A Few S'more For You

A few weeks ago I did a post about the various s'mores creations we've been sent. I told you that there were a ton of s'more submissions and that there were too many to use in just one post and that I'd have to do "s'more" posts on these delectable disasters. Well, today you finally get the sequel to that post. Are you excited for s'more s'mores? I am. 

Original Pin #1:

http://www.bakedperfection.com/2008/07/smore-cookie-bars.html

That looks gooey and super yummy. Deirdre said, "They look amazing and even though I may not be the best baker I thought I could manage this..."

Pinstrosity #1:

"It seems that their are a whole host of problems here...maybe the whole extra stick of butter that she added when I wasn't looking, or not enough graham crust...I don't know! It was a definite 4 on the GCT...tasted o.k. except the marshmallow ends as they could take out a tooth...oops!!"

A whole extra stick of butter would make a difference. Baking with kids has its hazards, lol. 

Original Pin #2:

http://smells-like-home.com/2012/05/giant-smores-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/

It's a s'more in a cookie! MMMMMmmmm. Betsy found out the perils of substituting in pre-made store bought dough rather than mixing up the recipe:

Pinstrosity #2:

Jennifer actually learned the same lesson with her s'more stuffed cookies. She and her friends decided to have a Pinterest day and try out a bunch of pins. They used the same s'more stuffed cookie pin above and ended up with this (we don't know if she used pre-made dough or if they made their own):

Pinstrosity #3:

Oops. With these stuffed cookie recipes, you really do need to mix the dough from scratch. No pre-made chilled dough. 

There were 3 other s'more submissions, but they either sent us to "their blog" which was private and we couldn't access their submission, or they forgot to send a photo. Sad day. But, since the last s'more post, we did have a submission by Katie testing out one of the s'mores Pinstrosities we posted. I give you Katie's story:

Original Pin:

http://www.theaprongal.com/2011/11/baked-smores.html

I was reading your blog the other day, my young daughter playing nearby. I came across the s’mores recipes and chuckled. I’ve suffered through a few bad s’more concoctions, so I knew these were probably going to turn out awful. Then, I felt a presence at my elbow.

“I want to make that.”

My daughter had spied the baked s’mores recipe (the pin, of course, and not the pinstrosity). “Uh… How about we just make s’mores?”

“No. I want that. The s’more cake.”

“Look, it didn't turn out like that. Look at her cake!”

“But you can bake anything!”

“But..”

“And we never cook anything together!”

I swear, my five-year-old is a judo master at manipulating emotions. I signed, and we bought the ingredients.

Here’s my take:

• The trick to marshmallow fluff? Two implements and a bowl of hot water. I’d dole out a large spoonful of fluff on the bars, using a spatula to get it off the spoon. Once the bars were mostly covered, I used a spatula to even the layer out.
• There is nowhere near enough dough in that recipe to fill a larger dish, top and bottom. No way. I portioned it exactly, and ran out when I did the top layer.
• I don’t know what witchcraft that blogger did to make the bag trick work, but once I opened the bag, I couldn't peel the dough off to save my life.
• I ended up taking small, grape-sized balls of dough, gently patting them between my fingers until they were flat, then smoosh it into the fluff. Note that if you let the fluff air dry for ten minutes, this is much easier.

My kids each had a bar each, and they were okay with it. I thought it was okay, too, but an actual s’more is better. I covered the bars and decided I’d toss the lot out in the morning.

That morning, I was hungry, so, being excellent at adulting, I decided to have a s’more bar for breakfast. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. It was fabulous! The chocolate was soft, the marshmallow later had this almost-melty texture, and the crust was salty and an awesome contrast. Best eaten right after baking my aunt Fanny! It was way better the next day!

Also, want to know how they got that awesome picture? The bars were cool. Attached is my picture of my bar, awesomely plated.

I'm not sure where I'd put this on the toast scale, but I'd say a one. I made it work, even with running out of dough, and it was way better when I had it cold, which the original bloggers insisted wasn't nearly as good warm. In the future, I'd double the dough, and skip trying to roll the dough out. Smooshing it into the fluff seemed to work just fine.

Katie's S'mores Bars:

Katie, I'm excellent at adulting too (new verb for my vocabulary...I'm so going to start using that, lol). We could be awesome breakfast buddies. My favorite breakfasts? Cold apple pie. Leftover cookies. Cheesecake. Cold pizza. I'm super healthy as you can see. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day...I just find it important to start out with happy food. Happy food=happy day...right?