Gimme S'more

Ahhhh, the elusive vegan s'more. The odds are stacked against us, from the lack of honey-free graham crackers to the quest of gelatin-free marshmallows. But once again, we can gather around our campfires (or kitchen stove as in our case), tell ghost stories (or whine that we have to go to work the next day), and roast marshmallows for that warm, gooey, sugary treat known fondly as the s'more.




Last night we did just that. Some of you may remember the vegan marshmallow saga from what seems like many months ago now. At that time, I vowed to get my hands on some of Sweet and Sara's vegan marshmallows. Low and behold, while browsing Vegan Essentials I discovered that they were finally in stock! I took my chance and ordered the toasted coconut and vanilla marshmallows. Since they were coming to steamy Houston, I had to order them second day air mail, packaged with cold packs, so they wouldn't be a sticky mess when they arrived. As soon as I saw they had been delivered, I ran (okay, drove) home from work to save these little meltaways from the blistering sun. The toasted coconut marshmallows survived the journey well, but the vanilla weren't so lucky. Regardless, I tossed them in my fridge to recover. Now I'm sure you're wondering about the taste, very authentic! The texture was similar, although not as fluffy and the taste not quite as sweet as a reguar marshmallow, but that was a welcomed change. The vanilla mallows were a bit tough to roast given that they never regained a tensile strength, but I still managed to get some of the edges nice and brown. The only thing I thought was missing was the nutritional information, although maybe I don't want to know....

For the graham crackers, I have searched far and wide in the grocery stores of Houston, but have yet to find a graham cracker that doesn't have honey. So I figured, they can't be that hard to make, right? I found a recipe from the VCTOTW blog, so I knew it had to be good. Rolling the dough and getting perfect rectangles was a bit tough, but it was worth the effort. Here they are about to head for the oven.

This was a fun little food experiment for me. For the chocolate, I used the Endangered Species Grizzly Bear bar, dark chocolate with raspberries, mmmm, I love their chocolate. Honestly, I'm not even that fond of s'mores, but it was the challenge that drew me to it (I'm a bit of a type A personality). Overall, I think they turned out well, at least I gobbled mine up! And it did bring back fond memories of sitting around the fire at Girl Scout camp, laughing and telling stories, and just having a good ole time.