honey "graham" bars

Once upon a Wednesday, I was looking at Smitten Kitchen’s homemade s’mores, then read Emily’s graham cracker recipe. I had every ingredient on her list and…wow. That just plain ol’ sounded good.

I’d recently had my life changed by Emily’s bagel recipe, which I adapted to make cinnamon raisin bagels, which are Michael’s favorite, and Michael’s my favorite, but that’s another story.

Anyway, all that to say, I knew I could trust Emily’s recipe. As always, I modified the recipe, and this time, I’m not positive I should have for the graham cracker consistency, but my result was something delicious too. The original recipe called for 1 Tbsp honey and then sugar. I decided to adjust the sugar-honey ratio to include more honey. This changed the texture of the dough entirely. Duh.

So, I had to increase my baking time and my result was more granola bar/cookie-ish than graham cracker…but wowsa. They were delicious. And now they are almost gone. Which is a real shame on account of they were delicious.

Also, you can feel sort of fancy making them because, hey, who makes homemade graham crackers?! Or…really, in my case more like graham cookie bars.

These aren’t “dyed in the wool, true blue” graham crackers because they aren’t made with graham flour, but you still get that great taste and a dose of some whole grains (whole wheat flour, and oat flour). I love the texture and flavor. AND there’s no high fructose corn syrup! Delish!

Honey Graham Bars
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2c whole wheat flour
1/2c white flour
1/2c oat flour (made by blending 1/2c whole rolled oats in a blender/food processor till flour-y)
3 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/2tsp baking soda
generous pinch salt
1/4c honey
2 Tbsp water or milk
1/3c oil or melted butter

Directions:
In a liquid measuring cup, combine honey, water/milk, and oil/butter. In a medium bowl, combine flours, sugar, soda, and salt. Add liquid all at once and stir till dough comes together in a ball (will be quite moist). With your hands, form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30-40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough to 1/4″ thickness and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat preferrably. If not, spray your pan with nonstick spray.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until dough is golden and edges are somewhat crisp. Remove from oven, slice with pizza cutter into bars and prick with a fork.