Last month I ate what was arguably the best S’more ever. It was made by Charles’ Chocolates, using freshly made marshmallows and graham crackers and high-quality dark chocolate. With the last bite, I knew I would have to make them myself.
It turned out to be much easier than I had expected, finding Chuck Siegel’s recipes for both the crackers and marshmallows online; I found many other recipes for them as well. I decided to make two recipes for each and pick my favorite.
For the crackers I stuck with Chuck Siegel. The other recipe actually produced something closer to a boxed graham cracker, but I found the dough hard to work with and very prone to over-browning in a matter of seconds. Siegel’s recipe is a bit richer than a traditional graham, but the flavor is right on and the dough is forgiving.
When it came to the marshmallows I didn’t stick with Siegel—his were nicely flavored and had a good texture, but a recipe I used years ago—and rediscovered at Smitten Kitchen—was just that much better. I’m going to post both recipes and you can choose which you prefer.
The chocolate is up to you and those you are serving. Some people like the traditional, sweeter milk chocolate, while others like the more intense flavor of dark. I tried it both ways and interestingly, while I do not like milk chocolate for eating out-of-hand I did like it on the S’more, but the dark chocolate was very good as well.
Before we get to the recipes I should give my brief story behind the Graham cracker. They are made with a specific type of whole wheat flour—Graham flour. To make this flour, the germ, bran and endosperm are separated, ground, then recombined.
Each part is ground to a different texture so the end result is different than standard whole wheat flour where all parts are ground at once. The flour was created by Dr. Sylvester Graham who promoted a diet rich in vegetables and grains, and abstaining from things that he considered damaging to both body and soul, such as sex.
It’s funny to think that over a century ago a man created graham crackers in an effort to curb libido, and today we eat them as part of a S’more, licking melted marshmallow and chocolate from our fingers with total abandon and complete satisfaction. Sorry, Dr. Graham, but thanks so someone ingenious your crackers have become sexy eating.
To make the actual S’mores, you will need (per s’more) 2 crackers, 1 marshmallow, and about 1/2 ounce chocolate. You can increase the chocolate but it becomes too messy to even be manageable.
Graham Crackers
If you cannot find graham flour, any whole wheat flour will work fine in this recipe.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 generous tablespoon honey
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (unbleached or not)
1 cup graham flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Combine the butter, sugars and honey in a mixer or food processor and mix until soft and fluffy. Combine flours with the salt, baking soda and cinnamon and add to the butter mixture; mixing until well combined. The dough can be used now or wrapped well in plastic and chilled (or even frozen) until you are ready to form the crackers.
If you chilled the dough, allow it to sit at room temperature for an hour or so to make it easier to work with. Divide it in half. Roll one half on a well-floured surface to a thickness of 1/8- to 1/4-inch. If it is thinner, the crackers will be very crisp, while if it’s thicker, it will be crisp at the edge and chewier towards the center. The dough tends to crack while rolling, but if the surface is well floured, you can easily push it back together.
I cut my crackers out using a 2-inch cutter which gave me a traditional half-cracker look; you can make them larger as seen in the first photo, or any size you might prefer. Transfer the crackers with a spatula to baking sheets covered with foil or parchment and place in the refrigerator while you roll the remaining dough.
After rolling the second half of the dough, gather the scraps from both, re-roll and cut again. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Using a skewer or toothpick, poke holes in the crackers and use the back of a knife to make the score in the center if you like (be sure you just sort of make a scratch in the dough or it’ll break too easily). Bake the crackers until they are golden brown, a bit crackly on top, and they feel dry and a bit resistant if you gently press on them, about 10 minutes.
Cool on racks.
This will make approximately 2 dozen crackers depending on size.
Note: If you like, you can sprinkle the crackers lightly before baking with sugar combined with a pinch of cinnamon.
Marshmallow #1
This is the recipe I liked best, but it’s more work. Place the un-cracked eggs in a bowl, cover with boiling water and let stand 15 seconds before you crack them to make sure anything nasty on the outside doesn’t contaminate the inside.
Vegetable oil
About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch baking pan (line it with foil or parchment if it’s a glass pan) and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.
In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over cold water and let stand to soften.
In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, hot water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F., about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.
With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about 6 minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. Do not try to clean the sides of the bowl as you would when you mix a batter, you’ll end up with a sticky mess.
In a large bowl with cleaned beaters beat whites until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and sift 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day.
Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up 1 corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and let drop onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow, with a knife, pizza cutter or cookie cutter into roughly 1 1/2-inch cubes. Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar into a large bowl and add marshmallows in batches, tossing to evenly coat. Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.
Makes about 6 dozen marshmallows
Marshmallow #2
Made as directed this will yield 9 enormous marshmallows. I cut them into squares of about 1 1/2-inches so they were in scale to my smaller graham crackers, and ended up with about 3 dozen.
3 envelopes unflavored gelatin, such as Knox
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dredging
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Let rest for 10 minutes.
Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and let cook for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla and incorporate into mixture.
Scrape into a 9-by-9-inch pan lined with oiled plastic wrap and spread evenly. (Note: Lightly oil hands and spatula or bowl scraper.) After pouring marshmallow mixture into the pan, take another piece of plastic wrap and press mixture into the pan.
Let mixture sit for a few hours. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with powdered sugar, and cut into nine 3-inch-square pieces with kitchen scissors or a very sharp knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in powdered sugar.
1 Comment
July 16, 2009 at 1:51 am
I find it interesting that you, too, preferred the milk chocolate on the S’mores.
I think I’m going to try making both of these items.