I'll have s'more, please.

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I was able to spend some time in the kitchen yesterday making vanilla bean marshmallows and graham crackers which were destined to become some seriously delicious s'mores. I shared my desire to make these last week after I had been drooling over the homemade graham crackers that Shauna of Piece of Cake made back in February. Shauna's graham cracker recipe is a bit different than your typical graham cracker. I would describe them as having an almost shortbread texture and flavor but, with the use of brown sugar, honey, cinnamon and bit of whole wheat flour, have a much deeper flavor. Rolled thin and baked crisp, these graham crackers have a great "snap" when bitten into and a hardier texture than the fragile store-bought variety.

I made vanilla bean marshmallows, a variation on the usual Martha recipe I always use, to pair with the graham crackers. I decided to cut mine into little rounds to mimic the darling marshmallows at Miette. To toast the marshmallows for the s'mores, I pierced mine with a bamboo skewer and toasted them right over the flame on my gas stove. I have a feeling they could just as easily be toasted over the flame of a candle. How cute would it be to have some friends over to watch your favorite show and make s'mores over a big pillar candle? Can you imagine?! The graham crackers and marshmallows could also be packaged together with a bar of chocolate, a few bamboo skewers and a candle for the sweetest gift ever. Yum!

Homemade Graham Crackers
Adapted from Miette Patisserie, San Francisco via Piece of Cake

The key to getting the crispiest cookies with an awesome "snap" is to roll the dough very thin--try for as close to 1/8 of an inch as you can. This is a very buttery, soft dough--be sure to chill it completely before rolling and then again chilling the cut cookies well before baking them, otherwise they will be maddeningly difficult to work with and will spread during baking.

Makes about 4 dozen 2 1/2-inch cookies*

2 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar**
1/4 cup honey
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Position an oven rack to the center position and preheat it to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Whisk together flour, wheat flour, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and brown sugar, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, and beat in the honey. Stir in dry ingredients on low speed. Scrape the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat it into a disc, wrap well. Refrigerate until firm but still pliable, about one hour.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out very thin, about an 1/8-inch thick (you can gather the dough scraps and reroll as necessary). Cut out cookies with a 2 to 3-inch cookie cutter and place on the prepared baking sheets, a dozen per sheet. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar if desired. Chill the cut cookies on the sheets for at least 15 minutes before baking. Bake 14 to 16 minutes until golden. Let the cookies set for a minute before transferring them to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for a week or more.

*I use a 2 1/4-inch scalloped cutter and got about 60 cookies.
**I used light brown sugar as my dark brown had turned all dry and crumbly.

Vanilla Bean Marshmallows
adapted from Martha Stewart

makes about 40 marshmallows*

2 1/2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin (3 packages)
1 cup cold water, divided
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or seeds of 1 vanilla bean

Combine gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer with whisk attachment. Let stand while you make the syrup mixture.

Combine granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small heavy saucepan; place over low heat, and stir until sugar has dissolved. Wash down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to dissolve sugar crystals.

Clip on a candy thermometer; raise heat to high. Cook syrup without stirring until it reaches 244 degrees.(firm-ball stage). Immediately remove pan from heat.

With mixer on low speed, slowly and carefully pour syrup into the softened gelatin. Increase speed to high; beat until mixture is very thick and white and has almost tripled in volume, about 15 minutes. Add vanillas; beat to incorporate.

Grease and generously dust a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with confectioners’ sugar. Pour marshmallow mixture into pan, spreading it into corners and smoothing the surface. Dust with confectioners’ sugar; let stand at least 4 hours or up to overnight, uncovered, to dry out. Turn out onto a board; cut marshmallows with a dry hot knife into 1 1/2-inch squares, and dust with more confectioners' sugar. Store in an air tight container for a week or more.

*I cut mine using a 1 1/2-inch cutter and got 54 round marshmallows plus scraps for snacking.

On the Front Page of All Recipes Again!

Click to enlarge.

My Oreo Truffles were voted the one of the Favorite Photos on All Recipes today! It's so neat to see your photo and creation on the front page of a website that isn't of your own creation. This happened once before back in November after I made the Halloween Spiderweb Cookies. It's such a small, fleeting thing but it brightens my day!

My Truffles

Click photos to view larger.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was up until 4am last night making some darling Oreo and Nutter Butter Truffles for the hubby to take for a Pi Day celebration in his History of Mathematics class. Now you're probably thinking I'm crazy for staying up so late for some truffles, but after spending the past four days working on taxes, I needed a break. My way of relaxing and letting my hair down, so to speak, is to enjoy some alone time in the kitchen making something cute. These truffles were therapy. Delicious, adorable therapy.

And, yes, I do feel better now. Thank you for asking. :)

The innards of a Nutter Butter Truffle are simple and modest and absolutely delish. Ground Nutter Butter cookies are mixed with cream cheese and rolled into perfect little balls (or really any shape you desire). I dipped mine in chocolate bark, because you cannot go wrong when peanut butter and chocolate meet.

I decorated them with pale orange flowers which I handmade from gum paste. The coated truffles also got a little decoration with melted and piped orange candy melts and almond bark. I really like the soft springy orange contrasted against the warm brown. It's pale and feminine and lovely for spring.

I was tired by the time I got around to piping the details and didn't take my time so they were a bit messy. I didn't get too creative with these; I mostly just repeated a few different designs. Some truffles were given a simple striped decoration, others were given cute little spirals. I love the little guy in the front--kind of reminds me of plaid.

My Wilton gum paste gave me some trouble with the flowers. I find the premade gum paste to be quite dry and difficult to work with. I am never able to really manipulate my flowers any after they are cut. And darling roses are out of the question. Since I don't have much experience with gum paste I don't know if I got a particularly old/dry bag of gum paste or what. I'm planning to try making my own gum paste from scratch soon for comparison. I'd love to just sit down at the table on a lazy Saturday and listen to music and make gum paste flowers all day long!

Now friends, this deep, dark ball of gorgeousness is an Oreo Truffle. So good you would think you'd died and gone to heaven. So so so good!

The Oreo Truffles got coated in almond bark and decorated with pink candy melts and pale purple gum paste flowers which I gave a bit of shimmer to by painting them with edible luster dust. If you click on the photo, you may notice a little shimmer on the front truffle there. I left a couple of the truffles plain and added a bit of sparkle to their white exteriors. A little subtle fanciness, you might say.

While I loved the soft, girly colors of the Oreo Truffles, I was definitely more fond of the color and contrast of the Nutter Butter Truffles. These feel a bit one-dimensional next to the other truffles.

Still cute though. And oh so yummy! Mmmm... so yummy! It's a good thing I only saved one of each as a sacrifice (i.e. to be cut in half for photographic purposes). One of the hubby's classmates claimed, "These have changed my life forever!" They may be simple and a breeze to make, but these truffles are seriously good eats.