Foodnatic: When I Say "S'Mores", YOU Say "More"... S'Mores!!!!

Every summer, in almost every town in the United States (for sure) someone, SOMEwhere is making a s'more. I haven't "Googled" this but my guess, after having eaten about a bajillion of these myself, is that "s'more" HAS to stand for "some more" because I can NEVER eat just one, I always want some MORE. Makes sense to this English major...

I am sure there is a sweet little story behind how these came about but I am gonna skip right over it and get to the baking... Sounds good, right? Sure it does...

I tried to figure out a way to make this delectable delight in a mass quantity and easily distributable amongst a crowd..say, a church "potluck". Yeah...hmmm... So I made a tart one night. Graham cracker bottom, ricemellow creme in the middle and a chocolate ganache on top that I garnished with vegan marshmallows and more graham cracker crumbs. This is what I ended up with...

Not TOO bad to look at before slicing, but what a ooey gooey lookin MESS after serving. The ricemellow kinda oozed down the sides, hiding the beautiful thickness of the graham crust... We just can't have that! And...honestly, even if you were conservative with portions on this tart....at a potluck it would only feed about 20 people with some SUPER tiny slices. I had to go back to the drawing board with this one. This is the first time I felt satisfied with something I just made up on my own and then changed my mind after I saw the result. But...the best things come out of failure, which make those mistakes no failure at all!

I decided what I had to do was instead change up the marshmallow layer into actual toasted marshmallow, then cover them with the chocolate and again for a garnish top it with mini marshmallows and some extra graham crumbs just for good measure and obvious identification...

These bars turned out better than the tart as far as the messy factor and are in the right direction of what I was aiming for. The people that I passed these goodies on to loved them. Both versions, noting that the tart version with the ricemellow fluff was indeed very messy. I personally wasn't a fan of the solid marshmallow version because I didn't like the taste of "toasted marshmallow" in the middle. I'm not sure how I achieved that in my oven but those marshmallows literally tasted like I roasted them over a fire... Hmmm....I wasn't too keen on that.

My guinea pigs (random people I shove stuff on to at church) tell me that both the tart and bars were fabulous in taste but after having both they LOVED the bars more and only because they were less gooey to handle.

In an ideal world I would make up a recipe of cookie dough that tastes like a graham cracker then top it with a marshmallow fluff type frosting and drizzle it with chocolate OR a graham cracker flavored cupcake/cake that I fill with marshmallow creme and top with liquid milk chocolate.

Because I believe the world can be as ideal as we make it, I decided to take a leap and make up some cupcakes... Portable, flavorful but still graham crackery, marshmallowy, ooey gooey milk chocolatey as the classic S'More itself. Below you will find ALL THREE recipes for the love I was cooking up in the kitchen. The tart, the bars and the cupcakes. There is just NO end to the ways that you can have fun with S'Mores!!

S'Mores Tart
1 recipe of graham cracker crust, baked and cooled
1 bag of dairy free Enjoy Life! chocolate chips
4 T. vegan shortening
1 tub of vegan Ricemellow fluff
Sweet & Sara vegan mini marshmallows for garnish
extra crushed graham cracker crumbs for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 F

To make the graham cracker crust mix 1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs with 1 T. of sugar and 1/2 c. of melted butter. Either pulse this in a food processor or do it in a medium bowl with a fork. When the crumbs are sufficiently coated in the butter, pat firmly into the bottom of a round or rectangular tart pan. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Set baked crust aside and allow it to cool completely before adding the ricemellow fluff.

When crust has cooled completely (1-2 hours) evenly spread on your ricemellow fluff then set it aside until you are ready to ladle on the melted chocolate.

In the microwave or on the stove top, melt all of your chocolate chips with the shortening. (The shortening helps the chocolate stay shiny and keeps it from turning the dreaded white once it resets.) Once the chocolate is completely smooth, ladle it onto the ricemellow fluff until it is completely covered in chocolate.

Working quickly (before the chocolate sets) toss on your vegan marshmallows and sprinkle on the crushed graham crackers. Let it set for up to 4 hours at room temperature or 2 hours in the fridge before serving.

S'Mores Bars
1 recipe of graham cracker crust, baked
1 bag of dairy free Enjoy Life! chocolate chips
14 oz. of Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows
4 T. vegan shortening
Sweet & Sara vegan mini marshmallows for garnish
extra crushed graham cracker crumbs for garnish

To make the graham cracker crust mix 1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs with 1 T. of sugar and 1/2 c. of melted butter. Either pulse this in a food processor or do it in a medium bowl with a fork. When the crumbs are sufficiently coated in the butter, pat firmly into the bottom of a square or rectangular baking dish. (Choose your shape and pan size based on how thick you want your crust to be.)

Bake in the oven for 12 minutes then quickly remove it from the oven and spread an even layer of marshmallows over the crust and return it back to the oven. Watch it closely, the marshmallows will expand to almost double their size. Remove it from the oven before the marshmallows start to brown. Set the pan aside and let the pan cool for 1-2 hours before ladling the chocolate on top (you don't want to collapse the marshmallow layer).

In the microwave or on the stove top, melt all of your chocolate chips with the shortening. (The shortening helps the chocolate stay shiny and keeps it from turning the dreaded white once it resets.) Once the chocolate is completely smooth, ladle it onto the marshmallow layer until it is completely covered in chocolate.

Working quickly (before the chocolate sets) toss on your vegan marshmallows and sprinkle on the crushed graham crackers. Let it set for up to 4 hours at room temperature or 2 hours in the fridge before serving.

S'Mores Cupcakes
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs (about 15 whole crackers)
1/2 c. flour

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 c. (1 stick) vegan buttery spread, room temperature

3/4 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. milk (you can use soy here with no problem!)

Ganache

8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

(for dairy free option use Enjoy Life! chips in place of milk chocolate and use 6 T. of vegan buttery spread instead of cream)

Marshmallow Cream

1 c. sugar, divided

4 egg whites

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. water

*This can be made into a 9 x 13 cake as well. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick clean. Allow to cool completely (2 hours at least) before filling and decorating. Once cooled, simply score the cake into 1 x 1 or 1 x 2 inch slices with a sharp knife and use the cupcake corer to remove portions of the cake so you can fill each hole with marshmallow creme. Cover the whole top of the cake with the milk chocolate ganache and garnish with toasted marshmallows and graham crumbs. (pictured below)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners.

Whisk graham crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend between additions. Beat in vanilla. Add graham-cracker mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with graham-cracker mixture. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center come out clean, about 22 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack; cool completely.

Place chocolate in medium bowl. Bring cream just to boil in small saucepan; pour over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool ganache until lukewarm. You can also do this in a microwave in 30 second spurts.

Combine 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and simmer syrup without stirring until the thermometer reads 240°, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush.

Meanwhile, place egg whites, salt, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment. Whip on high until frothy. Slowly add remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Whip until soft peaks form. Continue whipping until medium peaks form. Reduce speed to medium, then pour hot syrup into meringue in a slow, steady stream while whipping. Increase speed to high and continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Reduce speed to medium and whip until meringue is cool.

Using a small knife or apple corer, cut a small whole in the top of each cupcake, approximately 1 inch deep. Spoon or pipe marshmallow fluff into each cupcake.

Dip the tops of each filled cupcake into the chocolate ganache. Decorate with toasted mini marshmallows and graham crumbs.

The cake version of this cupcake may feel a little more involved, but it really isn't any more fiddle farty than the cupcakes. The cake is just as ideal to bring to a potluck event as the cupcakes are and the slices are an even smaller portion but they DO pack the same flavor wallop with less calories.

Scored Cake

Coring the Cake Slices

The ONLY difference with the way you core cake slices and the way you core a cupcake is what you see in the picture. With a cupcake you stick the corer ALL the way in until the guard you see there in the picture touches the top of the cupcake. But because the CAKE isn't as thick as a cupcake, you only stick the corer about half way in and just as you would with the cupcakes when you core them, you gently twist a full 360 degree circle before attempting to remove the core. Plop them onto a plate...our Sprout loves to eat the cored pieces of S'More cake and cupcake!

Cored Cake