Take a Megabite

Julienne’s Graham Cracker Chewy Bars

Gravel roads remind me of graham cracker crumbs. My childhood best friend called her grandma “grammy” and it reminded me of graham crackers. Once I ate a store-bought graham cracker crust  standing in my mom’s pantry… and loved it.

I’ve always loved graham crackers so I knew I’d love this recipe since it has way more graham cracker crumbs in the ingredients than anything else.

Side-note: one of the eggs I used had freckles. This isn’t a recipe requirement, but it might make your bars extra good.

I used up most of my brown sugar and all of my fancy vanilla. (I didn’t run out of my kosher salt, but it just wanted to be in the picture too.) This would’ve made me crabby except that I now have graham cracker chewy bars that are dangerously good.

Julienne’s Graham Cracker Chewy Bars
Recipe adapted from Celebrating with Julienne via The LA Times

Ingredients:

crust -

• 3 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3/4 cup ( 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 T all-purpose flour

topping -

• 2 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 3/4 t salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup chopped pecans or chocolate chips (I used chocolate chips because I had them on hand.)
• powdered sugar, if desired

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar and flour until moist and well-blended. Press the mixture firmly and evenly over the bottom of a 9 x13 inch baking dish. (Feel free to line the baking dish with foil and spray it, like I did. I just wanted them to be super easy to remove and cut later on.) Bake until the crust is golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. While the crust is baking, in a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and eggs to blend. Whisk in the graham cracker crumbs, vanilla, salt and baking powder until well-blened. Stir in the pecans or chocolate chips.
3. Spread the mixture over the baked crust and return to the 350-degree oven until the filling is light-golden on top and jiggles slightly when tapped, 20-25 minute. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and cool completely.
4. Sprinkle a light coating of sifted powdered sugar over the pan if desired, and cut into 24 bars. The bars can be made 1 day in advance. Wrap in plastic and keep at room temperature.

The crust was supposed to be more crusty and the top more chewy…
Mine turned out all chewy. I’m ok with it.

Strawberry Ricotta Graham Tartlets

I’m looking forward to moving, because I know for a fact that there will natural light promised in the lease. I also can’t wait to have a yard that doesn’t back up to mean growly dogs that want to eat Elliot.

When I envision my future home, I imagine white walls, a white oven and windows Elliot can see out of without standing on the back of the couch … and preferably a huge tupperware of these mini tarts in the fridge.

These are cheesecake-ish mini tarts … also known as a cookie stacker … also known as delicious. I’m totally down with ricotta being dessert-y. And as you’ve probably noticed, I’m always down with a dessert involving strawberries. Did you know there’s lemon in these? Oh yeah. Zest in the ricotta + juice in the berries.

And I can just say, that I’m glad to have some strawberries leftover? I’d like to put them on my yogurt and ice cream, please. Would that be an ok dinner? When it’s really hot out, is that kind of thing allowed?

Strawberry Ricotta Graham Tartlets
Recipe adapted from Food & Wine via Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

graham cookies -

• 1 cup + 2 T all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 cup graham flour, or whole wheat if you can’t find graham
• 3/4 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• pinch of ground cloves
• 8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 T light brown sugar
• 2 T granulated sugar
• 2 T honey
• 1 1/2 t molasses, you can just use more honey if you don’t want to use molasses

strawberry goodness -

• 3/4 pound strawberries, thinly sliced
• 3 T granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 T fresh lemon juice

ricotta mixture -

• 1 1/4 cups ricotta (10 oz.), fresh if you can find it, or a full-fat store-bought
• 2 T confectioners’ sugar
• 1 t finely grated lemon zest

Directions:

1. Make grahams. In a bowl, whisk both flours with the cinnamon, salt and cloves. Beat the butter, light brown sugar and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar at medium speed on an electric mixer until fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the honey and molasses, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the side of the bowl and beat in the flour mixture at low speed, just until incorporated. Pat the dough into a disk, cover with plastic and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.
2. Preheat ove to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick. Using  a 1 1/2 inch round cutter (or a larger cutter of your choice) stamp out your bases (about 45 minis). Reroll the dough scraps as necessary. Transfer the grahams to the baking sheets and bake for about 9 minutes (12ish minutes for 3 1/2 inch cookies), or until lightly golden around the edges. Let cool on the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer the grahams to racks to cool completely.
3. Make toppings. In a bowl, toss the strawberries with 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar and lemon juice. Let stand until syrupy, 20 minutes, or overnight. In a medium bowl mix the ricotta, confectioners’ sugar and lemon zest with an electric mixer. Cover both and refrigerate until time to assemble.
4. Assemble tartlets. Divide ricotta mixture between all the graham bases. Arrange strawberries over the ricotta, drizzle with syrup and serve.

P.S. Just know that with these little (1 1/2 inch) tarts, you might only need half of the ricotta + strawberry mixtures, since so little fits on the teeny 1 1/2 inch cookies. If you make the graham cracker bases a bigger size, you’ll be all set since you can just be so generous with the topping.

Do ahead: The grahams will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Ricotta mixture will last only for a day or two if fresh, or up to a week from packaged ricotta. Strawberry mixture will keep for a few days, but tastes amazing on everything so probably won’t last that long in real life.

Just the tall-drink-of-water of the cookie world.

S’mores Icebox Candy Bars {No-Bake}

Ok. Arm yourself with a microwave and make these candy bars and pass them out to anyone and everyone that knows that s’mores are where it’s at. These will bring your kitchen and belly all kinds of no-bake love.

Repair guys don’t bother repairing things on weekends. What’s up with that? I’m crossing my fingers that today is the day that the repair guy will fix my oven, but until then, make these super simple and super good s’mores bars.

This is what was happening during the “let chocolate mixture cool for 5 minutes” part.

Smoosh! Smoosh that candy bar!

That’s just a pep talk for that spoon down there.

S’mores Icebox Candy Bars {No-Bake}
Recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook + Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a 14 oz. box graham crackers, lightly crumbled
• 2 big handfuls mini marshmallows + a few for sprinkling on top
• 1 stick + 6 T unsalted butter
• heaping 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• heaping 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• teeny pinch of salt
• small handful of chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

1. Line an 8×8 inch square baking dish with parchment paper, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, crumble the graham crackers into large chunks. Add two handfuls of mini marshmallows and set aside.
3. In a small microwave-safe bowl melt the butter together with the cocoa power, corn syrup and salt in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Once melted, let chocolate mixture cool for 5 minutes.
4. Pour chocolate mixture over graham crackers and marshmallows. Stir until all of the graham crackers are moistened by the chocolate mixture. Dump into lined baking dish, sprinkle with marshmallows and chocolate chips and press down with the back of a spoon. Cover the top with another sheet of parchment paper and press with your fingers. Allow to cool on the counter for 30 minutes, then place in the fridge to solidify for a few hours or overnight. Cut into bars. Wrap individually and store in the fridge.

Makes about 16 candy bars.

An oven-less s’mores miracle, up-close and personal.

S’mores Cupcakes

These cupcakes are a honey graham delight, topped with chocolate ganache and then twirly swirled with marshmallow frosting. They’re so downright fantastic they’re wrong.

But if these cupcakes are wrong, I don’t want to be right.

These cupcakes are a bit messy, but Jake says it’s how they are supposed to be since real s’mores are messy. And Jake knows a thing or two about snacks and s’mores.

The original recipes makes 24 regular cupcakes. I made a half recipe and it made 24 mini cupcakes and 6 regular cupcakes.

The halved recipe is below.

S’mores Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

cupcakes -

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• scant 3/4 cup graham flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 3/4 t salt
• 3/4 t cinnamon
• 10 T (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 T honey
• 3 eggs
• 1 t pure vanilla extract

chocolate ganache -

• 3 ounces semisweet chocolate*, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 t light corn syrup

* I used milk chocolate, and it was very runny, so I’d recommend using the semisweet and allowing it to thicken and cool before topping the cupcakes. Maybe top with the marshmallow with a little milk chocolate wedge, if you’re feeling like getting hershey with it.

marshmallow frosting -

• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (scant 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 cup sugar
• candy thermometer

Directions:

1. Make cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line standard or mini muffin tins with paper liners (12 regular or 6 regular and 24 minis). Whisk together both flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, cream the butter, brown sugar and honey until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium; beat in eggs and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tins half way through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 25 minutes for regular cupcakes and about 11 minutes for minis. Transfer cupcakes to wire rack and cool completely. (If you want to wait until the following day to top the cupcakes simply store them in an airtight container until the next day.)
4. Make ganache. Place chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Meanwhile bring cream and corn syrup to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium high heat; pour mixture over chocolate. Let stand until chocolate starts to melt. Gently stir the chocolate into the cream until smooth and no lumps remain. Allow to cool and thicken. Divid the ganache over the top of all the cupcakes. Allow to set.
5. Make marshmallow frosting. In a mixing bowl, sprinkle gelatin over 1/3 cup cold water. Allow gelatin to soften, about 5 minutes.
6. Heat remaining 1/4 cup of water and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved and there’s no crunch when you press the spoon into the mixture. Stop stirring. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and boil syrup until temperature reaches the soft-ball stage (238 degrees F). Remove from heat and add syrup to softened gelatin. Whisk mixture by hand to cool, about 1 minute. Then use an electric miser to whisk on medium-high speed until soft and glossy (but not dry) peaks form, 8-10 minutes. Use immediately. Marshmallow will harden.

P.S. Use your handy kitchen torch to toast the marshmallow frosting. I was pretty excited to do this part!

Honey Graham Pound Cakes with Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

Last year my Thanksgiving contribution was to drive a smooshed pumpkin roll six hours to my sister’s house. Not this year though. Because this time tomorrow I’ll be in Minnesota hanging out with my parents. My mom and I will be going over the Thanksgiving dinner menu and Wednesday will consist of cooking and prepping.

I decided to channel my excitement for Thursday by making these delicious s’more’eque pound cakes.

S’mores are on my mind often as the ideal flavor combo for a dessert. I think about that magical menage a tois of graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallow. So here you go! A remix of that childhood favorite. Maybe coming up I’ll make a pie and then brownies expressing s’more love yet again.

Honey Graham Pound Cakes (makes 4 mini loaves)
Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups graham flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (12 T) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 4 mini loaf pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the graham flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, whip the butter, sugar and honey at a medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute after each addition. Scrape the bowl as needed. Add the dry mixture and buttermilk in three additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is evenly incorporated.
4. Transfer the batter to the 4 prepared mini loaf pans. Smooth the top and bake for 25-30 minutes turning half way through baking. Remove from the oven when a thin knife comes out clean when inserted in the center and cake is golden brown.
5. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now make the frosting!

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting
Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 large marshmallows
• 4 T (1/2 stick) butter
• 1/3 cup milk

Directions:

1. Sift the sugar and cocoa powder together into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Place marshmallows, butter and milk in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Stir until the marshmallows are melted, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and pour over the sugar and cocoa powder mixture. Stir until smooth, satiny and combined.
3. Frost the tops of your mostly warm honey graham cakes!
4. Slice and eat, chasing with a cool glass of milk.

Graham Crackers

You look kinda hungry. I think you need a snack.
Perhaps you should eat some graham crackers dunked in milk.
Yeah, you most definitely should.

These guys stand up to milk like champs. You can dunk them to your hearts content without getting stressed out that they’ll break.
Who knew these were possible?

This recipe makes approximately 36 (2 1/2 inch) squares of honey graham goodness.

Graham Crackers
Recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 4 T (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 6 T sugar
• 4 T honey
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 2 t water
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 1/2 cups graham flour
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine the butter, egg and sugar in a medium bowl, and beat until smooth and creamy. Stir in the honey and blend.
3. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the butter mixture. Add the salt, graham flour and all purpose flour to the mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough should hold together and be manageable. If it is too “tacky” add a little more graham flour.
4. Liberally dust a surface with graham flour and roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Cut into 2 1/2 inch square sections. (I cut a piece of parchment paper into a 2 1/2 inch square for measuring purposes.)
5. Using a spatula, place the cracker squares onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheets. With a knife gently score the dough in the center of each square without cutting through. Prick each square a few times with the tines of a fork on each side of the scored cracker.
6. Bake on the first side for 8 minutes, then turn the crackers over and bake for 6-7 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on racks.

I gobbled up a few promptly after they came out of the oven. Fannie Farmer describes them as “flavorful and fresh”. She wasn’t kidding. She’s not a prankster.