SaurabhGraham crackers are the ultimate comfort food. You can eat them as a snack or use them to make delicious recipes like pies, cheesecakes, s’mores, ice cream sundaes, and more.
However, what should you do if you want to make these recipes but can’t find any graham crackers? They are similar to other crackers and biscuits in taste and texture, thus you can easily many substitutes that you can use instead.
What Are Graham Crackers?
Graham crackers are flat cookies made with whole wheat flour and sweetened with honey. They have a slightly sweet taste and are usually cinnamon or honey flavored.
And they can be used as both a snack and an ingredient. They are most commonly used as a curst for pies, cheesecakes, or tarts. You can use Graham crackers in many different desserts like s’mores, ice cream sundaes, mango floats, and more.
Best Graham Crackers Substitutes
Here is the list of the 10 best substitutes for graham crackers and how to use them properly in your next recipe.
1. Cookies
Graham crackers themselves are a type of flat cookie. Therefore, you can expect any other type of cookie and biscuit to work just as fine as a substitute.
In fact, you probably won’t be able to tell the difference between a graham cracker crust or a normal cookie crust. Moreover, cookies are ridiculously easy to find, so they are your best bet when it comes to a graham cracker substitute.
For the best result, go for vanilla-flavored hard cookies as they will have the closest texture and taste to graham crackers. However, if you want your dishes to be more flavorful, you can also go for lime, chocolate, or coconut cookies and biscuits.
2. Crushed cereal
If you want a substitute that matches the exact crunchy yet sweet flavor that graham crackers have, crushed cereal is the best choice for you.
You will always be able to find cereal at home or a local grocery store. Then, just crush some granola, rice crispies, cornflakes, or any other cereal of your choice. If you like, you can also use flavored cereal to bring a kick to your recipes.
The crushed cereal will provide a crunchy texture and a slightly sweet taste that works as a great crust for different pies and cheesecakes. Moreover, it also works well with soft and creamy foods such as yogurt, pudding, and ice cream.
Also check: 10 Best Cornichons Substitutes
3. Ice cream cones
Ice cream cones have more in common with graham crackers than you think.
They are firm in texture, vanilla flavored, and slightly sweet. Therefore, they make a great replacement for graham crackers. You can use them as a base for cheesecakes, pies, tarts, and as an ingredient in ice cream sundaes, mango floats, etc.
Since ice cream cones are meant for the purpose of being used in desserts, they will go well with any recipe that you use them in. Moreover, you can find strawberry, chocolate, orange and more flavors of wafers that you can use in place of graham crackers.
4. Crushed pretzels
Crushed pretzels have a firm and crunchy texture that makes them a perfect choice for replacing graham crackers in tarts, cakes, pies, cheesecakes, and more.
Moreover, crushed pretzels have a delicious taste with hints of cinnamon and vanilla. Apart from a slightly more sturdy and crunchy texture, you won’t notice any big difference between crushed pretzels and graham crackers in your desserts.
You can also use crushed pretzels as toppings instead of graham crackers in softer and creamier desserts like pudding, yogurt, ice cream sundaes, etc.
5. Crushed oats
You might have never thought of using crushed oats as a substitute for graham crackers. But they are the perfect option if you are looking for a healthier alternative for your recipes.
It may seem far off, however, crushed oats work as great substitutes for graham crackers. They are nutritious, full of fiber, firm in texture, and taste delicious. You can use them to prepare crusts for cakes, pies, cheesecakes, and tarts.
Moreover, crushed oats are a good topping for pies, cakes, ice creams, pudding, yogurt, and even breakfast bowls. If you want to take all these recipes up a notch, you can use flavored oats instead of graham crackers.
Also check: 10 Best Oat Bran Substitutes
6. Saltine crackers
If you are wondering whether it is possible to replace graham crackers with saltine crackers, the short answer is yes. Saltine crackers are not as sweet as graham crackers. However, they can be a great substitute if you want to give your recipes a twist.
The two are similar in texture and consistency. Therefore, the only big difference between graham crackers and saltine crackers will be a slightly savory flavor. Fortunately, a slightly salty flavor works excellently with desserts.
Thus, you can easily use saltine crackers to create the crust for your favorite recipes such as pies, cheesecakes, tarts, ice cream sundaes, and more.
7. Digestive cookies
Digestive cookies and graham crackers are very similar in taste, texture, and consistency. So, it is no surprise that you can use the two interchangeably.
Moreover, digestive cookies will give you a filling and crunchy flavor with desserts such as custard, puddings, yogurts, pies, cheesecakes, ice creams, and more. Digestive cookies can work well with any dessert flavor and can be easily crushed to prepare a crust.
If you have a sweet tooth, you can make your desserts even more delicious by using chocolate, strawberry or coconut flavored digestive cookies.
8. Gingersnaps
Gingersnaps have a delicious flavor of ginger, honey, cinnamon, and molasses.
Not only are gingersnaps a good substitute for graham crackers, but they can also add a mouthful of flavor to any dish you add them to. Moreover, their texture is close to that of graham crackers.
So, if you are looking for a substitute that can add a touch of sweetness and ginger flavor to your pie, cheesecakes, ice cream sundaes, and other desserts, gingersnaps are the best option for you.
9. Sponge cake
Sponge cake is mouth-watering, fluffy, and can be of any flavor you want.
Graham crackers and sponge cake do not have a similar texture. Still, you can interchange the two when it comes to creating crusts for pies, tarts, cheesecakes, etc. But this depends on whether you prefer a firm and crunchy base for your desserts or not.
The good news is that if you go for sponge cake as a substitute for graham crackers, you have many options. Your sponge cake can be lemon, cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate, or any other flavor that you want.
10. Homemade graham crackers
Instead of looking for a substitute for graham crackers, you can simply follow this easy recipe to make them at home. Homemade graham crackers do not require any fancy ingredients or a lot of time. The best part? You can prepare them to taste exactly how you want!
Ingredients:
- Whole wheat flour (also known as Graham flour)
- Whole milk
- Brown sugar
- Butter
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Honey (for sweetening)
- Vanilla extract (for flavoring)
- Cinnamon (for flavoring)
Instructions:
- Firstly, preheat your oven and line your baking dish with parchment sheets.
- Add flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon to a bowl and mix them together.
- Take another bowl and add butter, milk, honey, and vanilla extract to it. Whisk the contents until they are fully combined.
- Now, combine both these mixtures and mix them until the dough is prepared.
- Leave the dough out to cool for about an hour.
- Then, roll the dough out for cutting. Make sure that the thickness is not more than an inch and yet not too thin.
- After cutting the dough into smaller pieces, transfer them to the baking sheet.
- Lastly, bake the graham cracker dough for 10 to 15 minutes.
Voila, that is all you need to do to make delicious graham crackers at home!
Related Questions
What can I use instead of graham crackers for cheesecake?
Instead of graham crackers, you can use crushed cornflakes, wafer cookies, ice cream cones, or biscuits. You can also use Oreos or any other chocolate-flavored cookies as the base for your cheesecakes.
What biscuits are similar to graham crackers?
Crackers themselves are a type of biscuits. So, you can use any vanilla-flavored biscuits as a substitute for graham crackers. If you want a different flavor, you can also go for chocolate or coconut-flavored biscuits.
Can Marie biscuits be used instead of graham crackers?
Yes, you can use Marie biscuits instead of graham crackers.
Marie biscuits are vanilla flavored and have a similar texture to graham crackers, so you can use them as a substitute in cheesecakes, pies, tart, and more.
Can I use digestives instead of graham crackers?
Yes, digestive biscuits can be used in place of graham crackers.
They have a firm texture and taste similar to graham crackers. Moreover, if you like, you can also get flavored digestive biscuits to add more taste to your recipes.
