky.
- To make these extra fun, I used Halloween cookie molds so don’t be afraid to get creative. Also I love poking a few holes with a fork.
- Watch the time in the oven because these can brown quickly after the 14 minutes.
- For kiddos, try to roll the dough out a little thicker and try not to overbake. I baked mine for 14 minutes so that the crackers are soft and easy to chew.
- To freeze, simply throw crackers in the freezer-safe baggie and pop’em out to thaw for a few minutes before eating.
Originally posted 2016-10-11 21:32:00.
Jorge CHacon says
By Val says