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Monday, January 17, 2011

Homemade Cereal - Graham Nuts

I loved the idea of making my own cereal at home.  It had never occurred to me that I could do such a thing until I saw it in the cookbook Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce.  In her description of the recipe, she mentions that she found the recipe that inspired this one in an Amish cookbook.  The only thing I changed this time around was to use table salt instead of kosher salt.  I've tried using coarse kosher salt as she recommends in every other recipe but they've all turned out too salty.  MTH refused to eat the pancakes due to the saltiness.  I don't actually think they are saltier than other things I've made.  I just thing the big grains of salt give more of the salty flavor.  Next time I make these, I'll be using cane syrup (homemade in my hometown) instead of the honey

Ingredients:
1 cup graham flour
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (she calls for 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350.  Spray a little oil on to a baking sheet and line with parchment paper.

Whisk the dry ingredients into a large bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the buttermilk, honey and vanilla.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together to form a batter.

Scrape the batter onto the baking sheet and, using a metal offset spatula, spread the batter evenly across the entire surface of the sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven and break off any areas of the cracker that are getting dark or dry, and set them on a rack to cool.  I didn't have any pieces to break off at that point.

Turn the oven down to 250, return the baking sheet to the oven, and bake for 55 to 60 minutes more.  Every 20 minutes, break off any more dry sections and put them on the cooking rack.  While you are doing this, break up the rest of the dough into smaller pieces to encourage the dough to the dry out faster, and return the baking sheet to the oven for the remaining time.

Remove the sheet from the oven when the cracker is mahogany brown and entirely dry.  The all the pieces of the crack cook on a rack.

Set up a food processor with a large hole grate attachment.  Feed pieces of the cracker through the tube at the top and grind into nuts.  Serve with cold milk.  They will store in an airtight jar for one month.

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