Ultimate S’mores Cookie Showdown - Triple Tested #9

My fellow Steemians,

What is a s’more? Why do we enjoy them so much and return to them so often? Before I started the research for this post I had never thought so deeply about the concept of a s’more. This is as far as I got.

A s’more has always been made with three building blocks — a toasted and/or melty marshmallow, a milk chocolate bar and two graham crackers. There’s the mix of textures, gooey and crunchy. There’s the mix of flavours. And there’s the warmth — traditionally you would eat a s’more fresh and hot out of the fire, microwave or oven.

Ultimately what says “s’more” to you is subjective. The answer for me however is textures. Nothing says s’more fun like the crunch of the graham cracker with the ooey, gooey filling of melty marshmallow and chocolate.

I made three different recipes for s’mores cookies to see if any of them successfully encapsulate their namesake treat. Let’s see how they measure up!

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The Contenders
Recipe #1: S’mores Cookies
http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2014/12/08/smores-cookies-recipe/

Recipe #2: Gooey S’mores Cookies
https://therecipecritic.com/2014/06/gooey-smores-cookies/

Recipe #3: S’mores Cookies
http://www.sweetpaulmag.com/food/my-happy-dish-smores-cookies-from-downtown-cookie-co

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Recipe #1

Blend of flavours: Fail
Gooey marshmallow: Fail
Graham cracker crunch: Fail

These were fine cookies with the added touch of a unique flavour from the large quantity of graham crumb in the dough. They spread nicely as well. But a s’more these cookies do not make. As well as the flavour of the cookie the only flavour you get is chocolate. So these just taste like a chocolate chip cookie. The recipe called for dehydrated marshmallow bits. The cited reason for this, that I saw in more than one place, is that if you bake a marshmallow in a cookie it will liquify and get lost in the dough. I can testify that this is true. I attempted this on two batches of cookie and the results were not ideal. But the marshmallow bits were no substitute. They didn’t add any texture and barely any flavour. And these being a soft cookie there was no graham crunch.

(Spoiler: None of the cookies manage a graham crunch)

Recipe #2

Blend of flavours: Fail
Gooey marshmallow: Fail
Graham cracker crunch: Fail

These cookies sized up the same as recipe #1 except this recipe had less graham crumb and more flour so these really just tasted like a chocolate chip cookie. They also used the marshmallow bits so no added texture there. Something I found unappealing about this recipe is that they didn’t spread when they baked. You drop a ball of dough on the baking sheet and you get a ball of cooked dough when they come out. Even though the flavour was pleasant I prefer my cookies to spread a bit in the oven.

Recipe #3

Blend of flavours: Conditional Pass
Gooey marshmallow: Pass
Graham cracker crunch: Fail

These cookies took a very different approach. The graham crumbs are incorporated into the dough as in the past two recipes, still to no avail, but only chocolate chips are added this time. Then you bake your cookies until they’re most of the way baked and take them out of the oven. Now you top your cookies with some mini marshmallows and small chunks of your favourite s’more chocolate bar (I used Neilson Jersey Milk). Now you put your dressed cookies back in the oven for a few minutes until the marshmallows start to get some colour. So even though the marshmallow is not very evenly distributed through the cookie the bites where you get marshmallow are very ooey, gooey. And even though there isn’t much flavour of graham there is a beautiful mix of the marshmallow and chocolate. And the cookie itself is very good as well.

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The Winner

Cookie #3 did the best job of encapsulating what I consider important in s’mores. There was a prominent marshmallow and milk chocolate flavour and there was the gooey texture. We experimented with topping the cookies with some small graham cracker pieces as well to see if we could get that crunch. But it didn’t give the effect we were hoping for. And if you have a kitchen torch or were careful with the oven broiler you might even be able to get a toastiness on the marshmallows and take it up a notch. Either way these are definitely a recommend.

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Written by Robin Luis with Photography by Shane Luis