Graham Cracker Bake-Off

For small Christmas gifts this year (for neighbors, etc.) we decided to give out little homemade s'mores kits. I made marshmallows and graham crackers, and we wrapped them up with a bar of Valrhona chocolate.

I thought I was going to use the graham cracker recipe from Whole Grain Baking, but I had a copy of Peter Reinhart's new book, Whole Grain Breads, checked out from the library, and there's also a graham cracker recipe in there. So I made both.

Both doughs were extremely easy to make and work with. I made both last night and refrigerated the dough overnight before baking. The crackers from Whole Grain Breads had a nicer color due to the addition to molasses, but they are also more wheat-y and heavy because they use graham flour (coarse whole wheat flour). The only source of fat is from the added milk, and there's also honey in there for sweetener. The crackers from Whole Grain Baking use a mixture of all-purpose, whole wheat and barley flours. I'm a big fan of barley flour. Sweetness comes from granulated and brown sugars, and there's also butter - mixed in cold, like in pie crust.

The winner was Whole Grain Baking. We liked the addition of butter and they just tasted nicer. They turned out kind of rustic looking since I don't have a dough docker. My only complaint is that the color is a bit pale, but that's easily fixed.

• Graham Crackers (King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, p. 167)
• Graham Crackers (Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, p. 296)