I knew this morning when I woke up that it was summer because my first thought was how to keep the house (and me) cool. So, instead of dreading the Tokyo summer before us, we welcomed this hot and humid season in with a celebration.
And what else says "Hello" to summer than a barbecue. We lugged out our 1ft x 2 ft cast iron charcoal BBQ to cook some hot dogs. Not real American hot dogs, but close enough. We miss the convenience of turning a knob and pushing a button of our gas grill in the U.S. But with excessive fanning (Japanese style of course) we had a mini fire pit to gather around and roast our dinner. It seemed festive and fun...and downright American.
But you can't have a BBQ without S'mores!!! Now the chocolate and marshmallows, we can come by, but you can't buy Graham Crackers in Japan. So, I tried my hand at making them. I followed a recipe from HERE that I pinned to Pinterest.
Roll them as flat and thin as possible. Mine were a little thick and I probably should have cooked them a little longer. They were a little soft too, but tasted very close to Graham Crackers. These made wonderful S'mores...and are good to just snack on too.
Homemade Graham Crackers
1cup softened Butter or Margarine (200 g.)
3/4 cup of packed Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoon Honey
1 1/2 cup of Flour
1 1/2 cup of Wheat Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Combine all but flour and baking soda. Cream together. Sift in rest of ingredients. Drop dough on parchment or cooking paper. Cover with another piece and roll until less than 1/4 inch thick. Take off top piece of paper and slice into squares and poke holes. (You can put it in the freezer for 30 min. to harden but I skipped that because my baking pan can't fit in my freezer. Smile.) Bake about 10 minutes on 350 F. Re-slice squares and let cool. (The picture above shows 1 /3 of this recipe that I tried first. The edge pieces got more crispy than the inside ones. For the "Wheat Flour" I used half fine-light brown flour and half course, bran-like flour.)
