Chocolate-Dipped Cinnamon Graham Crackers

Chocolate-Dipped Cinnamon Graham Crackers

One of my favorite local grocery stores makes all sorts of chocolate dipped graham crackers: chocolate and sea salt, chocolate and caramel, chocolate and peppermint bits. I have purchased and devoured these squares of chocolate bliss, but with one teeny tiny suggestion for them: use less chocolate. The chocolate to cookie ratio is off and I adhere to a very strict chocolate to cookie ratio (see my Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe). In an effort to achieve a better ratio, I decided to make my own. These homemade graham crackers were such buttery, cinnamon-y goodness that they really didn’t need the chocolate, but the chocolate was a nice finishing touch. Just make sure to use a butter knife or really shake your graham cracker after dipping to get the excess chocolate off, or instead of dipping them in the chocolate, simply drizzle a bit on top of the cracker.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling
3/4 – 1 pound of good quality dark chocolate disks, or bars cut into pieces, 60-70% cacao
Optional: sea salt for sprinkling

Whisk together your flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together your butter, brown sugar, and honey until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Reduce your mixer speed to low and slowly add your dry ingredients to the butter/sugar concoction. Mix until just combined.
Roll your dough up in some parchment paper, or plastic wrap and stick in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or a nonstick baking mat.
Roll out half of your dough on a lightly-floured, clean work surface to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Using a cookie cutter with about a 3-inch diameter (star, heart, scalloped circles) cut out the graham crackers. Place them on your prepared cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Sprinkle lightly with turbinado sugar to make them sparkle.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Watch them carefully at the end. They go from golden brown {good} to dark brown {not so good} very quickly.
Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Continue rolling, cutting, and baking graham crackers until your dough runs out.
Once the graham crackers are baked and cooled it’s time for the finishing touch.
Put 1/2 your chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. I actually used a 4-cup glass measuring container because I wanted the chocolate to be deeper for dipping than it would have been in a bowl.
Melt the chocolate at 50% power, stirring every 20 to 30 seconds, until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
Dip 1/4 to 1/2 of your graham cracker in the chocolate. Shake or use a butter knife to take off the excess especially off the back. Melt more chocolate when first batch runs out.
Lay on parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat. Sprinkle the chocolate with a tiny bit of sea salt and allow it to harden completely. Continue until all the crackers have been dipped.
Bundle up in little bags tied with string and hand out to friends, family, neighbors – those you love. Enjoy.

YIELD: About 2 1/2 dozen