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S’more Rice Krispie Treats

There are so many recipes that I make at home that never make it to the blog. Some I photograph, but the finished product just doesn’t look or taste right. 

Others I make, but never photograph, only having to make them again. 

This was almost one of those recipes. 

After the weather threatened our chances at making actual s’mores for our 4th of July cookout, I thought I would try something a little different. A total experiment. S’more Rice Krispie Treats!

However, after I made these and served them to my husband and neighbors, it was determined that they HAD TO GO ON THE BLOG.

My very picky husband literally called these S’more Rice Krispie Treats “amazing”. 

So here they are, on the blog….with almost no photos. Don’t worry, though. They are very easy to make and require very little visual guidance.

How to Make Them.

First, lay down a layer of graham crackers. My square baking dish didn’t fit them perfectly, so I had to break a few in half to get the entire bottom of the pan covered in graham crackers. 

Then, pour melted chocolate over the graham crackers and carefully spread it out so that there is a nice thin layer of chocolate over the crackers. 

Now it’s time to make the Rice Krispie treats! Follow the directions on the box or make your very own version of the classic and then dump the Rice Krispie mix on top of the chocolate covered crackers. Use a spatula to press the Rice Krispies down into the chocolate so that the entire pan is full. 

Then do everything in reverse! Melt some more chocolate, pour and spread it on top of the Rice Krispie treats, then top with more graham crackers. 

Let the entire thing sit and harden for about 30 minutes or until the chocolate has hardened. 

Finally, cut them into squares. You can use the top graham crackers as a guide, but they may not line up perfectly with the bottom grahams. 

See, so easy right? 

Recipe

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Peanut Butter and Jelly S’mores

You all know I love peanut butter and jelly. So I wouldn’t be fooling anyone if I told you I just happened to come up with the pb&j s’mores on a whim. You guys know better. I knew exactly what I was going to do with my homemade graham crackers and marshmallows before I made them. 

It’s really the only reason I made peanut butter marshmallows. 

Actually, what inspired these s’mores were these raspberry filled Ghirardelli chocolate squares. They have a little Instagram contest going on to see who can use their chocolate squares in a s’more in the best/most unique way. I have seen a lot of other bloggers use their caramel filled squares, so I wanted to do something different. I spotted the raspberry squares at the store and I knew exactly what would go perfectly with them! Peanut butter!

But to be clear, this is in no way sponsored by Ghirardelli. This is just me throwing my s’mores into the proverbial hat (a.k.a the Instagram contest). 

Also to be clear, you absolutely do not have to use these Ghirardelli raspberry chocolate squares to have a kick-a pb&j s’mores.

You also do not need homemade graham crackers or peanut butter marshmallows. But they do help!

Start by slathering on a generous layer of peanut butter onto one graham cracker. Then roast up your marshmallow (preferably your homemade marshmallow) the best way you know how. If you have an open fire available, have at it! I, personally, like to use my handy dandy kitchen torch. 

Once the marshmallow is toasty on all sides, place it on top of your peanut butter.

Top the marshmallow with your chocolate, then spread some raspberry jam (or jam of choice) on your other graham cracker. 

It’s like the best thing ever. How could it not be? Combining two childhood favorites the s’mores and the pb&j. 

I made the mistake of making these before dinner so I could take pictures. Then I promptly ate both of them (or most of both of them) completely ruining my dinner. 

Worth. It.

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Homemade Graham Crackers

Nothing like posting over 24 hours late (again). Game of Thrones has my Sunday priorities all messed up, guys. I may have spent all day making the ingredients for homemade s’mores so that I could post the recipes this week. But come 9:00 pm on Sunday night and my attention 100% belongs to HBO.  But better, late than never, right?

Now I love graham crackers, but homemade graham crackers make the store bought version taste like cardboard. These homemade versions are so much richer and more flavorful and not quite as overly sweet like processed cookies tend to be. 

Plus, you can make them in your food processor, which I love!

The hardest part of this whole recipe was finding graham flour. And by that I mean I didn’t find any graham flour. So instead I made my own by processing some wheat germ. Which also wasn’t easy to find. Quick tip, look for it near the oatmeal in your grocery store. 

Mix together your freshly processed graham flour with whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Then cut in chilled butter until it forms a coarse corn meal like consistency. 

Then mix in milk, molasses, and honey until it forms a ball of dough. 

After chilling in the fridge for about an hour, the dough is ready to be rolled out. Graham crackers should be pretty thin, so I used the thinnest rolling pin bands to roll out my dough about 1/8th of an inch thick. I also uses a ravioli cutter to cut out my crackers into small scalloped squares. You could also use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares, or any shaped cutter to cut them into whatever shape you like.

On top of each cracker, poke a few holes so that they don’t puff up too much. Then sprinkle them with a bit of sugar. 

Finally, bake them off in the oven until they are nice and crispy. Ideally, you won’t over bake them like I did. A few of them got a little charred. Fortunately for me, I like things that are on the burnt side. 

Other than the ones that got a little extra toasty, these were some of the best graham crackers I have ever had. Like I said, there is just something about homemade graham cracker that is just so much better than the store bought kind (probably the freshness, lack of preservatives, ingredients you can pronounce). You can actually taste the subtle hints of molasses and honey. 

Also, I love that they are a bit sturdier than the average graham cracker, making them ideal for some s’mores! Don’t you hate it when you are trying to assemble your s’more and your graham cracker breaks? Me too! I will be sharing more oh how I turned these grahams into s’mores this week! Stay tuned! 

 

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Lightened Up Buckeye Dip

Do you like peanut butter and chocolate? Yes?! Okay, we can be friends. I can think of no other flavor combination I love more! Reese’s peanut butter cups, Tagalong cookies, and Buckeye balls are some of my favorite foods ever. Which is why I could not wait to make this Buckeye Dip!

I made this particular dip for a Super Bowl party a couple weeks ago. It was a huge hit with the crowd, but especially with this girl. I took the rest of the dip home, eating it for the rest of the week until I was scrapping that last of it from the bowl with a spoon. I had run out of graham crackers and apple slices but couldn’t bare to let it go to waste. Hence the spoon. Don’t judge.

I didn’t really feel all that guilty about stuffing my face  snacking on this buckeye dip because I cut out a lot of fat, calories, and sugar compared to some of the other recipes I have seen online. 

Don’t believe me?

I compared my recipe to one of the most popular recipes out there (according to Google) and ran them both through MyFitnessPal’s handy dandy recipe calculator. Using the same serving size, this recipe cuts out 24 grams of fat (that’s HALF the fat of the original recipe), 10 grams of sugar, and 250 calories per serving!

So what’s the secret to making this dip a little bit lighter? Well, I have a couple. First, instead of butter I used Greek yogurt. I used fat free, but if you are worried about the tartness of the Greek yogurt coming through, I would recommend using 2% or full fat Greek yogurt, which has a much milder flavor.

The second secret is peanut butter powder! I have been using peanut butter powder in a lot of recipes lately because it is just so easy to work into baked goods. It also cuts out a lot of the fat without compromising flavor.  

I threw everything except the chocolate chips into a bowl and whipped it up until nice and fluffy. Then I mixed in some chocolate chips and also drizzled in some melted chocolate. 

To make the presentation a bit more fun, I drizzled some chocolate around the inside of a glass bowl and then popped it in the fridge until the chocolate had hardened. Then I spooned the peanut butter dip right on top. I also like to mix in some melted chocolate along with the chocolate chips. I spooned about a third of the dip into the bowl then drizzled on some melted chocolate before adding in more dip. Then I topped the whole thing off with more chocolate drizzle and a chocolate chips.

I recommend serving this buckeye dip along with some graham crackers, chocolate cookies, and/or apple slices. Just make sure to bring enough, because if you run out, your friends may resort to eating this with their fingers. 

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