S’mores Rolls

Happy National S’mores Day!

…..Again!!

You know me, I don’t usually do these food holiday things due to my lack of coordination and planning. But hey, it’s not like I was busy doing anything else here, right?

Now, this was originally going to be my only post for the #WiltonSweetTreatTeam since I had made the icing with some marshmallow candy melts. Because come on, candy melts deserve the love. But as you may have read in the last post, I received a pretty sweet mailer from Wilton and I just had to use the shot glass molds. So I figured, why not? I’ll post two s’mores recipes!

I know, I know. The whole food blogosphere seems to be posting something about s’mores, but I couldn’t help it. I mean, is there anything really wrong with that? They’re s’mores! You can never get enough of them. Speaking of not getting enough, these rolls may not look as amazing/spectacular/jaw dropping as Beth’s Fire Pit S’mores Cake from Hungry Happenings, but they are pretty freaking addicting if I do say so myself.

S’mores are one of those treats that are so iconic, they actually deserve their own special day (unlike random holidays like National Vichyssoise Day [November 18th if you’re curious]). The absolute perfect combination of melting chocolate, gooey marshmallow and a crunchy graham cracker is possibly one of the best combinations ever put together by man (I’m a fan, can you tell?).

Of course, leave it to the Girl Scouts to make such a crack-like treat. The first recorded recipe dates back to 1927. But it wasn’t officially referred to as a s’more until 1973 when it’s addictive qualities were acknowledged and gave inspiration to the name. But even before that, the Girl Scouts have recipes in various publications decades before 1973 where they call it a s’more. And it makes sense when you think about it.. With names like Tagalongs, Samoas, and Do-Si-Dos, the name S’more, or “Some Mores” as they were first referred to, totally sound like something the Girl Scouts would have made up. I could even picture it plastered on a brown box and sold for $20 or whatever the drug dealer price for their cookies are right now. Whatever the case, they deserve whatever recognition they get because everything about the s’more from the name to the taste to the feeling of euphoria they give you fits perfectly with its name.

So now that we know why s’mores are so addicting, let’s get started with putting these bad boys together.

If there is one food I love in this world more than pizza, it’s a good cinnamon roll. With that said, I shock myself when I say I’ve only made them once. It was this past Christmas and its success pretty much guaranteed that I’ll be making them for every Christmas from now on.

When I made them I used Alton Brown’s famous Overnight Cinnamon Rolls recipe. It worked perfectly for me so I figured I’d just base this off of that with a few alterations.

S’mores Buns                     (altered from Alton Brown)

Dough:

4 each – Egg Yolks
1 each – Egg
1/4 cup – Brown Sugar
6 tablespoons – Butter, melted
1 cup – Buttermilk
4 cups – Flour
1 cup – Graham Crackers, crushed
1 packet – Instant Dry Yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons – Salt

Filling:

1 1/2 cups – Light Brown Sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons – Cocoa Powder
1 cup – Graham Crackers, crushed
2 1/2 tablespoons – Butter, melted
Pinch of Salt

About 3 1/2 cups – Miniature Marshmallows

Icing:

1 bag – Wilton Marshmallow Candy Melts
1 tablespoon – Milk

Notes:

• I love using Instant Dry Yeast. Works the same as regular yeast and you don’t have to worry about proofing it. Just add it straight into the dry ingredients and you’re good. Don’t even have to worry about salt, it’s great!
• You’re going to need about 1 1/2 packages of graham crackers.
• I tend to always forget to buy buttermilk but luckily I seem to always have lemon juice for some insanely odd reason. While I know it’s not the same, it’s a fairly good replacement in a pinch. Just a teaspoon or so of lemon juice in a cup of milk and let it sit for a few minutes.
• I threw the grahams in a food processor but it didn’t make a difference compared to just crushing them by hand. So if you want to save yourself from washing something else, just break out the mallet or rolling pin and go to town (kids love that job).
• In my excitement to get everything rolled up I totally forgot to throw in chunks of Hershey’s chocolate like I was originally going to do. It’s alright though because they’re fine just the way they are.
• As the name indicates, it’s best to plan ahead and make these the day before you want them. Leaving them alone overnight will ensure the dough is well rested and all the flavors will mend.
• To proof your dough, you can put the bowl on top of a recently used toaster oven, on top of the refrigerator, or like I did, on top of my dryer since I was coincidentally doing laundry at the time.
• When you need to proof again just before baking, if your oven doesn’t have a Proof feature, Alton’s way of doing it is perfect: In a cold oven, put a baking pan on the lower rack and fill it up halfway with boiling water. Then in the center rack put the buns out of the fridge. Once risen, take everything out of the oven and preheat it.

Alright. Bloggingbots, let’s roll out!

• First off, crush up your graham crackers like I mentioned. Either food processor or by hand. You’re looking to get it as fine as you can. Once it is, mix it with the flour.

• To get the dough started, get your mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Then take your egg yolks, egg, sugar, melted butter and buttermilk and whisk them up for a bit. Next add about 2 cups of the flour with the salt and the yeast and mix it up some more. Once it’s incorporated, change the whisk out for Captain Hook’s hook (what we call it in our kitchen), and throw in the rest of the flour. When it’s all together and the dough forms give it a feel. It should feel soft and moist. If it’s too sticky you’ll have to add some more flour. Once it gets to where you want it, knead it in the mixer for about 5 minutes or until the dough clears the side of the bowl while mixing.

• At that point, plop it onto your floured work surface and knead it for a little more till you feel it nice and elastic-y.

• When it’s ready form it into a ball and put it into a bowl. Rub the top of the dough with oil so it doesn’t dry out, find somewhere a little warm, cover it and let it double in volume for about 2 – 2 1/2 hours. This is where doing the laundry while making the dough comes in handy!

• Sometime while it’s rising, go ahead and mix your filling stuff. Just take everything – brown sugar, cocoa, graham crackers, melted butter, and salt – and mix it all together. And for Pete’s sake, don’t sit there with a spoon and eat it.

• When the dough has risen, butter or spray a 9×13 glass baking pan, and get your floured work surface ready again. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape. You’re looking for a size of 18 x 12 inches, with the longer side close to you. Get a ruler and try and be precise if you can because you’ll only have enough filling for that size. If you roll bigger than that then you’ll have some edges that aren’t covered with goodness.

• Once it’s rolled out, brush on some melted butter leaving about 1/2 inch on top. And then sprinkle the filling on while also leaving the 1/2 inch on top. Smooth it out and then gently press the filling into the dough. Once it’s in there, get your marshmallows and spread them around covering everywhere there’s filling.

• When you’re ready, take the edge closer to you and start rolling it. Roll it tightly as you go, and when you get to the end, pinch the dry 1/2 inch strip to the roll to seal it. Make sure the roll is nice and even then with a serrated knife cut it in half. Then cut those halves in half, and so on until you wind up with 12 rolls.

• Now, if something went wrong and your roll is shorter for some reason, don’t go trying to get 12 rolls out of it. Use your better judgement! The rolls should be about an 1 1/2 thick.

• Arrange the rolls on the greased baking sheet and wrap them up for at least 16 hours. Or, *slaps forehead* overnight.

Alright, rise and shine! Make sure you brush your teeth and do whatever else you normally do before you run to the kitchen and finish these up.

• You’ll notice they rose in the fridge. Time to get them to rise some more! Take them out and turn on the proof feature on your oven. Or, put them on top of your toaster oven, or whatever it is you do. I’ve even turned on my oven to the lowest it’ll go, and once it reached that temp I turned it off and put the pan in there. It works! Whatever the case, put them in for about 30 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready when they look nice and puffy.

…Alright, not that Puffy…

• Take them out of the oven and preheat it to 350. Once it’s ready, slide them in for about 25-30 minutes. Or until they look like this:

• While they’re cooling, get the icing ready. What I did was put the candy melts in a glass bowl with the milk and microwaved it on 50% power for 45 seconds. Stir it around and go a little more if it needs it until it looks smooth enough to spread.

• When the rolls have cooled slightly, pour on the icing and spread away.

• Once that’s done, so are you. And so are the rolls because they are freaking good. Seriously, they’ll never see it coming.

Have I said addicting? I did right? If I didn’t, then listen… They’re addicting. That pool of chocolatey grahamy goodness on the bottom.. pure happiness. My wife said they’re better than regular cinnamon rolls. And that’s like, almost blasphemous to my ears, so they have to be good.