Graham crackers are the thing that American recipes usually call for to make the biscuit base in a cheesecake.
Unfortunately, they’re not something you can find easily here in the UK – so I decided to make some of my own.
The biscuits got their name due to the fact that they’re made using Graham flour; Again, not something that you can get hold of here, but I used an extra-course wholemeal flour from Shipton Mill. I think it was a good substitute for the Graham flour and the wheat bran.
The results were delicious. Thin & crispy with a hint of cinnamon – perfect with a coffee or glass of cold milk. They didn’t last very long! There certainly weren’t any left to try that afore-mentioned cheesecake base, but we can imagine how perfect that they’d be.
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- 95g/3&frac13oz wholemeal flour
- 65g/2¼oz plain flour
- 13g/½oz wheat bran
- 65g/2¼oz granulated sugar
- ¼tsp cinnamon
- ¼tsp baking powder
- ¼tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ¼tsp salt
- 95g/3&frac13oz cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 1tbsp honey
- 3tbsp milk
- ½tsp vanilla extract
- Put the flours, wheat bran, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until combined
- Add the butter and process until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs
- Add the honey, milk and vanilla extract and process until the dough begins to clump together
- Divide the dough in half. Take half of the dough and roll it between two sheets of parchment paper until it's 25cm x 23cm / 10"x 9". As you roll, periodically check the top and bottom sheets of parchment and smooth out any wrinkles
- Using a ruler and a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the 23cm / 9" width into 4 5.5 cm / 2¼" wide strips. Then cut each strip in half, so each cracker is approximately 5.5 x 12.5 cm / 2¼" wide and 5" long (you will get 8 rectangles from each half of dough)
- Slide the dough (and the parchment paper) onto a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for about ½ an hour
- Meanwhile, put the shelf in the centre position and preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Once chilled, remove the dough from the refrigerator and peel off the top sheet of parchment paper. To make the Graham crackers look like the store bought ones, take a sharp knife or pizza wheel and gently cut (score) each rectangle in half lengthwise and crosswise. Then using the tines of a fork or the end of a wooden skewer, make small holes in each rectangle
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges of the Graham crackers are golden brown. The longer you bake them the more crisp they'll be
- Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely - they'll become more crisp as they cool
- Store in an airtight container for about a week