My family came to visit me this weekend and we spent the time cramming the entire month of June’s festivities into two days.  On Saturday, we celebrated my birthday, which is actually this coming Wednesday, and today we celebrated Father’s Day, which is actually next weekend.  It was the first time we’ve all been together in awhile (maybe since Easter?), so it was awesome to get to spend time with them.  Also, I consider birthdays weeklong events, despite my dad’s insistence otherwise, so really it also served as the kick-off to my birthday week.

For the rest of my birthday week, I have a lot of baking to do.  Today, I started by making treats for my students.  Whenever I set out to make something for them, I usually have to pick relatively quick and easy recipes, since making 125 of anything complicated is just way more time consuming than I want when its 80 degrees and my pool is open.  So I decided to make S’mores cupcakes, which require all of 5 ingredients and very little active time per batch.  For the post, I cut the recipe back down to 24 cupcakes.  I figure most of you aren’t baking for 5 classes of biology students.

Now, s’mores are my favorite summer dessert (behind ice cream, of course).  And even though I’m usually a purist, this variation gets my seal of approval.

First, crush 7 graham crackers into a fine powder.  You can put them in a bag and smash them, like this:

Or you can use a mini chop and really save a lot of time.  I forgot I had mine until I was about halfway through smashing my graham crackers, but the mini chop is definitely the way to go.

If you want to save even more time, buy a box of pre-crushed graham crackers and use 1 cup.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar in a bowl.

Melt the butter over low heat and add it to the mixture.

Combine with a fork until mixture is thoroughly wetted.  Spread the mixture evenly between 24 mini muffin tins.

Press the mixture into the bottom of the tins, keeping a small indent in the middle like a cup.

Bake at 350°F for about 5 minutes, until the edges are bubbling.  Remove from oven.

Side note: You know you’re a baker when you have not one, but two mini muffin tins.  And maybe a whole set of silicon containers as well. (Thanks, Mimi!)

Anyways, break apart a Hershey’s bar and put one little piece in each cup.  If you want a more grown-up version of this, use dark chocolate.  Since I was baking for high school freshmen, I stuck with the traditional milk chocolate.

Using kitchen shears dipped in cold water, cut marshmallows in half and put one half, cut side down, in each cup.

Bake for an additional 2 minutes to soften the marshmallows.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin.

After 15 minutes, remove cupcakes from the muffin tin to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.  If you want to speed up the process, feel free to put them in the fridge.

Now, I think you could probably serve them at this point, but the recipe here requires an additional step: adding more chocolate.

So I transferred the cupcakes to the platter I was planning on bringing to school.

Then, I broke up the remaining chocolate bars and melted them in the microwave at 50% power, 20 seconds at a time, stirring after each interval until smooth.

Using a spoon, I drizzled a small dollop of chocolate on top of each cupcake.  You could also dip them directly into the chocolate, but if you’re doing that, you probably want to make sure the chocolate from before has already hardened.  Otherwise they’ll fall apart.  Trust me.

Allow to harden for 40 to 60 minutes before serving.  Again, refrigeration will accelerate this process.  Store in a single layer in an airtight container for up to a week.

Enjoy!

S’mores Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 7 graham crackers, crushed
• 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 Hershey bars, divided
• 12 marshmallows, cut in half

Directions:

1. Crush the graham crackers in a plastic bag or mini chop.  Combine with confectioner’s sugar and melted butter in a bowl until moistened.
2. Press mixture into 24 mini muffin cups, putting an indent in the center of each.
3. Bake at 350°F for 5 minutes or until edges are bubbling.  Remove from oven.
4. Place one piece of chocolate in the center of each cup.  Put half of a marshmallow, cut side down, in each cup.
5. Bake for an additional 2 minutes to soften the marshmallow.
6. Allow to cool in tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Melt the remaining chocolate and either dip cupcakes or drop a small dollop onto the top of each.  Allow to cool 40 to 60 minutes to harden chocolate before serving.