10 Desserts for the Fourth of July

1. Red Wine Ice Cream


Whenever I'm invited to a barbecue, everyone requests that I bring my red wine ice cream. We're half way through June and I've already had multiple requests.

2. Whiskey Chocolate Cookies


My husband made these for my birthday (July 5th!) last year and we've been made them many times since.

3. Smores Pie


Another one of my husband's desserts. He's made it for my birthday, his mom's birthday, just because . . . besides nothing says summer likes smores. (And there are a lot more smores desserts to come!)

4. Drunk Cherry Chocolate Cake


Black cherries. Whiskey (brandy is good too!). And chocolate. These is no way this cake couldn't be amazing.

5. Smores Cups


These little things are super easy to make and addictive.

6. Baileys White Chocolate Chip Cookies



I'm not much of a drinker, neither is Eric, but we sure love our boozy desserts. The Baileys adds some extra yumminess to these cookies.

7. Smores Sandwich Cookies



Out of all smores cookies, these guys are my husband's favorite!

8. White Chocolate Hazelnut Cream Pie



This cream pie is light and airy and perfect for a Fourth of July barbecue.

9. Butterscotch Cookies



I recently made these again to bring to a get-together and they were a huge success. Not a single one was left on the plate.

10. Smores Cookies



I told you there were a lot of smores desserts on this list. Nothing says summer like smores!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Summer Recipes Ideas:
Cheesy Tomato Zucchini Bake
Bacon Barbecue Green Bean Casserole
Margarita Chicken and Steak Fajitas
Baked Parmesan Tomatoes
Roasted Garlic White Bean Hummus
Soy Waxy Beans with Sesame Seeds

Smores Galore!

Made over a campfire, a stove flame, or transformed into another type of dessert, Smores are one of the best treats out there. I know they are one of my all time favorites. So here is a complication of Smores recipes for all you other Smores lovers!

1. Smores Pie

This is my favorite Smores recipe, hands down. My husband originally made it for my birthday a couple of years ago. He made it again earlier this year for his mom's birthday. It was even better than anyone of us remembered. Made with a pre-made graham cracker pie crust and marshmallow fluff, it's also extremely easy to make!

2. Smores Cookie Cups

These little cookies are freakin' addicting. Sugar cookie, chocolate spread, and marshmallow fluff, how could you go wrong?

3. Smores Cookie Sandwiches

These cookies are made with all the same ingredients as the Smores Cups; they're just assembled differently. 

4. Smores Wontons

These are fun little desserts or appetizers. I bake mine, but you can also fry them.

5. Smores Cookies

Yes, another Smores cookie recipe. What can I say? I love cookies more than any other baked good.

6. Peep Smores

Eric and I love making Peep Smores. Every year we do it with Christmas Peeps over a gas stove or in the fireplace and we do it with Halloween Peeps over a bonfire. The ironic thing is, either of us are huge Peep fans. But man, do we love them in Smores!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Smores Cookie Cups

So after I made Cinnamon Toast Crunch Smores, I kind of had smores on the brain and ended up making two different types of smores cookies: Smores Cookie Cups and Smores Sandwich Cookies. Both made with the same ingredients, both completely addicting. Seriously, I couldn't eat just one.

This recipe is also super simple. However, I made it a little bit more difficult. The recipe calls for refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Now, I love refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough, but I'm not a huge fan of refrigerated sugar cookie dough; it just doesn't taste right to me, so I used my sugar cookie recipe (see below). But if you like the store-bought stuff, I say use it! It makes these cookies so much simpler!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1 package Ready to Bake Pillsbury Sugar Cookies (or this sugar cookie recipe, halved)
4 tablespoons chocolate spread (I used Hershey, but Jiffy makes one too)*
4 tablespoons marshmallow fluff
3 graham crackers, crumbled

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees if using refrigerated cookie dough. (If using my sugar cookie recipe, preheat to 375 degrees). Grease a two mini muffin tin with cooking spray.

Place crumbled graham crackers in a bowl. You can crumble them as fine or as coarse as you like.

Roll each section of refrigerated cookie dough (approximately a tablespoon of cookie dough from scratch) into a ball. Roll each ball into the graham cracker crumbs and place in the muffin tin.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes at 350 or 7-8 minutes at 375 (for scratch).

As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, press the centers in gently using the end of a wooden spoon. Allow the cookies to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, spoon 1/2 teaspoon of chocolate spread into each cup. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon marshmallow fluff on top of the chocolate spread. Place cookie cups onto a cookie sheet.

Set oven to broil and pop the cookies back into the oven to toast the marshmallow. This only takes about 30 seconds so don't walk away or even look away from your cookies or else you risk burning them. When the marshmallow reaches the desired shade of golden brown, remove from oven.

Serve or store in an airtight container at room temperature.

*I can't wait to try these with chocolate-hazelnut spread!

Right out of the oven. Pure heaven.

Smores Cookie Cups and Smores Sandwich Cookies

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Smores Recipes:
Smores Wontons 
Smores Cookies!
Smores Pie
Peep Smores 

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Smores

Somehow we managed to have Hershey bars and marshmallows in the house but no graham crackers, which meant no smores. Then my lovely, intelligent husband suggested using the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal in place of the graham cracker. Brilliant idea! The extra sugar and cinnamon bring a whole new level to smores. These may not be ideal for the campfire but for the oven, they are perfect!

Ingredients:
1 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch
2 Hershey chocolate bars
8 large marshmallows

Directions:
Set oven to broil.

Lightly spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Create four 1/4 cup mounts on the cookie sheet and slightly spread them out. Place half a chocolate bar on top of each pile. Add two marshmallows on top of the chocolate bar.

Place under the broiler until marshmallows reach desired golden brown color. Keep an eye on your smores because the marshmallows can go from brown to burnt quickly under the broiler.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Smores Recipes:
Smores Wontons 
Smores Cookies!
Smores Pie
Peep Smores  

Halloween Peep Smores!

You may remember, that Eric and I have made Christmas Peep Smores a couple years ago over our gas stove. Well, this year we made Halloween Peep Smores over a campfire on our honeymoon. Peeps make fabulous, festive smores. Now, I'm normally one to thrust my marshmallow into the flames, set it on fire, and char the outside. That's how I like my marshmallows. However, with the peeps, you want to take your time and caramelize the sugar coating, not burn it (learned my lesson on that making Christmas Peep smores). This tries my patience, but it's so worth it.

Ingredients:
Pumpkin or ghost Peeps
Chocolate Bars
Graham Crackers

Directions:
Roast your peep, caramelizing the sugar coating the marshmallow. Layer graham cracker, chocolate, Peep, graham cracker.

Alternative to a smore: Put your roasted peep or marshmallow into a cup of hot chocolate . . . so good!

Enjoy!


~Krissy

More Smores Recipes!
Smores Cookies!
Smores Pie
Smores Wonton

 

Smores Wontons

Smores aren't just a campfire treat. You can re-imagine this dessert in so many different ways (smores pies, smores banana boats, smores cookies!) With a package of wontons in the fridge, chocolate chips in the cupboard and some leftover marshmallow fluff, these smores wonton were inevitable.

Ingredients:
16 wontons
8 teaspoons marshmallow fluff
1/4 cup chocolate chips*

*I made these with chocolate chips, but I do recommend using bar chocolate like a Hershey candy bar just because I had problems with the chips puncturing the wonton. I haven't made these yet, but I'm guessing you could just break the bars in half and that'd be plenty of chocolate for the wonton. (Hershey bars come with 12 bars so you'd need 8 bars broken in half).

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.** Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or grease with cooking spray.

Place a scant teaspoon of marshmallow fluff in the center of each wonton. DO NOT use mini marshmallows. I tried this too. They just disappear. Add 6 to 8 chips to each wonton.

Wet all four edges of the wontons with water (I used my finger but you could also use a pastry brush) and fold over, pressing the edges together to seal.

Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until the wontons turn a golden brown.

**You can also deep fry these if you so desire.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Wonton Recipes
Homemade Pizza Rolls
Cream Cheese Rangoons
Chocolate Hazelnut Ravioli
Jalapeno Popper Wontons
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Banana Wontons

Smores Pie

Source

Nothing says summer like smores! So for Independence Day, Eric made us a smores pie. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing this dessert is. Seriously, no words would do this pie justice. And the aromas this dessert gives off--the chocolate baking, the marshmallow roasting--absolutely mouthwatering. And to make this recipe even more enticing: it's fairly simple to make. The hardest part is waiting for it to cool so you can take a bite! Eric is so proud of his creation--you should see the grin on his face!

Adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1 store-bought graham cracker pie crust
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg, room temperature
pinch of salt
7-ounce (a little less than a cup) marshmallow fluff

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the chocolate chips in a large bowl. In a heavy saucepan bring heavy cream to a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate chips and let it sit for 1 minute.

Whisk the chocolate and cream together until it's well combined and smooth. Add the egg and a pinch of salt to the mixture and whisk until well incorporated. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pie crust.

Cover the edges of the pie crust with foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the chocolate is almost set--the center should be a little bit jiggly.

Place the pie on a rack and allow to cool for about one hour.

Add the marshmallow fluff on top of the chocolate layer and smooth with a spatula. Set the oven to broil and place the pie back in the oven for just 2 or 3 minutes or until the top of the fluff turns a golden brown.

Allow pie to cool for about ten minutes before serving.

Bake chocolate layer

Marshmallow fluff layer

Under the broiler. It smells just like marshmallows roasting on a fire. Taste just like them too!

Oh so good.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Check out these other Smores Recipes:
Smores Cookies
Smores Banana Boats
Peep Smores

Malt Chocolate Marshmallows

Homemade marshmallows are so much better than store bought marshmallows. I made them for the first time for Christmas, 2011, and well . . . haven't made them since. Then I kept seeing this chocolate malt marshmallow recipe on pinterest. I took it as a sign that it's time to try my hand at marshmallow making again. It not only looked delicious but was a bit more complicated than the mug recipes I've been making lately. The recipe calls for the use of a standing mixer (you need to beat the mixture for 18 minutes on high), but I don't own one. I did not let this deter me (I never do) and all that beating with an electric hand mixer paid off because these marshmallows are oh so good.

Ingredients: 
Cocoa slurry:
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa*
3/4 cup malt powder (I used Ovaltine)
2/3 cup boiling water

The base:
1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
pinch salt

The bloom:
4 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For coating:**
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

*Use cocoa powder that has less than 1.5g of fat per tablespoon. Cocoa with more fat could result in heavy marshmallows.

Directions:
Spray a 7x11 dish with cooking spray (or lightly grease with butter). Whisk together the coating ingredients then flour the pan with roughly 2 tablespoon of the mixture. Reserve the rest of the coating mixture and set aside.

The slurry: Combine all the slurry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until mixture is smooth and well combined. Set aside.

The base: Place all the base ingredients into a medium, heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Once it reaches a boil, wipe down the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush. Cover and allow to boil for 2 minutes without stirring. Remove the lid and insert a candy thermometer. Raise heat to medium-high and boil until the syrup reaches 260 degrees F.

The bloom: While the base is cooking, make the bloom. Trust me, you'll have plenty of time; it seemed to  take forever for my syrup to reach 260 degrees. Add the water and vanilla into a shallow bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin across the surface and distribute evenly. The mixture will turn into gelatin, but that's okay. Set aside.

The base: As soon as the temperature reaches 260, remove from heat. Stir in the gelatin. Beware the mixture will foam up. Next, stir in the slurry. Mix until well combined and smooth. Pour into a large bowl (the bowl of your standing mixer if you have one) and attach the whisk attachment. Gradually bring mixture to the highest speed setting. The original recipe said to beat for 18 minutes. I beat my for 25 and probably could have made my marshmallows even fluffier by giving them another 10 minutes. Anyhow, your mixture should be light and fluffy like marshmallow creme.

Pour  the mixture into your prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Cover with a piece of foil and leave out at room temperature overnight to set.

Remove the marshmallow from the pan (I found it easiest to just lift the marshmallow from the pan versus turning the pan over). Dust the top of the marshmallows with the leftover coating mixture. Spray a knife or kitchen shears with cooking spray and cut marshmallows into squares. Store in an airtight container.

**You can use other coating. Skip the cocoa-powdered sugar all together, then after you cut them, coat  them with sprinkles, chopped nuts, mini-chocolate chips, or even dip them in tempered chocolate.

FYI: To die for smore recipe: Malt chocolate marshmallow, cookies and cream chocolate square (I used Ghirardelli) and graham crackers.

Enjoy!


~Krissy