Graham Cracker Cookies
Graham Cracker Cookies are a brown sugar cookie that is packed with graham cracker crumbs to bring you the most amazing graham cookies recipe!
There are endless ways to use this graham cracker cookie recipe! It’s the cookie base for more of my cookie recipes like my 7 Layer Bar Cookies, my Crumbl New York Cheesecake Cookies, my Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies, my Crumbl Salted Caramel Cheesecake Cookies, and my Crumbl Key Lime Pie Cookies recipe! Adding simple toppings and fillings to these graham cookies gives you endless variations everyone will love!
Why This Recipe Works
- Delicious plain or with toppings! These graham cracker cookies are so yummy on their own! But they are also the perfect cookie to add toppings too. Think of the cookies like a Graham Cracker Crust. Top with chocolate mousse for a French Silk Pie Recipe twist! Or use cream cheese frosting to mimic a homemade No-Bake Cheesecake!
- Packed with graham cracker flavor. There are tons of graham cracker crumbs in this graham cracker cookie recipe — really bringing that flavor out!
- Moist and soft cookies. There are two secret ingredients in these cookies that help them stay super soft and moist!
Ingredient Notes
- Unsalted Butter: The ratio of butter to flour is what will determine the thickness of the graham cookies and how much they spread.
- Brown Sugar: There is mostly brown sugar in the graham cracker cookies to help bring out that deliciously deep sweet flavor.
- Granulated Sugar: We want the difference of the brown sugar and the granulated sugar since they have different roles in the cookies, but we only have a small amount of the white sugar so we have a more prominent flavor from the brown sugar.
- Light Corn Syrup: The small amount of corn syrup is what will help these cookies stay softer longer! They’ll even keep their soft and chewy texture when chilled!
- Flour: There is a lower amount of flour than a traditional cookie recipe because we are using a lot of graham cracker crumbs in place of the flour.
- Graham Cracker Crumbs: You want the graham cracker crumbs to be really fine! They’ll mimic the role of flour in the graham cracker cookies. Use a food processor to get fine crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, you can place the graham crackers in a ziplock bag and using a rolling pin to crush them.
- Cornstarch: The cornstarch will keep the graham cookies thick and chewy!
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Cream the wet ingredients. Add the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until smooth, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add remaining wet ingredients. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and the light corn syrup to the bowl and mix until well combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch and the salt to the bowl. Mix until just combined, scraping the sides of the bowl to get all the dry ingredients.
- Portion into cookie dough balls. Using a 1/4 cup, measure out the graham cracker cookie dough into balls. Place 6 on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake the graham cracker cookies. Bake cookies in an oven preheated to 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Remove when the edges are just set and the tops are no longer shiny. The cookies will continue to bake on the cookie sheet as they cool. Remove and let cool on the sheet for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely!
- Serve! Enjoy as is or top with cream cheese frosting and Raspberry Sauce! See Recipe Tips for more toppings and variations.
Recipe Tips
There are so many fun variations for these graham cookies!
- Add chocolate chips
- Add 7 Layer Bars ingredients (coconut, pecans, butterscotch chips and chocolate chips)!
- Top with cream cheese frosting
- Top with caramel or Nutella drizzle
- Fill with white chocolate chips or M&Ms
- Mix in some mini marshmallows and chocolate chips for a delicious s’mores cookie!
Even if you have the cornstarch and the light corn syrup in the cookies, you can still get crunchy cookies if you aren’t baking them correctly. Be sure to remove the cookies right when the edges look set and the tops are no longer shiny (but look slightly underdone still). Don’t worry! They’ll set up on the cookie sheet as they cool.
You can buy graham cracker crumbs at the store if you want to cut out the middle man of crushing the graham cracker sheets.
Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing
Store leftover cookies covered in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days.
My post on Freezing Cookie Dough goes through everything you need to know about storing cookie dough, freezing cookie dough, and baking frozen cookie dough! Then check out my Freezing Cookies post for tips and tricks to get the best results on how to freeze baked cookies.
Recipe FAQs
You could probably call them cookies! They definitely have more of a sweet flavor to me than a traditional cracker.
Tough cookies can come from over mixing the dough and from over baking the cookies. I promise I won’t steer you wrong! It’s better to pull the cookies out of the oven too soon than too late. The cookies will continue baking on the sheet as they cool for 10 minutes.
Yes you can! This is an easy cookie recipe to do variations with! See my Recipe Tips section for a list of fun possibilities!
Recipes Using Graham Crackers
Graham Cracker Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter - softened
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar - packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat, set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and light corn syrup and mix to combine. Use a rubber spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour, graham cracker crumbs, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to ensure everything gets incorporated.
- Using a ¼ cup measuring cup, portion the dough into round balls. Place 6 balls of dough on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are and tops are just set.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
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24 Comments on “Graham Cracker Cookies”
These are fabulous! I can’t stop eating them. SO GOOD!!!
Couldn’t agree more! Thanks for the star rating, Katherine.
So good! I made these with a smaller cookie scoop (1.5T) baked for 10 minutes. Then we put a whole marshmallow on top and broiled for 40 seconds. Then we immediately pressed a square of Hershey’s chocolate on top. BOOM! S’Mores cookie. The dough was pretty crumbly when I used the scoop, but they baked up fine.
Such a fun way to use these graham cracker cookies! Thanks for sharing, Lindsey.
I have made these twice now.We love them! I make a lot of cookies. My friends and family call me the cookie lady. I substituted honey for the corn starch. They did just fine. I also added some mini chocolate chips to part of them . I will be making them often 😊❤️
So yummy! What a great idea to add the mini chocolate chips! Thanks for coming back to leave a great review, Carolyn!
I made these but dairy free. So I did 3/4 C of oil instead of butter. They turned out so yummy!
YUM!! Thanks for sharing your adaption Kenzie.
I made these but dairy free. So I added 3/4 cup of vegetable oil instead of butter.
They turned out so good and delicious!
So glad you loved it, Kenzie! Thanks for the 5-star rating!
So glad you loved them, Kenzie! Thanks for the 5-star rating!
Can these be made into a bar style cookie, like chocolate chip bars? The reason I am asking is I am making a s’more cake for a birthday and wanted to a cookie base and top for it.
Yes, I think that would work! I would line the pan with parchment paper and then press the graham cracker cookie dough into the pan. Keep the oven temperature the same, but I would keep an eye on it. I haven’t baked this recipe in bar style so I’m not sure how much time it will need! Sounds yummy!
Hi!
Thank you for your recipees
I made these recipees with Stroopwafel crumbs from Dutch Waffle Company and it was so mutch better than graham cracker, as it has more flavor to it. Really delicious , you should try it out ‼️😃
Kind regards,
Bianca
Bianca, that is a genius idea! Love it. Thanks for sharing!
There’s no way anyone who’s left a comment thus far, ACTUALLY made this receipe. 1cup butter to 2 1/2 cups flour AND 2 1/3 cups Graham crackers…. they literally fall apart and won’t even form a ball. I RE-READ & RE-READ just to ensure those amounts were correct. I KNEW it sounded way off. Now I’ve wasted so much product. Total waste of time.
Hi Rachel! Yes, those are the correct measurements. Did you use 2 cubes of butter and 2 LARGE eggs? That will help provide enough moisture in the dough for it to form a ball. You also want to be sure and beat together the butter and sugars until they are light and smooth (it really does need to be 2-3 minutes, which is a long time! Set a timer). Creaming together those ingredients will really help the dough come together more easily. The dough is thick, but if you follow the recipe correctly, they’ll form into balls and bake up beautifully!
Can you make the cookies smaller? What would the recommended bake time be?
Yes. I would check around 8 minutes.
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
I would keep them at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-4 days for best results.
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
I’ve made a bunch of your cookie recipes that use a graham cracker cookie base! It was fun to see the full recipe for the base posted. It’s amazing!
Great recipes ,wonderful ideas, easy you have worded easy enough for my granddaughter can understand. Thank we have enjoyed