Graham Cracker Cookies for Supper

These Graham Cracker Cookies are buttery, sweet, soft, chewy, and studded with white chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers.

Try some other fun variations on this cookie recipe like these S’mores cookies or Frosted Honey Graham Cookies.

a reliable straightforward Graham Cracker Cookies

Of all the cookie recipes on this site, my youngest sister will tell you, these are her favorite. I can’t show up to a family function without a batch, so I nearly always have some rolled-out dough balls in my freezer ready to bake and bring to her.

It’s no huge surprise she loves these cookies so much, since she’s the most graham-cracker-obsessed person I’ve ever met. She’ll eat a graham cracker crust plain (without filling—yes, really!) and steal the crusts right off these Cheesecake Bars, leaving the cheesecake part behind.

These cookies are supremely sweet, ultra-soft, and ridiculously chewy! With actual graham crackers (or at least the crumbs) in the dough, these cookies are not like your typical Chocolate Chip Cookies. The graham cracker crumbs that make up the cookie dough offer a unique toasted, almost nutty and sweet flavor.

Let’s Chat Graham Crackers

For the cookie base, there are actual graham crackers mixed into the dough. Here are a few tips:

• Thoroughly crush the graham crackers. While you can crush the graham crackers in a bag with a rolling pin, I highly recommend a high-powered blender or food processor. It’s important to have fine crumbs without any uncrushed chunks. Larger pieces will mess up the texture of the cookies, so be sure they’re finely crushed.
• Measuring. Once you crush the crackers thoroughly, you can measure the exact amount. Spoon the crushed crumbs into a measuring cup, making sure to fill the cup to the very top and level off the top with the back of a table knife. While the crumbs should not be packed into the measuring cup, be sure to completely fill the cup to get the right measurement.

How To Make Graham Cracker Cookies

Here are our top tips for making the best possible cookies:

• Let the melted butter cool: Once the butter melts, it needs to cool back to room temperature. If the melted butter is still hot, it will melt the sugars and cause greasy cookies that spread too much.
• Correctly measure the flour: If you press a measuring cup into a bag of flour and scoop, you will pack in way too much flour which affects the texture of these cookies. To properly measure your flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup until it’s overfilled. Then use the back of a table knife to level the measuring cup at the top. (Video visual here) Follow this same measuring protocol for measuring out the finely crushed graham crackers.

Quick Tip

Use fresh ingredients. For the softest and best-possible cookies, use fresh and soft brown sugar and fresh baking agents.

Graham Cracker Cookies Tips

• Chill the dough. Because of the melted butter, the dough needs time to chill so the butter can resolidify. Don’t rush the chilling time or you may find yourself with flat cookies. On the flip side, if the dough is chilled too long, it tends to dry out. The cookies also don’t spread as nicely when baking when the dough is chilled too long.
  • We recommend chilling the dough twice—once right after making the dough, and again after rolling out the dough balls. Why space the chilling time out? The dough starts out too soft to roll into balls, and once rolled, it warms up from handling and needs to chill again. Cold dough balls in a hot oven will give us the reliable cookie texture.
• Use a silicone liner. The cookies end up with much softer bases when baked on a lined sheet pan.
• Press the edges of the cookies in. Working quickly, right out of the oven, use the back of a large spoon to press the edges of the cookies into the center. (See the picture below for a visual!). This creates great crispy edges and ensures the cookie has a nice chewy center. Work quickly—once the cookies sit out for more than a minute or two, they set up and become hard to press inward.

Variations

• M&M graham cracker cookies: Replace the white chocolate chips for equal parts M&M’s. Or, make graham cracker chocolate chip cookies by replacing white chocolate chips with semi-sweet, dark, or milk chocolate chips instead.
• Graham Cracker Cookies with pecans: Replace the white chocolate chips with coarsely chopped pecans (or another similar nut—pistachios would also be tasty!).
• Graham cracker dessert bars: Try these Magic Cookie Bars, Magic Bars, or 7-Layer Bars (which are like Graham Cracker Cookies but with sweetened condensed milk).
• No-bake Graham Cracker Cookies: try these No-bake Peanut Butter Bars with graham cracker crumbs or these no-bake S’mores Energy Bites instead.

Storage

Graham Cracker Cookie Storage

Store at room temp in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Best enjoyed fresh.

For longer storage, freeze dough: Drop dough balls on a sheet pan, freeze solid, then move to airtight container or bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen, adding extra time if needed.

More Cookie Recipes:

• DoubleTree® Cookies with oats and chocolate chips
• Peanut Butter Cookie Dough food-safe, edible cookie dough
• Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cookies with cinnamon-sugar topping
• Soft Sugar Cookies with cream cheese frosting
• Cornmeal Cookies with white chocolate chips

Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 cup, 1-1/2 sticks)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed, see note 1)
• 1 large egg yolk (discard or save the whites)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (see note 2)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 9 full sheets, see note 3)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 5 to 6 full graham cracker sheets (skippable for topping cookies)

Method

1. Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave. keep nearby to cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes. (Hot butter will melt the sugars and cause greasy cookies.) Once butter is cooled, scrape every bit of it into a large bowl. Add in brown and granulated sugar. Whisk briskly until completely incorporated, smooth, and combined, about 1–2 minutes.
2. Add in 1 full egg and 1 egg yolk (discard the whites or save for another recipe). Add vanilla. Stir until smooth.
3. In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add graham crackers to a blender or food processor and crush until you have 1 cup (117g) of very fine crumbs (gently add to the measuring cup; don’t pack it in). Add the graham cracker crumbs to the dry ingredients. Stir to combine.
4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined, avoiding overmixing. Add in white chocolate chips and stir to incorporate.
5. Cover the bowl tightly and chill the dough in the fridge for 1 hour and up to 8 hours.
6. Using a tablespoon measuring spoon, form dough balls using 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie (45g if you have a food scale). Roll the cookie dough balls large and tall (rather than wide). Place on a parchment-paper-lined plate and chill again for 20 minutes.
7. Heat oven to 325°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Space 6 cookies per cookie sheet (to allow plenty of room for spread; they spread a lot). Bake for 10–14 minutes or until ever-so-slightly browned at the edges or no longer gooey looking on top. Remove from oven and immediately use a spoon or the back of a spatula to press the edges of each cookie into the center. (See video or photos). Work quickly—the cookies harden fast. This will give each cookie a great crispy edge.
8. After pressing in the edges, press a few extra white chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies. Coarsely break up a few additional graham crackers and press small pieces onto the tops of the cookies to decorate/finish. Let cookies stand on the tray for 4 more minutes, then use a spatula to remove the cookies to a cooling rack.