S'moreful September: S'mores Cupcakes

I'm not going to lie, this is the recipe I was waiting for.  It was the whole reason that I decided to celebrate National S'mores Day, and the reason that I will probably continue to celebrate every year after this one.

I do love this recipe from start to finish, and (as you well know) any time that I can use a box mix while creating a full recipe, it's a good day.  There's something about saving those middle steps that really appeals to me, especially when I know I love that particular brand or flavor.
Ingredients (bottom/crust layer):
1 1/2 C finely crushed graham crackers
1/4 C sugar
5T unsalted butter
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
about 200 mini marshmallows (less than half a bag)


Directions (bottom/crust layer):
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Mix graham crumbs and sugar in a microwave safe bowl.  Top with butter and microwave until melted.  Stir well to mix the butter throughout.
3. Place about 1 T of crumb mixture into each muffin cup, and press down (I used the bottom of a cup).
4. Bake for 5 minutes.  Remove then top with a tsp (or so) of chocolate pieces and 4-7 mini marshmallows.

Ingredients (cupcake layer):
1 box of favorite chocolate cake mix
all related ingredients for cake mix (eggs, oil, water, etc.)

Directions (cupcake layer):
1. Mix all necessary ingredients for box mix.
2. Add to top of bottom crust layer in each paper muffin cup.
3. Bake according to box mix directions, but watch closely as it goes a little more quickly.  Remove and let cool.

The frosting was so heavy it broke our cheap hand mixer!

Ingredients (frosting layer):
1/4 C butter, softened
1 jar (7oz) marshmallow creme
1 tsp vanilla
16 oz powdered sugar (or less)
1-2 T milk

Directions (frosting layer): ***
1. Hand/machine mix butter, marshmallow creme, and vanilla until well blended.
2. Gradually add sugar, beating after each addition until well blended.
3. Add in 1 T of milk and blend.  Add more milk, if necessary, for desired consistency
4. Top your cooled cupcakes with the frosting.
5. Lightly brown in broiler or with kitchen torch.

So, as you see, the frosting and I didn't get along.  If you look here, the frosting was supposed to be pipe-able.  Yeah, that totally didn't work, and trying to lightly brown it made it even worse!  The cupcakes tasted amazing, but I blew out a hand mixer on the frosting and it went down hill from there.  Hand mixing the heavy marshmallow frosting was very difficult (as my hand mixer obviously doth protest too much) and it didn't firm up as needed.  In the end, sure, it looked like a melted slice of provolone, but it tasted amazing.  Next year, I'll have to play with it to see how it goes.

My assistant thought this was a good form of 'decorating'.

Sigh. Well, it was a great S'moreful beginning to this September, and I had a blast with National S'mores Day.  And?  The greatest part about Pinterest?  There are a ton more s'more recipes to be had for next year.

Score!

S'moreful September: S'mores Truffles

I was very dubious of this recipe.  In fact, I might still tweak it, if given the opportunity to make it again.  I'll let you be the judge, but I think that A) this recipe doesn't make enough truffles and B) there should be a way to put a large marshmallow in there, even if it's cut in half.  Marshmallows make the s'mores, in my opinion.

That being said, these do taste really great, and if you're up for rolling truffles, you should definitely give this recipe a try!

Ingredients:
2 T unsalted butter
1/2 C heavy cream
2 C milk chocolate chips
24+ mini marshmallows
1 C finely crushed graham crackers




Directions:
1. Melt butter in a medium sized pan over medium heat; whisk in cream and bring to a boil.
2. Remove pan from heat, and stir in chocolate chips until melted smooth.
3. Chill pan in fridge for at least 1 hour.  (My fridge wasn't a fan and it took nearly 2 hours.)
4. Roll 24 mini truffles, stuffing at least 1 mini marshmallow into the center of each.
5. Roll truffles in graham crumbs, then place back in the fridge to chill until serving.

S'moreful September: S'mores Cracker Candy

Here's something that I hadn't expected to do, but when you've got the ingredients, and you're looking to experiment, what else would you recommend?

This treat is not a candy, as such, but there's really not a better way to describe it.

Ingredients:
12 full sheets of graham crackers
3/4 C butter
3/4 C brown sugar
3 C mini marshmallows
4 Hershey bars, broken into pieces
1 C milk chocolate chips
Non-stick spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350, and line a jelly roll pan (or 9"x13" pan) with aluminum foil, leaving at least one inch around the edges to help you lift up the candy later.  Spray the foil with non-stick spray.
2. Arrange half pieces of graham crackers on the foil so that the sides are touching.
3. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Bring mixture just to a boil.
4. Remove from heat and pour evenly over crackers.  Use a spatula to gently spread as necessary.
5. Bake in the oven at least 5 minutes, or until bubbly.
6. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and chocolate pieces over the crackers.

7. Place back int he oven for another 2-3 minutes until the marshmallows soften and fluff up.


You could also kick on the broiler for a minute (or so) to lightly toast the marshmallows.
8. Let the candy cool completely.  Use foil to lift it out, then cut into bars and enjoy!   

A Taste of Sweetness Saturday: Pumpkin Dip

Super simple recipe - located here.

Three ingredients, mix together.  Serve with Nilla Wafers and graham crackers.  Easy peasy, and even if you're not a pumpkin person, you'll probably love this!

I'm not a huge fan of working with marshmallow, even if it's the "creme."  I always use a mixer so I don't get all sticky, but even still I seem to find it on my arm, in my hair, and in places I least expect it!  Doesn't matter, though, because I could eat this ALL DAY!

Mini S'more Cups!

Okay, what better way to celebrate summer than with S'mores, right?

Problem #1: The mess - although, yes, you can argue that's part of the fun.
Problem #2: The fire - unless you have a gas stove or a great lighter, it gets tiring to roast all of those marshmallows!
Problem #3: You might start to feel guilty once you've eaten 3, 4, or 8 depending on who you are.

All problems: solved with s'more cups!

First of all, I love that you start with the same basic ingredients.  The only things you're adding is a little powered sugar and some melted butter.  I do have to pause for an editorial note: see the marshmallows?  This new thing is that they're flat, and easier to stack.  I don't want flat marshmallows, and if I was actually roasting them on a stick, I'd like them even less!  However, the store was sold out of everything else (except the minis) over the Fourth of July weekend, so I was stuck with the stackers.  (yuck.)

It was super easy to ground up the graham crackers and mix in the powered sugar and butter.  I put about a half + teaspoon of the mixture in each of my mini muffin cups, and pressed them down with my mini tart shaper.  Then I toasted them to solidify/warm it up.  They didn't brown too much, but I wasn't really patient enough for them to brown, either, so it is what it is.  The nice thing about these warm cups, however, was it made the chocolate soft almost immediately when I added those squares to each cup.

Then, to make sure they were going to be gooey enough, when I placed the (halved) marshmallows on top, I pushed them down a bit, in order to make sure that chocolate goodness was spread around the entire cup!

Then you put them back in the oven, just a moment, to soften/puff up the marshmallows.  After two minutes, I tried to put on the boiler to crisp them a bit, but nothing really happened.  Maybe if they had been right underneath it they might have browned, but I didn't want to push it, or make it rubbery in my electric (double yuck) oven.  I'll take what I can get, especially if the food tastes great!

After these sat for about 10 minutes, I melted the rest of the chocolate and drizzled it on top.  You can put the chocolate on however you'd like, but I love drizzling chocolate whenever possible.  Two bars of chocolate is A LOT to drizzle, but I didn't want to skimp.  It's a little heavier than it decoratively should be, but when we're talking about chocolate, how could we go wrong?!

Let the chocolate set before serving, then enjoy.  The weather was too warm for the chocolate to set here (even after three hours), but darn was it good!!