Comments on: S’More Inspiration

By: Nina

Nina — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:41:06 +0000

Wow, so many suggestions that sound so good! They are way more fun than real work.

Honestly, though, I’m a little reluctant to vary the marshmallow for now - I think the pure strong vanilla is one of my favorite things about the smore. I thought about mixing in chopped chocolate into the marshmallow, but I wonder if it would scorch if toasted on a flame - same with rolling them in something. It would totally work in the microwave, though. On a side note, in addition to microwave vs flame considerations, I’m wondering about kids vs adult considerations in general - I’m going to try out the salt, but I’m not sure if that’s too adult-oriented.

And I like the sound of both brown sugar-vanilla and honey marshmallows… I’ll think about those flavors, though they’ll also require more intensive recipe and shelf-life tests than graham crackers.

And ok. Neapolitan. Sundae-Smore.

That. sounds. AWESOME.

Can’t wait till my second offering when I can have more variations… In the meantime, I’ll look for a pizelle-maker.

By: Mandy

Mandy — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:54:05 +0000

For some reason, the marshmallow seems to me to be the logical point of variation. Don’t know why. (Though now s’mores on a gingersnap or pizelle sound really good)

You could roll the marshmallows in something, like ground Mexican chocolate (or your own blend of the usual components) to flavor, or something crunchy like Scandinavian pearl sugar (though I’ve never found that stuff for sale outside of Europe). I currently have a serious craving for those chocolate sprinkles (the dark and delicious Dutch kind, as opposed to the ones here that are mostly sugar and carnauba wax…).

As far as the base is concerned, brown sugar-vanilla and honey marshmallows are my favorite creations to come out of my kitchen. I suppose you could caramelize some of the sugar that goes into the marshmallows to get “caramallows”–I don’t *think* that would have much of an impact on the chemistry and texture of things.

Another mode of uniqueness would be to fill the marshmallow with something for trexture contrast, but the only ways I can think of are to either stir chopped chocolate or toffee bits into the no-longer-searing-but-still-malleable base, or to go seriously labor-intensive and inject them with something saucier once they’re cut (which would be quite a can of worms, I’d imagine)…

(Actually, a pizelle + chocolate + marshmallow with vanilla, cocoa, or freeze-dried berries stirred in post-whip sounds like a Neapolitan sundae-s’more! Or it would be kind of cannoli-ish if you just rolled the marshmallows in appropriate stuff. Hmm….)

(Sorry for the long and dorky post. This is far more interesting to me at the moment than the work I ought to be doing.)

By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:53:36 +0000

Oh, and this might be kind of weird, but I’m considering kosher salt for this. Fleur de sel may be the obvious choice, but truth be told, I don’t like it very much — the crystals are too big and I don’t like crunching into it and being blasted with saltiness; plus, everyone else is using fleur de sel. I prefer Maldon for my fancy salt, because it’s in more delicate flakes. I might use Maldon for this, but I think that kosher has just the right crystal size and ensuing saltiness. Also, more subtly, it’s a casual American salt — from MI — that would suit this casual American dessert.

By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:12:11 +0000

So, yeah, salt = magic. I think it makes the most sense to sprinkle it on the chocolate…. unfortunately, I’ve already made my chocolate squares for this, but I guess I can remelt them and sprinkle on the salt while it will still stick. If the salt was on the cookie, I think it would just come across as an oddly salty cookie. I’m going to work on it.

And caramel, cayenne, gingersnaps, shortbread, waffle cookies (!), and peanut butter all sound like good variations for the future!

By: Lida

Lida — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:55:03 +0000

I like the caramel idea! Also, I had s’mores recently with reese’s peanut butter cups.

By: Paula

Paula — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:56:11 +0000

I don’t like graham crackers so I have been making up very tasty smores with ginger snaps, thin shortbread or most recently the butter waffle cookies from Trader Joes.

By: Leah

Leah — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:46:46 +0000

I also think adding salt would be well-received — a lot of people underestimate the sweet/salty combination. Of course, I’m also crazy enough to think adding a bit of cayenne might be worth looking into, so take what I suggest with the proverbial grain of salt.

By: Verena

Verena — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:33:49 +0000

I’ve eaten s’mores with a relatively thick chocolate caramel sauce instead of a chocolate bar, and that worked pretty well. I think I actually prefer it to regular s’mores because there was a hint of saltiness in the caramel sauce, which made the entire thing less sweet and rich. Maybe you can consider something similar to that … I’m always a fan of the sweet and salty combo!

By: christy

christy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:20:44 +0000

hey nina, I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but my first thought was caramel. I know it’s not traditionally a smore thing, but it is pretty integral to bonbonbar. Is there a marshmallow caramel you could do or just throw in a few of your cinnamon almond or classic ones?

Otherwise I think the salted chocolate sounds tasty. Maybe even a raspberry marshmallow, but that would mean creating a whole new thing.

Too early. I will have to think more after caffeine.