Grown Up S’mores Dip with Homemade Graham Crackers

Apologies to all my North American friends, you may want to stop reading now. Today’s recipe is Grown Up S’mores Dip with Homemade Graham Crackers. I know, I know. Not really anything new and exciting for all of you. You no doubt have all grown up making this delicious dish or the campfire version and find it just as easy to make as your toast or cereal in the morning. So farewell and see you all at my next blog post – I’ll try to make that one less boring for you! For everyone else in the world welcome and say thank you to our North American friends for giving us one pretty darn awesome dish – S’mores!

The original S’mores are actually made over a campfire by toasting marshmallows and smushing (yes, that’s my technical term for it) them between two graham crackers and a big piece of dark chocolate. I know! Drool. So good, right? Unfortunately it seems like here in New Zealand there are perpetual fire bans across the country in summer so as romantic as the idea seems to have a campfire by the beach or lake it’s just not a reality. My Grown Up S’mores Dip is perfect – S’mores made indoors in the oven but the marshmallow is still all gooey, golden and charred just like you cooked it on an open fire, the secret is to crank your oven up to the hottest temperature it can go. I also added a few splashes of my favourite liqueur because, well, I think you’ll agree why not? If you are planning to give this to children or any pregnant friends you can easily replace the liqueur with one teaspoon of your favourite extract (i.e. vanilla, almond, orange) or just leave it out entirely.

What are S’mores without graham crackers? But where would you find these in New Zealand? There is a great American shop here called Martha’s Backyard. I love going there to get all those American products I read about in recipes on blogs or see in the movies that you just can’t get here in New Zealand – my all time favourite is Frank’s Hot Sauce. I think I am addicted. Every visit I seem to buy multiple 23 oz (680mL) size and they really don’t seem to last me long. I’m also a little partial to the Peanut Butter M&Ms and Clamato juice – I’ve got one refined palate! It seems however that the store carries many American favourites but I’ve never seen graham crackers. Not only are they are staple for S’mores but there are so many other recipes I read on blogs that seem to use these or graham cracker crumbs. I always felt like I was missing out that was until I discovered a recipe by Martha Stewart for Homemade Graham Crackers. I did live in Canada for a little while so I do know what the graham cracker is meant to taste like and these are pretty darn good. They are easy to made and there’s always nothing like something that’s homemade. So now New Zealander’s and the rest of the world can truly appreciate the S’mores experience with my Grown Up S’mores Dip with Homemade Graham Crackers.

Enjoy. Kate xoxo

P.S. I would recommend you eating this immediately after you’ve made it. However, my husband just can’t bring himself to waste chocolate (broccoli is another story) and so he has tried reheating leftovers in a 160C/320F oven on fan-bake for approximately 10 min and he thought it still tasted pretty good, but it is still better first time around.

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Grown Up Smores Dip with Homemade Graham Crackers

Prep Time 50 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 6 -8

Author My Little Larder

Ingredients

Homemade Graham Crackers:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 250 g 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp honey

Grown Up S'mores Dip:

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate melts
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate 70pct roughly chopped
• 3-4 Tbsp favourite liqueur e.g. orange, coffee or coconut flavoured are nice
• 17 white marshmallows halved (store bought or homemade)

Instructions

For the Homemade Graham Crackers:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F bake.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the two flours, wheat germ, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl beat together the butter, brown sugar and honey until pale and fluffy. Add flour mixture and mix to combine.
4. Turn out dough on to a floured surface and divide into quarters.
5. Roll out each quarter between two sheets of baking paper (parchment) into a rectangle 24cm x 15cm (9in x 6in) and 1/3 cm (1/8in) thick.
6. Using a knife, divide rectangle into three 8cm x 15cm (3in x 6in) rectangles then divide these rectangles into a further four rectangles but just use the knife to score these last four rectangles, don’t cut right through. Note: each piece of dough should give you 12 crackers so a grand total of 48 crackers.
7. Stack the dough and baking paper on a baking sheet and chill in the freezer for 20 min.
8. Remove dough from freezer and pierce each cracker with a fork.
9. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 8-9 min or until golden brown. I like to do this two trays at a time. Remove from oven. At this point I like to re-cut and re-score them as they expand during cooking.
10. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 min then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Will keep in an airtight container for three days or can be crushed and frozen for later use in pie crusts or cheesecake crusts.

For the Grown Up S'mores Dip:

1. Preheat oven to 250C/480F or the highest temperature your oven will go to on fan-bake.
2. Place chocolate and liqueur in a small cast iron dish (or any suitable ceramic or ovenproof dish you have). Mix together then arrange in an even layer over the base of the dish.
3. Arrange marshmallows over chocolate then place in an oven for 4-5min or until marshmallows are golden brown. Ensure you watch it while it is cooking as it can burn quite quickly. Remove and serve immediately with about 24 homemade graham crackers (reserve the rest of the crackers for another use).