How you turn it [Music] [Laughter] Off Fire hi I'm Melissa Clark and I'm here In the nyt cooking kitchen Studio to Bring another episode of shortcut versus Showstopper I love the show because I Get to do two versions of the same Dessert and today we are doing s'mores a Really simple one a shortcut version That you can make easily usually with Pantry friendly ingredients and then the Allout overthe toop most fantastic Showstopping version that you make when You want to impress company or just Impress yourself both are great they're Just for different moods different Vibes Different times of Life I'm going to show you how to make S'mores in your oven they're not just as Good as being outdoors on a camping trip In the middle of the summer on vacation But they are delicious it just all comes Together in an irresistible squishy Marshmallowy delightful sandwich that You can make in 5 minutes flat My little twist here is instead of just Sticking to graham crackers I'm offering Some shortbreads some ginger snaps I Mean you can use any cookie I mean the Fact is like graham crackers as far as Cookies go these are like crackers Really I mean I know that when I was
Like a young mom and my daughter was two I pretended they were cookies but They're not cookies they were invented To be health food did you know that now Shortbreads and ginger snaps on the Other hand now these are cookies so I Prefer them however these are Traditional for s'mores now the Chocolate we're just going to mix and Match here I mean the thing that's nice About the Hershey's bar and the graham Cracker is that it's so evenly matched Just fits so perfectly I'm going to do a Little pink salt on the SHP RADS so the Trick is you just want the piece of Chocolate to fit on the cookie nicely Should we be wild and crazy and do Almond and a touch of honey for the Ginger Snap I like the idea of honey and Ginger Snap Okay marshmallows this is actually Perfect to get get your kids to do this You just supervise the broiling let them Do the rest of it they've got it how Long did that take 30 seconds and then We'll save these to finish it off to Make the sandwich at the end I'm going To put these in under the broiler I like To keep them maybe just an inch or two Away so I'm setting my oven rack to the Second highest not the highest rack and You got to watch them carefully when you Put them in just don't walk away just Keep an eye on them they're going to be
Done in between 1 and 3 minutes They smell Ready okay perfect oh my God these are they look like mushrooms Don't they they are perfect now the fun Part and this is where if you have kids You gather them around and give them Cookies and let them go Squish so satisfying so fun squish you Have to make sure they say squish when They do it right I I mean come on can You imagine a sleepover party pizza and Then oven s'mores how fun is That I mean look at that chocolate is Melty the marshmallow is Al melty am I Going to burn my mouth if I take a bite Right now yeah have to eat them with the Oh I have to eat them okay so I won't do That I'll wait I will I'll have patience Look how cool they are though they look So good let's get our showstopper I Almost forgot about the Showstopper to make the showstopper S'mores tart we're going to start with a Homemade graham cracker crust so that Doesn't mean taking graham crackers and Musing them up into crumbs that means Actually making a graham cracker except The most delicious graham cracker Because my recipe uses extra butter and We're going to use that as our tart Shell and then we're going to make a Chocolate ganache and a big fluffy Marshmallow topping start with some
Cubed butter And I'm going to cream the butter with Light brown sugar regular sugar and some Honey just for a minute till it gets Smooth and Fluffy okay and then I'm going to add my Dry ingredients so I have my flour and Then a little bit of whole wheat flour And the whole wheat flour is what makes A graham cracker a graham cracker which Is also sometimes called Graham flour Which is named after Sylvester Graham Who was the um let's just say the health Nut who popularized graham crackers from Or maybe even vented gram crackers and Now we're just going to add the dry Ingredients to our Butter okay overturn the dough onto the Plastic wrap and squish it together Until it becomes a nice uniform disc if You didn't want to use this dough for a Pie crust you could just make your own Homemade graham crackers so if you Wanted to do that you would form your Dough into a disc just like I'm doing You chill it just like we're going to do And just roll it out into more of a Rectangle and then you would cut it into Squares that's it I'm going to put this In the fridge for about two hours or you Could leave it there for up to three Days it'll be [Music] Fine so you could use a little flour and
Do it on your surface but I'm going to Just do it on this parchment paper and Then later I'm going to use it to hold My pie weights so perfect little Ecosystem Here you know I love to do this Something about Out wielding a heavy Object just all the stress goes right Out so you see that I keep turning it And that just helps me keep it even as I Roll I like to do the plastic wrap on Top especially if you've already used it To wrap your Dough because then you can See it if you have another piece of Parchment on you can't see it as well so You don't know where their thick spots Are It makes it easy to transfer it's just It's a good method so I am using just a Standard 9in tart pan with a removable Bottom and the removable bottom is great Because it makes it so much easier for Serving if you take the bottom out it's You can just cut right through it it Makes it really nice so this dough on This side is a little bit thinner so I'm Going to steal some here and just build Up the sides so that it's even all Around this is such a forgiving dough It's like a big cookie basically so it's Really easy to work with because there's So much butter in it you don't have to Worry about overworking it it's not
Going to be as delicate as a regular pie Dough so you just line it with parchment And then I have my pie weight so it's Beans you could use Rice I home I use pennies which are nice Because they conduct heat so I have a Jar full of clean pennies that I washed And I use so I'm going to bake this at a Low temperature relatively it's going to Be 325 for 30 to 40 minutes because it's So buttery I want want it to bake very Evenly and slowly so it has a nice Crunchy texture throughout okay so what Are we looking for we're looking for the Tar shell to be golden brown dry and Baked through which is exactly how it Looks looks like a giant cookie which is Exactly what it is and we're going to Let that cool and while it cools I'm Going to make the ganache which is going To go in the center so just going to Move it over Here now I'm going to make the ganache Filling which is like just a melted Chocolate bar except better because it Has cream and butter in it which makes It velvety and truffle like there are Many techniques for making ganache this One I think is the easiest so I'm going To heat the cream not too high medium Low I want it to just come up to a Simmer I don't want it to boil I Definitely don't want it to boil over Which has happened to me but not today
And I'm going to use alall 12 oz of good Bittersweet chocolate so here's the Thing about the chocolate for this the Marshmallow is really really sweet but To Anchor it to balance it out we want To use bitter chocolate as a contrast And it's just going to bring the whole Dessert down to a slightly less sweet But still really perfectly balanced Level so try to find chocolate that is Between 66 and 76% I'm going to add my Butter as well and a nice big pinch of Salt and here we go see how it's Simmering that's perfect I'm just going To pour this right on top I'm going to Let this just sit for a minute and the Cream is going to melt the chocolate I'm Just going to stir it all together And that is the ganache it's so easy and I'm going to go get my tar crust which Is you know just cooling right Now say that you're doing this and your Chocolate is not completely melted by The time the cream is all whisked in but There's still some lumps you just take Your whole Bowl throw it in the Microwave hit it 10 seconds at a time And whisk in between and that'll take Care of it if you don't have a microwave Take your whole Bowl put it on top of a Saucepan with some boiling water Underneath and treat it like a water Bath but yeah look how beautiful this Look at this it's so beautiful it's so
Easy I'm just going to put it right into This tar shell and then we're going to Stick it back in the fridge so it can Harden for at least an hour and up to 24 Hours you can do it the day before you Want to serve it and then we will make The mering which is so fun so what is Marshmallow I mean what is marshmallow It can be many things it can be a sugary Gelatin mixture or it could be a Billowing egg white sugary mixture and We're going to do the egg white version Which is basically making a merang I'm Going to use a type of mering called a Swiss mering which means I'm going to Dissolve sugar into my egg whites before I beat them and that's help stabilize The egg whites so that when I torch them At the end they hold their shape and They get nice and brown so this water is Just coming to a simmer and I'm going to Separate my eggs I'm going to save the Yolks to make ice cream yes I am you can Make the caramel ice cream from one of My early shortcut versus showstop Episodes whenever I um separate eggs or Even when I just crack eggs I always Crack it on a flat surface rather than On the edge of the bowl because it's Less likely to get little pieces of Eggshell shred into your egg when you do It that way so egg whites six egg whites Into my bowl and then this is just Granulated sugar and a little bit of
Cream of tartar and this is basically Your insurance cream of tartar keeps you From overbeating your eggs so if you add Just a little bit of cream of tartar to Your egg whites you don't have to worry As much about overbeating them and if You overbeat your egg whites then they Get dry and instead of being beautiful And fluffy they get dry and clumpy so This takes the anxiety out for you so I Have a vanilla Bean I love a vanilla bean and I'm going To take the seeds out by slicing this Vanilla bean in half lengthwise all the Way to the end and then I'm going to use The back of my knife and I'm just Scraping all of the seeds And these seeds I'm going to leave them Right here and then we'll use them later On just getting it all ready then don't Throw out the rest of the Pod so even After you've taken the seeds out of your Vanilla pod take your vanilla pod and Put it in your sugar and then you'll Have vanilla scented sugar it's great or If you want to make homemade vanilla Extract which is what I do at home you Can take some empty pods and you just Put them in a little bottle of brandy or Vodka and let them sit for a few months And you get this amazing vanilla extract Just keeps sticking them in there and it Just gets more more vanilla so we have Our egg whites our sugar our cream of
Tartar this bowl is made of metal which Is exactly what you want because you Want it to conduct the heat of this pot With the simmer and water I'm basically Doing a makeshift double boiler here It's important to use a pot holder Because otherwise you will burn your Hand I have done it notice how the bowl Fits right on top of this but the bottom Of the bowl does not touch the top of The water this is the labor intensive Part there's no shortcut here got to put Your music on got to do do a little Dance cuz this does take between 6 and 8 Minutes your forearm will be Dazzling I'm such a wimp I don't do Enough upper body obviously okay so What's the point why am I doing this so I'm doing this I'm going to tell you why I'm like why am I doing this the reason That we do this is because what we're Trying to do is melt the sugar into the Egg whites and then we'll have a liquid Sugar which is much more stable than Using just regular granulated sugar when You make aine I'm just going to take its Temperature so what I I'm looking for is The sugar to be dissolved I'm looking For this to be opaque and I want it to Be 175° and it is 150 160 okay so we're getting there so We're almost there I feel like if I was Taller tall people have it easier man
Should I stand on an Apple box do you Want to than you have all right Hey look I'm 6 feet tall oh my God this Is so much easier surely it's there now Right 175 woo all right we're Good and now I'm going To beat this until it gets cool but I'm Going to add my my vanilla seeds to the Mix or if you using vanilla extract or Vanilla paste is another good option you Would add it right now now we beat until We get Merang we let this guy do all the work h No Apple Box shall we see if it is ready so this Is how you know it's ready it does not Slide off and it holds a stiff peak and It's floppy sang is so Fun it's so it's just all fun I'm sorry S'mores are fun no matter what so this Is basically homemade marshmallow fluff And we're going to put it right on top You can see the speckly vanilla seeds so I want to spread it to the edge so that Way Everybody gets a nice bit of merang so You want to cover the tart and then you Can have fun with the Swirls and Now we get to use the Torch if you do not have a torch you can Put this under your Broiler but you just Have to be really careful it could take 2 minutes it could take four or five
Depending on your [Music] Broiler I mean if this is not a show Stoer I don't know what is shall we get Our lovely oven s'mores [Music] Too all right I'm going to unmold our Beautiful showstopper always very easy With these kinds of hands plus this Dough is so buttery that it slips right Out these are so awesome what do I try First what do I try first I always start With the shortcut look at that short Bread cookie melty dark Chocolate I love the shortbread M I love The Salted chocolate too I don't think There's a better 5 minute dessert out There the marshmallow is melty the Chocolate is Mel the cookies still nice And crisp and you have the Char on top Of the marshmallow which you can really Taste that is delicious for our [Music] Showstopper oh yeah yeah this is the Ratio dreamed up by a hopped up 11-year-old I mean [Music] Me a chocolate truffle on top of a Cookie covered in a cloud what could be Better than this I don't know s'mores Are just joyful they take you back to Your childhood especially if you never Left your childhood then they meet you Where you're at no campfire required you
Can find these recipes at nyt cooking go Find us do I have any other thoughts About S'mores setting things on fire is fun
Have you ever wondered why most of the Vinaigrettes in the grocery store are made with 10, 20, sometimes even almost 30 ingredients? I remember growing up in Provence watching my mother whipping vinaigrettes before every single dinner. She would mix in a giant bowl, delicious extra virgin olive oil, a robust aged vinegar (the flavor would depend on the main dish), sea salt and pepper and voila! I decided to do the same thing for my family and friends more than 20 years ago here in this beautiful country. And Provence Kitchen® was born. Stay tune for more articles and wonderful family recipes..
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