Making s'more cookies

I love s'mores, but we don't often have a fire pit and don't have a working fireplace to do them often. 

We found a way to make yummy smores in cookie form!

 First, you make the graham cookie base.  Then layer on halved marshmallows and bake for a bit.

 The marshmallows get brown and toasty.

 Then add on the chocolate and bake to slightly melt the chocolate.

These cookies were a HUGE hit with the kids!

 I think they would be awesome with peanut butter (which is what the recipe called for), but we substituted JIF almond butter because of C's peanut allergy, and they came out just fine.

S’more Cookies

Makes 4 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup flour

¾ cup fine graham cracker crumbs

½ tsp baking soda

¼  tsp salt

1 stick butter, softened

½ cup creamy peanut butter OR JIF brand almond butter

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

24 large marshmallows, halved

8 hershey chocolate bars, broken into their small rectangular pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Cream butter, peanut butter/almond butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl.  Mix with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Beat in egg and vanilla until incorporated.

Scoop dough (about 1 Tbsp worth) onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Be careful not to make the scoops too big.  Bake cookies 5 – 6 minutes.

Take out and put marshmallows on top of each cookie. Bake for 2 more minutes.  Turn the oven to broil and bake for 60 – 90 seconds, CAREFULLY watching so they don’t burn because they go from being white to burnt VERY quickly. .  Take out and turn oven back to 375. (This is important!)  Put 1 – 2 mini rectangles of chocolate on top of the marshmallows.  Bake 2 – 3 more minutes to finish off cookie.  Let set on the pan for a good 4 -5  minutes .  (If you try to remove them right away, the center is too soft and will break.) 

Making a cardboard castle with mini flags.

Take several cereal boxes, cut one side open and then tape back together inside out (so the brown cardboard inside shows on the outside.). You can cut castle details, glue on windows or architectural details. You can add cones or toilet paper rolls and make it as fancy as you like. 

I think the kids favorite part was making the flags. I brought up a picture of all the various countries' flags and they drew them with markers on small rectangle pieces of paper. Then they taped them to toothpicks and I helped tape them onto the castle. They loved doing it and also learned what a lot of different countries' flags look like.  So simple and you just use supplies around the house. 

Snowman doughnuts

For my daughter's "Frozen" birthday party, we made Olaf snowman doughnuts.
You need a package of the small powdered doughnuts (we used hostess brand), powdered doughnut holes, mini chocolate chips, pretzel sticks, and toothpicks.
Stack 2 small doughnuts on top of eachother, put in a toothpick so the point is sticking straight up. Then carefully stick a small doughnut hole on top. (The toothpick helps stabilize the snowmen. Without it, the head keeps rolling off if the plate is bumped.) Stick mini chocolate chips in as eyes and buttons. Snap mini pretzel sticks in half and poke in as the arms and nose. These were a huge hit with the kids!  Just be sure to take out the toothpick if serving to small children.

Snowman and Santa Pancakes