s’mores — Giving Up on Perfect

Monday Morning Mmmm: S’mores Cookies

June 6, 2011 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 13 Comments

I wasn’t sure about this latest installment in my Year o’ S’mores, but when my friend Amy opened up her care package (I love trying out these new recipes, but I cannot handle having the goodies in my house!), she declared her undying love for me.

So maybe they’re okay after all.

I can’t remember where I found new blogs to read and recipes to try before my days of Twitter, Stumble Upon and food carnivals – and coincidentally, I can’t remember which of those three places took me to My Baking Addiction and her giant s’mores cookies. But regardless of how I found it, I’m glad I did.

Go ahead. Click over and look at her giant cookies. She made them in a muffin top tin! They’re perfectly round! I love them!

I don’t own a muffin top tin, although I’d like to. So I scooped dough with an ice cream scoop onto cookie sheets and smashed them down a bit. It worked just fine, although nobody’s going to mistake my uniquely shaped cookies for ones baked in a muffin tin.

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
3 regular size Hershey’s chocolate bars
3 graham crackers
Mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla with mixer until fluffy. (Mine was never “fluffy,” but that’s what recipes usually say. Fluffy.) In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well, then add to wet ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.

Scoop dough onto cooking sheet or into extra large muffin tin. Press graham cracker pieces, marshmallows and chocolate squares on top of cookie dough. Bake for 11-13 minutes (or until edges begin turning brown). Serve while warm and just try to stop the smiles!

If I try this recipe again, I think I’ll add graham cracker crumbs to the dough and use marshmallow fluff and the chocolate bars for the toppings. Have you ever made – or eaten – s’mores cookies?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green, Sweet Tooth Friday and Foodie Friday .

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: s'mores

Monday Morning Mmmm: S’mores Bar Showdown

May 22, 2011 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 12 Comments

I love Cherry Coke, but I don’t like actual cherries. I also can’t stand cherry-flavored candy. Give me a cherry Starburst, and I will gag. True story. Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that even though I don’t necessarily love sticky, messy, outdoors-required s’mores, I DO love anything s’mores-flavored!

Clearly, I’m not alone, because s’mores-themed recipes abound online. Yes, abound. And that’s lucky for us, because I am planning on trying several recipes out over the next few months. First up? S’mores bars.

I actually found three different recipes, but thanks to ~~procrastination~~ time and a less-than-thorough trip to the grocery store, I only made two. One is a cereal-type bar, and the other is a cookie-type bar. And both were delicious!

Golden Grahams S’mores Bars

I’d actually made this before, quite a while ago. I think that back then, I got the recipe off the back of the cereal box. This time, I got it from The Sweets Life.

Ingredients
3/4 cup light corn syrup
3 tbsp butter
2 cups chocolate chips
5 cups mini marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla
16 oz. box Golden Grahams cereal

Melt the butter and add corn syrup and chocolate chips. Once the mixture is completely melted and mixed up (yes, I’m using technical terms again), remove from heat and pour over cereal. Mix until cereal is covered, then add in marshmallows. (I made the mistake of not reading the directions and melting half the marshmallows and then adding more later. It wasn’t the end of the world, but for the record, the original recipe calls for just three cups of marshmallows.) Press cereal mixture into a greased 9×13 pan and let it sit for a while.

Cookie Dough S’mores Bars

This second recipe came from The Hungry Mouse, and I think I found it through a recipe carnival. She had me at hello – or, to be precise, “Psssst, hey, you! You need to make these. Like, now . . . Stop what you’re doing, put on your fat pants, and get yourself into the kitchen.”

How could I NOT make these bars?

Ingredients
16 tbsp. butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large (4.4 oz.) chocolate bars
3 cups marshmallow fluff (about 16 oz.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter, sugars and eggs. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Mix the two together. Once you get the dough mixed, divide in two pieces. Roll out the first piece and press into a greased 9×13 pan. Place the chocolate bars on top of the dough, then spread on the marshmallow fluff.

Next comes the hard, pain-in-neck step. Roll out the second half of dough and slowly, carefully place it on top of the fluff. The dough is going to be a bit crumbly, so it will likely fall apart. You’ll have to smush your pieces of dough together to make one top piece. (You should check out The Hungry Mouse’s step-by-step process for this. And if you come up with a better method than my use-two-big-spatulas and hold-my-breath trick, please, tell me!) Bake for 30 minutes.

———————

Now for the showdown part. I invited my friends Josh and Brittany over last week to be my taste testers. And, completely unsurprisingly, Josh created a five-point, six-category evaluation system for us. In categories ranging from General Taste and S’mores Authenticity to Portability and Durability, we assigned numbers to the deliciousness that was our dessert.

Our conclusion? They were both, in their own ways, great! Mark and Brittany liked the cereal bar better, while Josh and I liked the cookie bar best. We all agreed that they were both crazy rich and eating both was too much for one meal! The cereal bar was more portable and durable (which sounds a little gross, but would be awfully handy in a potluck situation), but the cookie bar tasted more like an actual s’more.

While we may not have had a clear winner, I’m happy to say that I can recommend either recipe wholeheartedly. Just eat a light dinner beforehand!

Image by ninahale. This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green, Sweet Tooth Friday, Foodie Friday, Friday Firsts and Food on Fridays.

Filed Under: Recipes & Food Tagged With: s'mores

Things I Love Thursday: S’mores

May 18, 2011 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 14 Comments

I love s’mores. Well, to be honest, I love things that are s’mores-flavored. And I do enjoy mixing Golden Grahams (or Teddy Grahams) with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. Actual s’mores are just really messy. And I’m not a big fan of messy foods. But s’mores-flavored (non-messy) foods? My favorite.

In past posts, I’ve written about s’mores brownies (amazing!) and crispy s’mores bars. This summer, though, I’m kicking it up a notch. (Or should I say I’m kicking it up s’more . . .? No? Okay. Fine. Whatever.)

Last night, I had a s’mores bar showdown that I’ll post about next week. And over the coming months, you can expect s’mores-flavored cupcakes, cookies and more. Yum!

Do you like s’mores? Or other messy food? And how do you feel about my upcoming s’mores bar showdown?

This post will be linked to Things I Love Thursday at Diaper Diaries.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: cooking, food, recipes, s'mores, things i love thursday

Monday Morning Mmmm: S’mores Brownies

November 1, 2010 By Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect 45 Comments

As the temperatures continue to drop – and I’ve even heard rumors of a possible freeze this week, which is music to my sinuses – I can’t help but think of the many bonfires and hayrides I’ve enjoyed in the past.

The best part of any bonfire? Well, I love a charred hot dog and burn-your-tongue hot chocolate as much as the next girl, but my favorite fall treat is S’mores.

Mmmm…chocolate, grahams and marshmallows! Does it get any better than that?

Well, actually it does. Because real S’mores are messy. And kind of hard to eat. S’mores-flavored foods, on the other hand, are totally tasty without sounding a four-napkin alarm.

Yes, I’m THAT person. I don’t like to be messy. Okay?

The good news is that S’mores-inspired treats seem to be all the rage these days. Last summer, for example, I made S’mores Rice Krispy Treats – and they were ah-maze-ing.

Normally, my go-to dessert for any and all occasion – no matter how fancy or casual, large or intimate – is a pan of brownies. From a box. And they are a hit Every Time.

I’m not bragging. (Okay, I am.) It’s just a proven fact that box brownies are delicious, especially if you make sure to NOT overcook them. And pair them with a scoop of ice cream.

So when I saw a recipe this summer for S’mores Brownies, you better believe I bookmarked that faster than you can say, “Save that delicious recipe on Delicious.com!”

[You wouldn’t say that? Because you think it’s silly? Well, right, of course. I wouldn’t, either.]

Through one of the several recipe blog carnivals I participate in, I found 3 Four and Under, where Trisha shared her super simple recipe for S’mores Brownies. (Make sure you check out her photos, because they do this dessert more justice than mine do!)

I could barely wait three weeks before making it for someone. We had friends over for dinner, and we all ate way more of these brownies than we should have!

S’mores Brownies

Brownie mix
6-8 graham crackers
Regular (candy bar-sized) Hershey bar
Mini marshmallows (about half a bag)

Make the brownies as directed on the box. While they’re baking, roughly chop 6-8 graham crackers (or stick them in a Ziploc and give them a good whack with a rolling pin). Break up the chocolate bar – and try not to eat a quarter of the pieces.

AHEM.

As soon as a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean (I’m a big fan of slightly undercooking brownies, if you must know.), sprinkle the crackers and marshmallows on top. Stick back in the oven for a few minutes (just long enough for the marshmallows to melt, not long enough for them to brown), then drop the chocolate on the marshmallows.

Serve, sit back and enjoy the oohs and aahs. (And the brownie you served yourself, of course. Enjoy that.)

I know my measurements aren’t exact, but really, you just need to eyeball it. (Chelley, I know that stresses you out. I promise to help you make these next time we’re together!)

Do you like S’mores? What’s your favorite part of a bonfire or hayride? And how do you feel about messy foods that require a lot of napkins?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, What’s Cooking Wednesday, Works for Me Wednesday, Fabulous Food Fridays, Foodie Friday, Grocery Cart Challenge, Friday Firsts and Food on Fridays.