S'mores Cookies

When my sister was here visiting in August, we cooked dinner a couple of times together at my mother-in-law's house, (which also happens to be her mother-in-law since we married brothers)
and one day we decided we needed to make some cookies.
I had seen this recipe online and wanted to try it, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity since there would be lots of kids around.

I mixed up the dough and took it over to my mil's house. I baked the cookies while we were getting dinner ready and then we all enjoyed them before we watched a movie together.
These were pretty popular all around.
The combination of the oats and whole wheat flour give the cookie a nice texture that is slightly reminiscent of graham crackers. There is also a little bit of cinnamon which goes nicely with the other flavors. And who can resist toasted marshmallows? I don't know, but not very many people in my family can.

Recipe for S'mores Cookies
* I used dark chocolate squares for some of the cookies, but also used some plain old Hershey's chocolate for those who prefer milk chocolate

MSC- S'mores Cupcakes

This month's MSC cupcake choice- S'mores Cupcakes, was chosen by yours truly.
It isn't as easy to choose an item to bake for a group like this as it may seem.

I debated for awhile. I really wanted to choose the Rhubarb Cupcakes with Whipped Cream (pg 33), but I haven't seen any fresh rhubarb yet this season and some fruit choices cause more debate than other things. The Bluberries-and-Cream Cupcakes (pg 42) also looked really good and the Iced Pistachio Cupcakes (pg68) made their way into my choice list too. There were others, but in the end, it all came down to the 1 cupcake that caught my eye the first time I flipped through this book.

I have this thing with graham crackers, which I have mentioned before, which is- I cannot have them in my house because I will eat them all. I never buy them, unless I know that I am going to be using all of them in a recipe, or if I am willing to sacrifice an entire meals calorie allotment on a package of graham crackers, dipped in milk. I know I have a problem and therefore I avoid the item which causes a complete lack of self-control.
I was curious about a cupcake that actually tastes like a S'more.
The marshmallow frosting looked billowy and yummy and so, this is my pick.

I made them yesterday for our Valentine's Day dessert. I skipped the frosting called for, simply because it said that it would harden if not used/served immediately and I knew I had to make and assemble these a few hours before we would eat them.
I also made a ganache with milk chocolate, to keep the flavors true to an actual S'more and used chocolate chips, instead of chopped chocolate and cream. No corn syrup. On the first try, the ganache was too thin, so I tried again with less cream, until the consistency was spreadable.

I also used the marshmallow topping that we used for the Sweet Potato Cupcakes a couple of months ago, which is simply broiling little piles of mini marshmallows and transferring them to the top of the cupcakes.

I made half the recipe and ended up with 9 cupcakes and 15 mini cupcakes.
Please ignore the Halloween cupcake liners- I ran out of plain ones and didn't know it until it was too late.

My 3 yr old and I tasted the cupcakes without the chocolate and marshmallows and they were really good.
I am definitely going to make these again when I can serve them immediately and try out the frosting called for. I took them to a family dinner and everyone enjoyed them. I thought that they really tasted like a s'more, which is the whole point. I was pleasantly surprised.

Go to the MSC Blogroll to see everyone else's thoughts on these!

S'mores Variations

Chocolate graham cracker, crunchy pb,milk chocolate, plain marshmallow

A couple of months ago, I took the kids to the store and we loaded up everything you might need to make S'mores. It had been a dreary week, of cold and snow (keep in mind we were in Utah then) and I thought we would have fun making them inside.
We wanted to do a couple of variations, so we got chocolate, cinnamon and regular graham crackers, strawberry, toasted-coconut and regular marshmallows, different kinds of chocolate and fresh fruit.
Then, we got home and started making combinations. We used the microwave to puff our marshmallows, but at this time of year, doing these around a campfire would be fun.
We went a little crazy. Here are a few of our favorite combinations.
We had neighbor kids over and all the kids really loved these fun treats. Well, the adults loved them too.

Have a fun, safe 4th of July. We are in Washington, D.C. and really looking forward to the festivities!

Chocolate graham cracker, white chocolate, strawberries, toasted coconut marshmallow

Regular graham cracker, creamy pb, strawberries, strawberry marshmallow

Regular graham cracker, white chocolate, fresh pineapple, toasted coconut marshmallow

Cinnamon graham cracker, regular marshmallow, granny smith apple slices

Regular graham cracker, milk chocolate, strawberries, regular marshmallow

Chocolate graham cracker, regular marshmallow, Andes mints

Chocolate graham cracker, toasted coconut marshmallow, milk chocolate, creamy pb

Coming Next Week- Quinoa with Veggies and Pepitas