Monday, October 4, 2010

S'mores Get a Makeover

And we ate some of our favorite camping food.  
For my oldest, James, that means brie cheese and baguettes.
For my middle, William, that means barbecue potato chips and Fruit Loops.
For my youngest, it means eating a lot of the Fruit Loops that William always wants to bring camping but never really eats.  
My husband, Aaron, requested s'mores.

We haven't done s'mores yet on our camping trips.
Why?
Easy.  I'm not a fan.
First of all, the graham crackers.  Can you say, cardboard?
Secondly, the chocolate.  Hershey's chocolate bars are some of the worst chocolate out there.  On a s'more they are hard and cold and taste terrible.
And marshmallows, they're just OK.

But he asked, and I aim to please, so I set to work giving traditional s'mores a tasty little makeover.
Here's what I came up with:



I started with the chocolate because that was an easy upgrade.
Trade in the hard, waxy Hershey's for Nutella.
Smooth, spreadable and infinitely more delicious.
Next the crackers.
I used Belgian Butter Waffle cookies from Trader Joe's.  (get them here)
They are a jillion times better than a graham cracker.  
I stuck with the same old jet puffed marshmallows cause that was all I could manage.
But I'm working on it.



The assembly is pretty much the same.
Spread the cookies with Nutella.  The more the better.
Add your roasted mallow.
Gently press the 2 cookies together, making sure not to crack the cookie in half as I did.




Then eat it.
You will not believe how good it is.
And remember, I am not a s'mores fan.
Well, I wasn't before.
I dare you to make these and tell me it is not a WAY better s'more than the traditional variety.
Double dog dare ya.



A few things additional notes.
I would like to try homemade graham crackers and see if they are better than store bought.
Actually, I know they will be better, but better than the Belgian Butter cookies?  I doubt that.  But I still want to try.  
I found a recipe here.
Also, I really, really, really want to make homemade marshmallows.
Have any of you done it?
It doesn't look hard.  It just looks like one of those things I have meant to do for ages but it hasn't been a priority.
I found a recipe here and here.
When I finally do it, I am going to feel like such a rock star and I' will be sure to tell you all about it.

Well, that's it folks.  My muscles are crying out for a hot shower since I took my first Body Sculpt aerobics class tonight.  My muscles are sore cause the class kicked my butt.  It was worth totally humiliating myself due to my lack of aerobics coordination.  
I had to work off those s'mores.

Love from,
Greta

4 comments:

Four Flights said...

So the thing I'm afraid of when it comes to making my own graham crackers or marshmallows is that they won't be better than store bought...sort of like what happened to both of my failed cracker attempts. I will waste a lot of time and energy for a substandard product. Sorry, I now realize that I seem like a downer, but just trying to keep it real ;) your version above looks scrumptious though!

Megan B. said...

LOVE the idea of butter cookies for s'mores, but my favorite cookie base are the Chevalier Noir cookies (or the schoolboy ones) -- butter biscuit with a thin dark chocolate tablet. The chocolate is the perfect thickness and consistency to melt from the toasted marshmallow's heat. And it's a time saver, too....

Betsi* said...

I totally agree about the Hershey's chocolate. It's an abomination. Of course, it might have been ok had we not tried Belgian, Suisse and German chocolate...

hennymats said...

I make marshmallows every Christmas As a gift using Martha's recipe for marshmallow snowflakes - so easy especially if you use the KitchenAid!