Birthday Cake Graham Cracker S'mores

Recently the blogging world has been all a flutter with sprinkles. I mean they’re in everything! From cheesecake, to waffles, to bridal bouquets. Really bridal bouquets, really! Sprinkles are even adorning the faces and lips of some. And if you watched the Today show this morning, you might have seen the segment on “sprinkles” for finger nails. They’re calling it caviar, but what-ev! Those are totally sprinkles.

And you know what else is hot in the blogging world…S’mores. I guess it’s because it’s almost summer, but S’mores are popping up again on food blogs. I mean, who doesn’t like a molten hot marshmallow?

So what’s a girl to do? Jump on that bandwagon. That’s what!

Birthday Cake Graham Cracker S’mores

These little sweeties are a delectable treat, perfect for a summer evening.

I think the graham crackers would make a nice little end of the year treat for a teacher. Package them up with a bag of marshmallows and a bar of chocolate. Easy-peasy and super cute.

Want to make some? Ok, let’s go.

Birthday Cake Graham Cracker Recipe
(Recipe adapted from SmittenKitchen.com. Original recipe from Nancy Silverton’s Pastries from the La Brea Bakery)

2 Cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup whole wheat flour (you can use all, all-purpose flour if you want)
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz (1 cube) butter, unsalted, cold and cut into 3/4″ cubes
1/3 cup partially invert syrup* See note below for how to make this
5 tbsp whole milk
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 Cup sprinkles (I used rainbow jimmies)
Granulated sugar for topping (optional)

*Make the partially invert syrup by combining two parts sugar (8 oz) and one part water (4 oz) in a pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes, until clear. Do not stir the mixture while it cooks.

Combine 1/3 cup partially invert syrup with the milk and vanilla. Place the mixture in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Combine flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a mixer bowl. Use the paddle attachment and stir the mix on low, just to incorporate everything.

Add the cold butter cubes to the mix. Mix on low until it resembles a course meal.

Add the milk/syrup mix and mix on low. Allow the paddle to go around a couple of times and then add the sprinkles. Continue to mix on low, but stop mixing as soon as the dough starts to come together.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of lightly floured plastic wrap. Wrap the dough tightly in the plastic and place it in the refrigerator. Chill for 1.5 hours or overnight.

Rolling the Dough
When you’re ready to roll out the dough, divide the dough in half. Return half to the refrigerator. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour as well. Continue to add flour as needed. Roll the dough into a rectangle 1/8″ thick.

Trim the edges of the rectangle. Cut the dough into 2″ squares with a fluted pastry cutter. If you don’t have a fluted cutter a straight edge cutter will work. You could also cut the dough using any shape cookie cutter. Wrap dough scraps in plastic and return them to the refrigerator. The scraps can be re-rolled to make more crackers.

To make them look more like graham crackers, mark the squares with holes. You can make the holes with the blunt end of a wooden BBQ skewer.

Place the cut dough on parchment lined cookie sheets. When a sheet is full, wrap it with plastic and place it in the refrigerator.

Repeat with the second half of dough. You can also re-roll the scraps after they have been chilled.

I did not re-roll my scraps and I made a total of 52 cookies. I saved the scraps to use for something else later.

Chill the crackers for about 45 minutes before baking.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°. Remove the plastic wrap from the baking sheets. If you’d like, sprinkle the tops of the crackers with granulated sugar.

Bake the crackers for 14-20 minutes until done, rotating the pans half way through baking. The crackers will look dark when they are done, but they can burn quickly, so don’t let them get too dark. If you take them out too soon, the crackers will be chewy and not crunchy.

Let the crackers cool on the baking sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Store crackers in an airtight container.

This is what the dough will look like after mixing in the butter.

Sprinkles! AKA Rainbow Jimmies

This is the dough after mixing.

Crackers, cut out and marked.

This is what I used to cut the crackers out.

Crackers after baking.

See the difference in color? The one on the right is slightly under-baked.

Making S’mores
Since these are birthday cake graham cracker s’mores I decided to replace the usual chocolate with vanilla melty’s that I tinted pink.

I melted the candy and smoothed it out on a piece of parchment. Then, because I could, I sprinkled it with rainbow jimmies. Before the candy hardened completely, I cut it into squares with a sharp knife.