Smookies

Smoo·kie [sah-mook-ee] noun a s'more made with homemade chocolate chip cookies.

And yes, just for the record you still put Hershey's milk chocolate on a smookie. The chocolate chips in the cookie do not replace that part of a s'more, if ya know what I mean.

In order to have a smookie, you must first start with a cookie. I got my chocolate chip recipe here. Ever since I was about twelve years old my mom has always made the same chocolate chip cookie recipe. I was in the mood to try something new. To me these cookies were great but they were definitely a different caliber of cookie than the traditional ones my mom makes.

My mom's are soft and stay soft. These bake for a much longer time and are definitely stiffer especially by the day after you make them. My mom's cookies are more round and less flat. The one's pictured above are much flatter with chocolate chip mountains, as we like to call them. We do not sprinkle my mom's with salt. The sea salt sprinkled in the perfect amount on these cookies enhances all of the sweet brown sugary chocolatey flavor of the cookie. Granted there may have been a few cookies where I may have sprinkled on a wee bit more salt than I should have. So if you do make this recipe for your smookies, be careful. A small amount does a magical thing. P.S. My mom's cookies will always be my favorite.

The beauty is you don't have to use this recipe! You can use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. But if you'd like to use the recipe I used you can find the recipe here at Life Made Simple. If you would like to use my mom's traditional chocolate chip cookies (not pictured) you can find that recipe here.

To make a smookie, roast some marshmallows over the fire (these would be fantastic with homemade marshmallows). Place some Hershey's Milk Chocolate on the bottom of one cookie, place roasted marshmallow on top and sandwich with another cookie, like so:

WARNING: You may find yourself in a food coma after eating only one smookie OR you may find that you scarf many down uncontrollably. 

I am not sure who originally came up with this idea, or I would give credit where credit is due. However, I do know this was not my original idea and that whoever created these was a sweet genius (and no, I am not talking about the Food Network show). 

Rome Marshmallow Tree - Black

Camp Chef Portable Campfire Fire Ring

Graham Crackers and Milk

The other day I was doing my (almost) daily Zumba workout when I got a call from my Dad.  I did not answer. It ended up being a butt dial anyways. When I called him back, he told me that his phone must have known that he needed to tell me he loves me. He is a great dad.

Then he asked if anything was new. I told him no, and he responded, "Well, life just keeps moving on".

And it does. Yesterday David and I had the pleasure of celebrating my older brother's 24th birthday with him and his new wife. I have never been very openly sentimental, but the whole time I kept thinking about how life really has kept moving on and we are at the point where Ben and I are going our separate ways in life. It is not that this is the first time we have been apart, we have both been at college for several years. But there has always been something comforting about the fact that he has always been only a few hours away.

But now he is finishing his bachelor's degree and in a year or so he and Beth will leave to who knows where for medical school. Instead of living a few hours away, we will live hundreds to thousands of miles apart. 

When I was three and Ben was five, we stopped sharing a bedroom and I moved down the hall. According to my parents I cried the whole way into my room and told Ben that I would miss him.

I know I am going to miss him in a year when he leaves for medical school. So, this is my tribute to him: Homemade graham crackers and milk. This is a snack we used to enjoy together frequently as children.

In keeping with the new purpose of my blog, I will tell you that these graham crackers taste fantastic. I plan on never buying store bought graham crackers again; these are so much better. They take a little bit of time but they really are not much work.

Homemade Honey Graham Crackers

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons bleached all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 tablespoons salt
7 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
1/3 cup honey
5 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
sugar for sprinkling



Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter and cut it in with a pastry blender until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal or grains of rice.

In a small bowl whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and mix with an electric hand mixer until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky. Wrap in a sheet of plastic wrap that has been dusted with flour, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it in half. Return one half of the dough to the fridge. Lay a large sheet of wax paper on the countertop and flour it lightly. Place dough in center of wax paper. Lightly flour the top of the dough and place another piece of wax paper on top.

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a long rectangle that is 1/8" thick. Trim of the edges with a pizza cutter (so it's actually a rectangle). Cut into 2x2" crackers. Place the crackers on two parchment paper lined cookie sheets. If you do not have parchment paper, non-stick cooking spray will work. Sprinkle each cookie with sugar. Chill cookies for 30-45 minutes in the fridge or 15-20 minutes in the freezer.

Repeat with the second batch of graham cracker dough and dough scraps.

Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower positions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Smitten Kitchen says to bake these for 15-25 minutes. You will find that depending on the size of your cookies, they may take only 10 minutes (mine only took that long). So keep an eyeball on them. When they are finished they will be browned and slightly firm to the touch.

Recipe Source: Smitten Kitchen

Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies

Almost one year ago a friend of mine mentioned to me that she had made really great peanut butter cookies without any flour. Ever since, the recipe has always been on my list of things to try. I have to say, these are yummy cookies. They have a great peanut butter taste. Another bonus is that you only need four ingredients, all of which you probably have on hand.

Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies

1 Cup sugar, plus more to sprinkle on top
1 Cup Peanut Butter (any kind works- natural, store bought, creamy or chunky!)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all four ingredients in medium bowl with handmixer. The dough will be thick. Roll into tablespoon size balls. Place 1 inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Press down with the prongs of a fork, making a criss cross pattern. Sprinkle each cookie with a small amount of sugar. Bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are golden. Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Makes 18 cookies.

recipe source: Food Network

These are SOOOOOOO good. I thought without flour they would spread a ton but they did not, and they taste like any other peanut butter cookie.

My favorite way to eat these cookies is like this...

All you have to do is spread a thin layer of nutella on the back of one of the peanut butter cookies. Then, you add a small dab of marshmallow creme on top of that. To make the sandwhich you take another cookie and smoosh the marshmallow creme down. I can't even eat half of one of these before I get full... But they are delish none the less.

Enjoy!