Mess is S'more

Everyone looks to find their place in life; what feels right, what works, what you enjoy, what you love.  This applies to both the professional and personal aspects of one’s life.  You go through life making choices to build upon and to get things moving and shaking.  I’ve been an “adult” now for almost ten years (really hard to stomach and really scary) and I’m still searching.  I haven’t found my niche in any aspect of my personal or professional life, but at the very least I rent a cute apartment, in a Stanley Cup toting city, I hang out with my awesome friends, have sweet adventures with my Kitchenaid mixer, I was published in ReadyMade magazine this year, and summer has finally arrived.

I am extremely grateful for what I have been given, earned, and figured out.  I know people who have found their niche in life and I’m incredibly jealous because sometimes I feel like it’s staring me right in the face I could reach out and kiss it, but it’s not in the form of a boyfriend or anything remotely decipherable.  It’s a complete tease and a total bummer.  It may not be time for me to grab the brass ring just yet, but one day it will be.

And now this is starting to sound like a Jewel poetry reading gone awry.  But there is one light at the end of the tunnel I’ve been able to master, one niche I can truly call my own and with it, my life, is infinitely more complete and that is S’mores.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I haven’t had just a minor romantic connection with S’mores – we have had a full blown love affair.  There have been casualties (store bought marshmallows are out) and there have been adventures (remember when I was a S’more for Halloween?) and through the highs and lows we’ve remained true to each other.

I have a group of girlfriends from college and I would say we have a similar relationship and bond, just like my bond with S’mores.  Some of them have found their spots in different aspects of their lives, others are trying out new roles (mother, wife, girlfriend) and we all learn from each other and we’re all there for each other.  We’re not the Sex and the City girls, any of the Real Housewives, or that Red Hat Club.  (And I am WAY happy for that.)  We have a secret handshake, but that’s only because we were in the same sorority in college.  After ten years of friendship, our relationship has become a handy go to recipe when you have a last minute appetizer you have to make for a party.

So we get together, at the very least, on a monthly basis and have girl talk and martinis and hang out.  It’s great because they know things about me that other friends don’t and we’ve all known each other through our crazy times, bad boyfriends, good boyfriends, mean girl phases, and all day drinking marathons.  Every spring we have a special girl’s night, complete with desserts, specialty drinks (mango bombs, blueberry vodka), pizza (or some other kind of unhealthy, delicious fast food), girl talk, and this year a fabulous trip to the martini bar Blue Stem.  (Lefko at Blue Stem does for martini’s what I do for S’mores.  She is a phenomenal mixer and an all around character.)

So I hang out with a group of pretty awesome and special ladies and this year, having promised my friend, Nicole, a S’more dessert (S’mores are her favorite too!) I created the S’more of all S’mores for them – S’mores Tart.  I based if off the S’more pie I had at Uncommon Ground over a year ago and took bits and pieces from different things I’ve made in the past.  S’more Tart was a success at the sleep over.  The homemade marshmallows really hit the spot and I fell in love all over again with S’mores.  I was so happy with them I made S’mores Pies for a work event. 

In my opinion, you can’t make a bad S’more.  I also think it’s the only acceptable kind of messy out there.  So experiment, have fun with them.  Who cares if you haven’t found your perfect perch in life, S’more somehow make it all better and serve as a reminder that everyone’s path is different, you can be in more than one figurative place at once, S’mores still taste as good the 30^th time around as they did the first, but it’s the friends you share them with that make them taste even better!

S’mores Tart

Ingredients:

Building Blocks Marshmallows – ½ a batch will cover one tart

Crust:

1 ½ cup – graham cracker crumbs

1 stick – unsalted butter, melted

¼ cup – sugar

Chocolate Filling:

1 ¼ cup – heavy cream

9 oz – semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 – large eggs

1 tsp – wonder flavor or vanilla extract

¼ tsp – salt

Directions:

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar until combined.  Pour the crust mixture into an 11” tart pan.  With a cold metal measuring cup press the graham cracker mixture evenly along the bottom of the pan and up the sides.  Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.  (The crust will be a little thick and crumbly.)  Let the crust cool completely before filling it.

Chocolate Filling:

Keep the oven heated at 350 degrees.

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium heat proof bowl and set aside.  Pour the cream into a small pot and set over a burner on low heat until the cream begins to boil.  Once it begins to boil, remove it from the heat and pour it over the chocolate.  Let the cream/chocolate mixture stand for 5 minutes without stirring.  After 5 minutes, gently stir the mixture until smooth.  In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, wonder flavor, and salt.  Stir the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture.  Pour the filling into the cooled graham cracker crust.

Bake the tart 20-25 minutes or until the filling is set on the edges, but a little wobbly on the inside.

Assembly:

If serving right away: This dessert is best served warm.  As soon as the tart comes out of the oven place the marshmallows right on top of the tart.  Squeeze them in there, the more marshmallows the better.

If serving later: Do not put the marshmallows on right away, you don’t want them to get stale, but wait until you’re ready to serve the tart.

Fire up a pastry torch and burn the marshmallows to the desired char.  (Great party trick!)  If you don’t have a pastry torch, turn on your oven’s broiler and place the tart in the oven to brown the marshmallows.  Keep an eye on them, you don’t want them to burn too badly.

Wrap up and substitutions:

As I said, this dessert is best served warm.  If you can heat the chocolate up and graham cracker up in the oven a little before putting the marshmallows on and then torch the marshmallows, it’s perfection.  I kept the crust a little thick and flaky because the graham cracker crumbs find the sticky marshmallow and chocolate and it’s easier to achieve the perfect bite through out the entire dessert.  It also keeps with the Mess is S’mores idea.

For this recipe I used pre-crumbed Graham Crackers.  I had no idea they made them already in crumb form.  They're a little more expensive than pulsing them in the food processor yourself, but it makes it really easy and less hardware to clean, which is a bonus.

It can be a pain to cut through the sticky marshmallows, so try using a warm, damp knife (which may or may not work awesomely), but just be patient, it’s worth the stick and mess.  However, once the marshmallows cool it is really difficult to cut through them (or if they’ve been in the fridge for a while), so keep that in mind.  

In the fridge, S’more tart keeps for over a week.  It’s a great reward after a long day.  Heat it up in the microwave and it’s heaven.  Just be aware that in the microwave the marshmallows become a little runny and lose their shape.

If you don’t have a tart pan handy you can for sure make it into a S’more pie.  This recipe will make 2- 8” pies.  Because they’re a little smaller they only need to be in the oven for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them because every oven is different.

If you’re crunched for time or just lazy – you can substitute the store bought marshmallows for the real deal.  However, just one time, try them – they will change your life.