My new favorite cookbook is Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It. For anyone who enjoys making things from scratch, this is for you. Plus it is playful--with homemade recipes for oreos (called chocolate sandwich cookies) and pop tarts (called toaster pastries)--a way for adults to relive their childhood in a higher quality and slightly more sophisticated version. What could be better?I chose s'mores: with homemade graham crackers and marshmallows. The graham crackers we made with graham flour, which is regular wheat flour just ground differently: the endosperm is finely ground while the bran and germ are coarsely ground, then all are mixed back together. The crackers were fairly easy to make, no complicated techniques necessary. It's just a basic one-bowl mixture. The most challenging part, of course, is rolling them out evenly and thinly.
Though these graham crackers were not as thin as Nabisco's I think I prefer my thicker, more flavorful version. And these crackers, combined with our homemade marshmallow (cut in rectangles perfectly sized to the cracker) were heavenly. The marshmallow had wonderful texture smoother and less Styrofoam-like than the jet-puffed version. They also didn't burn in the flame, instead the browned and caramelized enough to actually melt the extra dark Hershey's chocolate. Yum. Who says s'mores are just for kids?
