Back to life. Back to reality. This song has been in my head for 5 days. No joke.
The Beast and I returned from our 9-day vacation on Sunday afternoon, but my mind is stuck in Key West. I keep obsessively looking at my vacation pictures and remembering how last week totally kicked this week’s ass. BUT, onward we go.
I whipped this dip together early on a cozy Sunday morning two weekends ago. I intended to take advantage of the beautiful morning light by photographing the dip being scooped up by celery and chips, and then I’d set the dipped goods in a tupperware for an afternoon snack, because who eats bean dip at 9am? That would be crazy.
Last summer The Beast and I planted a community garden with tomatoes, green beens, herbs, peppers, and zucchini. Despite the variety of seeds in the ground, we mostly just reaped zucchini…like, a LOT of zucchini. Really big zucchini. I mean seriously.
Does any dessert represent summer evenings better than a s’more? Friends and family gathering around the campfire, falling into a trance as flames wrap around marshmallows, then challenging one another to make the toastiest marshmallow without setting it on fire (side note: I ALWAYS set mine on fire). This summer experience always reminds me of sun-filled days at my grandparent’s house. We’d fish from the dock, buzz around the lake on their boat, play bocce ball in the back yard, and then I’d walk with my dad to the fire pit so I could pile on leaves and fallen branches in preparation for our dessert activity. Simple childhood bliss.
Although I love s’mores, up until a couple weeks ago I hadn’t eaten one for more than 5 years. While eating yogurt during lunch at my first post-college job, I looked at the ingredients and saw “gelatin” listed, so I did some quick googling. My eyes widened as I learned that something very much NOT vegetarian hides in so many packaged, seemingly simple foods. I started buying only natural and/or organic yogurt, and stopped eating any candy containing the gelling agent. Since I’m not big on chewy candy like Starbursts, gummy bears and the like, the transition didn’t affect me too much, but me-oh-my did I miss the melty marshmallow in my summertime s’mores.
Sometimes I would just hold graham crackers topped with chocolate squares above the fire and wait for the chocolate to melt, but it just wasn’t the same…and I looked pretty dumb.
Fortunately I no longer need to make a fool of myself, at least where s’mores are concerned. I discovered some gelatin-free marshmallows at my co-op, and they are a total game changer. I brought them to our Wisconsin nature weekend a couple weeks ago and finally satisfied my s’more longing that had been ignored for 5 years. At long last, I ate gooey marshmallow and melted chocolate sandwiched between crispy honey graham crackers – mine all mine, with no gelatin involved.
When we returned to city life after our weekend getaway, I had leftover marshmallows, plenty of s’more cravings, and no fire pit to use, so naturally I had to trash up some chocolate chip cookies.
This recipe combines all your favorite s’more flavors in one chewy and soft cookie. Dark brown sugar and honey give the dough a rich molasses and honey flavor that highlights the crispy crushed graham bites that are dispersed throughout the cookies. To give the cookies some variety, and ensure each bite included melted chocolate, I studded the dough with both mini semisweet chips and larger milk chocolate morsels. Finally, I sandwiched a marshmallow right in the middle of two tablespoons of dough so that it would ooze out in all it’s sugary glory after your first bite.
If you can’t eat all of these cookies when they’re fresh out of the oven (and really, try to control yourself), you can just pop the cooled cookies in the microwave. After just 10 seconds the marshmallow will puff up and melt, and you can experience the same stretchy, oozing experience of the fresh-baked cookies.
A favorite summer treat in cookie form! Soft and chewy cookies studded with graham cracker pieces and 2 kinds of chocolate chips, and then stuffed with a melty marshmallow.
Yield:20-22 cookies
Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients:
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons honey
2 large eggs
½ cup milk chocolate chips
½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup hand-crushed graham crackers, NOT fine crumbs
10-11 large gelatin-free marshmallows (see notes), cut in half
Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
Cream the butter for a minute or two, then pour in the sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Mix in the honey, and then beat in the eggs.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips, and then gently fold in the graham cracker pieces.
Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Scoop up 1 tablespoon of dough, roll into a ball, flatten, and set down on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Set the marshmallow right in the middle. Top with another tablespoon of flattened dough and press together. Repeat with remaining dough.
Bake for 10-13 minutes, until the sides are golden. Let sit on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack.
*UPDATED* A commenter says that she tried regular marshmallows, and they dissolve when baked. If you want the puffy, hold-their-shape marshmallow cookies you see in these pictures, use vegan marshmallows (they taste the same, but are gelatin free). I crushed the graham crackers with my hands until the largest pieces were about the size of a quarter. It's not an exact science, as they will break down a bit more as you fold them in. You just don't want fine crumbs, because you want to taste actual chunks of graham cracker in the cookies.
My vegan challenge officially ended on Monday. The first night I dined on cheesy potato pizza and soft serve. The second night I ate a balanced meal of brie and puff pastry. I’m concerned about what the third night could bring.
From my recent dairy binges you’d think that I found the whole vegan thing difficult, but not really. I made a lot of meals and snacks that I really loved, and I didn’t feel deprived most of the time. I often pack vegan lunches for work, and making dinner at home proved to be fairly easy (when The Beast wasn’t flaunting his melted cheese, of course). I struggled the most with going out to eat, ordering the one vegan thing (or the one thing I could adapt to be vegan) on the menu, and shelling out $10-$15 for something I could easily make at home…and, to be honest, I could probably make it better.
Sorry, mainstream restaurants, but you seriously need to up your vegan game.
