Baking for Beginners: Mini S'Mores Pies

Bonfire Night means one thing to me (other than the whole Guy Fawkes story, obviously) and that is marshmallows. I have spent many a night gazing into the mesmerising glow of a bonfire/barbeque while twirling my skewered marshmallow. It is quite a technique to perfect a toasted marshmallow, you want it just lightly golden on the outside and deliciously melted in the middle. It is challenge I relish.

Here I take my love for toasted marshmallows one step further by taking the American S'mores concept and creating cute little pies. This is an easy recipe that should take you no more than half an hour to whip up, so you can make the most of the fireworks and Bonfire Night.

These mini s'mores pies are simply a nutty biscuit base, covered in chocolate ganache topped with melted marshmallows. Just make sure you allow them to fully cool before lifting them out of the baking tray, as tempting as the hot marshmallows might be.

You will need:

• 60g Unsalted Butter, plus some for greasing
• 1 very large tbsp of Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 90g Rich Tea Biscuits, crushed
• 100g Chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
• 1tbsp Icing Sugar
• 6 tbsp Double Cream
• 40g Marshmallows, chopped

Make it!

• Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 12 cup muffin tin with lots of butter.
• In a small saucepan melt butter on a low heat.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter followed by the Rich Tea biscuit crumbs.
• Divide the mixture equally into the sections of the muffin tin. Press the mixture over the base and sides with either the back of a teaspoon or your fingers, depending on how messy you like your baking.
• Bake the base in the oven for 5 minutes. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, reshaping the bases if necessary.
• Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water (or microwave in 10 second bursts). Add the sugar and cream and stir until smooth. 
• Separate the chocolate mixture between the baked biscuit bases. Pop a couple marshmallows on the top, pressing them into the mixture gently. 
• Grill under a medium heat for about 3 minutes or until the marshmallows have just started to turn a golden colour. 
• Leave to properly cool before gently easing the mini pies out with a blunt butter knife. 
• Enjoy with a nice cup of Ovaltine.

Sluttishly Sweet: S'Mores

We've got my partner's American Aunt visiting at the moment (don't ask me why I've italicised her 'title' -- just somehow seems suitably grandiose). This means thoughts have turned to all things Stateside; and that includes in the cooking department.

American Aunt was telling us about taking her kids camping and, of course, talk turned very quickly to food. After tales of epic steaks and spit-roasting chickens, it was time to discuss dessert. Now, when AA mentioned S'Mores ... well, my delightfully British brain just didn't compute.

What were these S'Mores of which she spoke so terribly fondly?

WOAH. Graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallow all devilishly melted together over a campfire? Now this I just gotta try ... and try I did. Over and over!

You'll need (per S'More):

• Two Graham crackers (I didn't have crackers so substituted with digestive biscuits)
• Two pieces of chocolate
• One marshmallow

Make it!

• Traditionally S'Mores are made on a campfire, but for the purposes of this post (and due to the hammering rain outside) I took the English approach and turned on my grill.
• Take one digestive biscuit and place the chocolate then marshmallow centrally.
• Put a second biscuit on top of the marshmallow and wrap loosely in tin foil
• Pop under the grill for a few minutes until the chocolate is melting (although not utterly melted) and the marshmallow is bubbling.
• Allow to cool briefly then devour (as you pop another under the grill ... and another ... )