Inside Out S’mores

This month for the Secret Recipe Club I was given the honor of choosing a recipe from Hoosier Homemade. There are so many wonderful recipes on Liz’s site that it was really difficult to choose just one. Then I saw her recipe for Peanut Butter S’mores.  The S’mores reminded me that I was itching to try Smashing S’mores from How Sweet It Is. What a great way to kill 2 birds with one stone!

Jessica at How Sweet It Is copied adapted these after Trader Joe’s Smashing S’mores and I stole adapted them from Jessica.

These are so simple and so yummy! You can make as many or as few as you want so they can be perfect for a quick snack or dessert in a pinch.

All you need are:

• marshmallows
• graham crackers
• chocolate chips or bar chocolate, melted

I burnt roasted the marshmallows a little bit first. I like the toasty flavor marshmallows get when roasted a bit. Once roasted let cook completely.

Melt a small bowl of chocolate to use as the glue to hold everything together.

Break graham crackers into fours, then cut or snap each plank into squares. Use a small dab of chocolate to glue the squares together. Add one dab on top of the top graham cracker and press the marshmallow on top. Let the stacks sit for 30-60 minutes or until the graham crackers and marshmallows are stuck together.

Melt more chocolate in a deep glass bowl or mug to make it easy for dipping. Using a thin fork or long pointy tool press it into the top of the marshmallow gently. Dip it in the chocolate and cover as much as you can. I sat my stacks on a fork and drizzled the chocolate over the top. Remove and set on wax paper, leaving until the chocolate is hardened.

I stored mine in the fridge but they are fine at room temperature too! While the chocolate is still wet you can add sprinkles to the top, some crushed graham crackers or chopped nuts.

Sour Cherry Streusel Cake

This recipe was shared with me many, many moons ago by one of my pals at Nigella’s Kitchen Forum.

This cake also happens to be my son’s favorite sweet comfort food. It is one of two sweet things my son will request – the other being my kitchen sink oatmeal cookies. The cake is light and delicate with sour cherries and a crispy, buttery streusel topping.

It doesn’t ship well.

My making this can only mean one thing – VISITING WEEKEND AT CAMP! I cannot wait to put my arms around that skinny boy. I know. I know. He’s a man – HA. He’s 21. He’s my baby. I don’t care if he’s 51. He’s my baby.

Enough filler. Let’s get back to our regularly scheduled cake.

Although the recipe is originally called Platz (Mennonite Streusel Cake), it came to me as Sour Cherry Streusel Cake and that is how it shall forever be known. The recipe comes from Johanna Burkhard’s 400 best Comfort Foods.

And besides, if I had told my family that their now beloved Sour Cherry Streusel Cake was actually called Platz, I don’t think they would have been quite so quick to love it! And until I bought the book, I would never have thought to make this with other fruit! I think it was more of a sour cherries – yum – what could be better than that! The book recommends cherries or apricots. I’m thinking blueberries!

And I wait patiently every year until late spring/early summer for the sour cherry crop to be ready. And sometimes I miss it.

I was very lucky this year, and came across some at the Farmer’s Market in Union Square Park. I pitted all of them and put some in the freezer for use later in the season. Did I mention I love my cherry pitter? Well I do! Not as much splattering and the fruit doesn’t get too damaged in the process.

Cake:

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C granulated sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/3 C butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 C half-and-half or light cream
• 1 1/2 t vanilla extract or grated lemon zest
• 4 C pitted, drained sour cherries or other seasonal sliced fruits

Crumb Topping

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 1/2 C butter, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or fork to make coarse crumbs.

Beat egg in a bowl; stir in cream and vanilla. Stir into flour mixture to make a thick batter.

Drop small spoonfuls of batter into a generously greased 13 x 9-inch cake pan and spread evenly.

Top with cherries in a single layer.

Combine flour and brown sugar in a bowl. Cut in butter using a pastry blender or fork to make coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle evenly over fruit. Bake on middle rack in oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is golden.

Place pan on a rack and let cool. Cut into squares and serve.

Makes 12 squares

NOTE: In a dash of occasional madness, I have been known to add almond paste (1/2 a tube) to the cake batter and a little almond extract (1/2 teaspoon). And to incite further frivolity in my house I have made 1 1/2 times the streusel topping!

And just coz I know you want it – one me peek at the cake …

Sugar Cookie Bars

As many of you know, my darling son does not dorm at scollege. It was his choice. He has been heard saying – though of course not to me, lest he need to give up any of that ANGST – he likes his home, his parents and his mother’s cooking and care, so why would he sleep in a dorm 10 miles away.

He does, however, work at a performing arts camp from June 1st to August 31st as music staff (Tommy is a musician – bass trombone in case anyone out there needs a music teacher or musician for some reason!) and bunk counselor. Doesn’t pay exorbitantly well. The weather is spotty until mid-July. The work is hard. The food is terrible. My husband and I go up on visiting weekends and if that food is their best foot forward for the parents – MYOHMYOHMY what are they feeding my baby!?

That being said, he has a wonderful time. He loves his campers. He teaches music lessons. He plays some fantastic music. And, being it’s a performing arts camp, he has played in the pit orchestras of some amazing shows. The first amateur production of Hairspray anywhere. West Side Story using Leonard Bernstein’s original manuscript.

He always comes back from camp having lost at least 10 pounds and a list of dinners he wants as soon as humanly possible. Now, at 6’1″ and 130 pounds soaking wet, that’s a skinny boy every day, it is a scary skinny kid in August.

So, when he calls and says – PLEEEEEASE, Mommy (I am Mommy when he wants something), send cookies. I hear that voice asking me for cookies and I see this little boy to the left. I know, I know, he’s 21 and doesn’t look that way, but don’t we all see them as sweet little children? I picture him wasting away to nothing. To the right, that’s what he looks like now. Cute, ain’t he?

What is a mother to do? Bake! That’s what a mother does! Bake and mail. Bake and mail. Bake and mail. But these have to be cookies that travel well. These have to be cookies with no chocolate – with the exception of a few chips here and there. Did I mention MY son hates chocolate?  There can be no nuts whatsoever in the cookies – the camp has a strict no nut policy.

AND – AND – there are cookies for Tommy, and Tommy’s 2 best friends, and a little bribe for the mailroom folks. They are supposed to open every package and take out items that are verboten. It’s amazing what a bribe of sugar and flour will do!

I asked my Facebook buddies for suggestions and got some really good ones that will be making their way to camp this summer, but I suddenly started seeing these sugar cookie bars everywhere. They looked amazing and the recipe bakes on a half sheet pan so it makes a LOT of cookies. I traced the cookies back to Anissa’s Kitchen. Thank you!

Usually they are frosted, but frosting would not work for these. I thought it would be a terrible mess in the mail. I personally love sugar cookies with sanding sugar on top. Sanding sugar would be perfect for mailing. Sanding sugar it is!

You use a half sheet pan. Cookies/bars are as large or small as you choose to make them!  These are REALLY good and very easy to make.

• 1 C butter; room temp.
• 2 C sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 5 C flour
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda

 

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl and mixing after each egg. Add vanilla and mix. Add in flour mixture and mix just until combined.

Spread on a greased 13×8 baking sheet (a half sheet pan).

If you are using sanding sugar, sprinkle top of cookie

Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min, until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely and cut.