Camping Vibes- S'Mores Cookies

My co-worker Nichole and I were discussing camping the other day which lead to the topic of s'mores and cookies. The challenge was set to create s'mores cookie and like any good friend I accepted the challenge! I tried a few variations and while each were tasty I finally settled on a method that tasted the closest to the campfire treat. I suffer for my hobbies, clearly.

Here is the final recipe that I worked out.

S'mores Cookies. (Makes 18-20 cookies depending on size of cookie)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) salted butter. (I only use Kerry Gold, makes a real difference in taste!)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar. (I used fine bakers sugar)

1 large egg at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt. (I used sea salt)

About 2/3 of a package of semi sweet chocolate chips (use as much or as little as you like!)

4-6 graham crackers broken into medium to small sized pieces- do not crush!

9-10 large marshmallows cut in half 

Optional but highly suggested: baking parchment paper

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with baking parchment paper and set aside. Cut marshmallows in half and set aside as well.

In a mixer or a bowl with hand mixer, cream the butter. Add brown and granulated sugar to creamed butter and mix. Scrape sides of bowl to make sure it's thoroughly mixed. Add egg and mix, then add vanilla. 

For dry ingredients put flour in a medium sized bowl. Add baking soda and salt. Whisk dry ingredients before adding to wet ingredients. 

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Remember to scrape the sides of the bowl. Add chocolate chips and mix on low speed. 

Grab a large spoon and spoon out a ball of cookie dough. The size of dough ball is your preference but you want the cookie to be large enough to have the marshmallow on top. At this point I insert the graham cracker pieces into the cookie dough ball one piece at a time. You don't want the graham cracker to be too thoroughly mixed in the dough,  you want the pieces to be sticking out a bit, otherwise you will lose the graham cracker flavor. Place on cookie sheet and slightly flatten the dough ball. Place marshmallow half on top of dough ball with the cut side facing down, give it a little push so it snuggles into the cookie dough a bit. Yes, you'll be baking the marshmallow with the cookie the entire baking time. Don't worry the marshmallows won't burn, I promise!

Bake 8-9 minutes. You want the edges of the cookies to just be a light golden brown before you remove them from the oven. Place on a cooling rack (they will still be soft and can break easily at this point so use a spatula until they cool and can be picked up). As an optional step you can take a culinary torch or if you're extra fancy like me just a lighter and lightly toast the marshmallows to give them that campfire flavor!

*all images my own and YES they taste as good as they look!!!

*side note: the first time I made these (the ones in the photo) I used Trader Joes semi sweet chocolate chips and more importantly Trader Joes marshmallows! The second time I used ghiradelli semi sweet chocolate chips and jet puff marshmallows. The jet puff marshmallows weren't great. They expanded in the oven (which the Trader Joes ones didn't!) they spread and some even slid off the cookies. They also wouldn't toast after they were baked. The cookies taste good but they're not as good as the ones with Trader Joes marshmallows.