Do you know how sometimes your eyes are bigger than your stomach? You just buy a bunch of stuff at the grocery store because you think to yourself, “Oh I’m totally going to eat all of this. In one sitting no less.” Then when it comes time to show off your all you can eat skills, you don’t even come close? Well that happened to me this week, sort of. My mom and sisters came over for a 4th of July beach picnic and then to my place later on for a 4th of July BBQ. My mamma asked me what she can bring, and so I told her what to get at the store so that we can make s’mores after dinner. The thing is that I told her to get more than we needed, and because I am my mother’s son after all, she brought double that amount and then I was left with an obscene amount of s’mores ingredients without a clue of what to do with it all. I mean other than my new favorite motto of “a s’more a day keeps the doctor away,” I needed a game plan. These Mini S’mores Galettes were born out of that. So in a way I guess we should all be thanking my mother for making this all happen. This is most definitely a Cheers to the Weekend moment, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Let’s make the crust dough first, since it has to chill for a bit before we work with it. I played around with the idea of using graham cracker crumbs as flour because you can’t have s’mores without graham crackers. So in the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt and sugar.
**Note: You can buy graham cracker crumbs already crumbed, or you can place crackers into a food processor and pulse until it resembles flour. You need 1 cup for this recipe so that’ll be about 8 to 10 crackers.**
Add in the cold cubed butter and pulse a few times until the butter resembles coarse crumbs, the size of peas. You’ll want to process it in short bursts, about 8 to 10 times.
**Tip: Don’t pulse too much or else the butter will get too broken down and then you won’t get flaky crust. You want chunks of butter throughout the dough.**
Slowly stream in the ice cold water, one tablespoon at a time, and process until the dough comes together. Divide in half, place each half in plastic wrap and form into a disc. Chill for at least 1 hour or overnight. If you do leave it overnight, allow it to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes before rolling.
To make the filling, place the semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips and butter in a heatproof bowl. Set over a pot of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir until melted through. Remove from the pot and set aside to cool.
**Tip: You can also melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave by nuking it in short bursts and stirring in between.**
Once cooled, whisk in the eggs, vanilla, heavy cream, and sugar until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until the mixture becomes thick, so thick that you can spoon it and it’ll not be runny, about 1 hour.
**Tip: If you want to speed things up, you can place it in the freezer. Just make sure to give it a stir every now and then so that it firms up evenly.**
Roll out each disc (one at a time) on a well-floured work surface to about 1/4-inch thick. Then using a 5-inch round cutter, cut out into circles, placing them on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Make sure to leave some space in between each. Fill each with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the chilled chocolate filling and then fold the edges of the dough toward the center but leaving the center open.
Brush the edges with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. This is more for presentation than anything else, so if you don’t have turbinado sugar at home, don’t worry too much about it. You can also just use granulated sugar if you’d like.
Bake until golden brown around the edges and the filling has set, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. Place three large marshmallows on top of each slightly warm galette.
**Note: You can use a small handful of the mini marshmallows instead. Or one of those super jumbo marshmallows that I’ve seen before!**
So you can either toast the marshmallows with a kitchen torch or by place them under a preheated broiler until the marshmallows are crispy and charred.
If you don’t have a kitchen blowtorch, you should pick one up because you’d be surprised how many times you’ll actually use it. I mean spontaneous s’mores at home should be reason enough. You don’t have to break the bank for a fancy one. I got this one from amazon, but you can also get it at B3 (Bed, Bath and Beyond) and use a coupon. You know those coupons never expire!
Once the marshmallows are toasted, drizzle the tops with melted chocolate and sprinkle with crushed up graham crackers to really throw them over the edge.
**Note: To melt the chocolate, place chocolate chips in a bowl and then microwave and stir until smooth. Pour into a ziplock bag and snip off the end. Then use that to drizzle the chocolate!**
These are amazing when they’re served warm because isn’t that the great thing about s’mores?! The gooey chocolate and melty marshmallows? You can make them in advance (without the toppings) and then rewarm in the oven for a few minutes and top as directed right before serving.
If the minis don’t interest you, you can make this into 2 large galettes and then just slice and serve. That would be great for summer dinner parties or BBQ’s.
Leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in the fridge for about 3 days. You can rewarm them in a preheated 350 degree F oven for about 3 to 5 minutes to warm them through.
So I mentioned this last time, but Saveur Magazine is hosting their annual Food Blog Award nominations right now as we speak. If you have a few minutes to spare, head on over to their site, and nominate your favorite food blogs. If one of your favorite food blogs happens to be mine, and you enjoy the work I put out, I’d be ever so grateful if you nominated The Candid Appetite for either the “Most Inspired Weeknight Dinners” category or “Best Photography.” I promise I won’t harp too long on this, but I figured why not give it a go. Thank you so much to those who have voted! Remember, you can keep voting up until July 19th!
Mini S'mores Galettes
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs about 8 to 10 crackers finely ground
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, cold and diced
- 6 to 8 tablespoons ice cold water
Filling:
- 1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter diced
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping:
- 1 large egg whisked
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
- 27 large marshmallows
- 1/3 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips, melted
- 4 graham crackers roughly crushed
Instructions
- To make the dough, combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse a few times to thoroughly combine. Add in the butter and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs, the size of peas, about 8 to 10 times. Add the water, one tablespoon at a time, and process until the dough comes together. Divide in half and form each half into a disc and wrap each in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- To make the filling, place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl and stir until melted through, about 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the pot and let cool. Once cool, whisk in the eggs, heat cream, sugar and vanilla until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until thick and set, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.
- Working with one half of dough at a time, place on a well-floured work surface and roll out to about 1/4-inch thick. Using a 5-inch round cutter, cut out into circles. Reroll and cut out as needed, placing on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the second half of dough. Fill each circle of dough with about 1 tablespoon and a half of the chocolate filling. Fold the edges of the dough toward the center. Brush the edges with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake until golden brown around the edges and the filling has set, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
- Top each with 3 large marshmallows and either place under the broiler to toast or use a kitchen blowtorch to roast the marshmallows. Drizzle the top with melted chocolate and then sprinkle with crushed up graham crackers. Serve warm. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days and rewarmed in the oven for a few minutes.