graham cracker

A rectangular-shaped, whole-wheat cracker that has been sweetened with honey or molasses. This snack cracker was marketed as a health food in the 1830s by its creator, Rev. Sylvester Graham, an avid vegetarian, who promoted the use of unsifted and coarsely ground wheat flour for its high fiber content. The flour was nicknamed "graham flour" after Rev. Graham. Graham-cracker pie crust is made from a mixture of crushed graham crackers, sugar and butter that is pressed into a pie pan. The crust is usually baked, but can be simply chilled before filling.

Graham flour is not available in all countries. A correct substitute would be to mix white flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ in an appropriate ratio. Plain whole wheat flour can also be used as a substitute, but the resulting texture would be different from that of graham flour.

plural: graham crackers

Ingredient

Season: available year-round

How to select: Can be purchased in the cracker and cookie section of the supermarket.

How to prepare: Often ground into a powder and used as a sweet biscuit base such as in cheesecake.

Substitutions: Substitute with plain cookie such as vanilla wafers, shortbread, ginger snaps, Marie biscuits, digestive biscuits (British) by Mcvitie's.