S'mores Cookies

The Girl Scouts have two versions of S'mores cookies.  My area gets the bars.  They're like graham flavored shortbreads with a filling of chocolate on one half and marshmallow on the other.  The other kind is more like a Chips Ahoy with marshmallows in it.  Either way, they're not what I had in mind.

What I found online was a plethora of recipes.  The prevailing version is like a Tollhouse with crushed graham crackers in the batter and the addition of chopped up Hershey bars and mini marshmallows on top.  That's what I wanted.

I opted for the recipe on a YouTube channel, SweetTreats.  It seemed to fix a couple of the problems on a different recipe I was considering, primarily by lowering the baking temperature and proportion of sugar.  The graham crackers already have some sugar in them, plus they decrease the gluten development of the cookie.  Too much added sugar will make them spread out and burn.  The other recipe did try to minimize that problem with cornstarch, but leaving out 2 Tb of white sugar does it just as easily.

I made my cookies slightly smaller than the 1oz ones in the video, so my half-batch would make a dozen.  They are still a lot larger than I would normally make.  You could easily get two dozen smaller cookies out of this and still have space to dot each one with marshmallow and Hershey bits.  It will cut the baking time down from 12 minutes to 8.

1/2 C (1 stick) margarine
6 Tb brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 C flour
1/2 C crushed graham crackers (about 3 whole sheets)
1/4 C mini marshmallows, plus more for the top
1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips
1 Hershey bar, broken into small bits

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or a baking mat.  Do two if you want to make more, smaller cookies.  This is non-negotiable.  The marshmallows will melt onto a metal pan, even a nonstick one.

2.  Cream together margarine and both sugars.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.  While that's going on, crush the graham crackers in a ziplock bag.  It's the easiest way to do it without adding more dishes.

3.  Stir graham, flour, and baking soda into butter mixture until it makes an even batter.  Stir in 1/4 C marshmallows and the chocolate chips.

4.  Portion batter onto prepared baking sheet, then dot mounds with more marshmallows and the Hershey bits.  Put them near the middle of the mound, or they'll slide off the side when the cookie spreads out.  The brand of marshmallow you use does seem to make a difference.  I used the store brand, and most of them melted.  SweetTreats used Kraft; it looks like most of hers were intact.  Interestingly, you could still read "Hershey's" on the chocolate bar pieces after baking.

5.  Bake 12 minutes (8 for a 2-dozen yield), until edges are golden but middles are still soft.  Allow to cool on pan 5 minutes before removing to a baking rack.  Try not to let them cool all the way on the baking tray, or any melted marshmallow will get harder to remove.

Makes one dozen

Difficulty rating  π