S'more is Better

S'mores Cookies are Best

Last night, there was a 4th of July fireworks display in my nearby park. That it was July 1 and not actual Independence Day was okay with me. This year the fireworks felt a little duller than usual.

The 4th of July was one of my dad’s favorite holidays. A refugee from Austria, he loved the all-American celebrations best; he also thought Thanksgiving was tremendous.

My dad would buy an inordinate number of sausages for Independence Day dinner (He’d never had enough to eat as a kid, and would come home from Barth’s German Butcher Shop with a bag full of different kinds of sausages: at least 3 per person. I thought this was normal. Imagine my surprise when I went to other people’s homes and found they ate 1 hot dog! ONE!). He’d hang the American flag from a tree on our front lawn, we’d eat our fill of weisswurst, knoblauch and bauernwurst and my mom would suggest she stay home and do the dishes, so she could watch the fireworks with the Boston Pops on TV, as she was not a fan of outdoor activities. Daddy and I (and maybe a stray brother if they were around) would traipse down to the Memorial Field with our lawn chairs and an itchy wool blanket. We were a family of loud ooo-ers and ah-ers, but I always hid my head under my dad’s jacket for the cannon-like booms that would come at the end of the show.

This year, I think celebrating America on the 4th will take some doing on my part. The decisions by a few corrupted Supreme Court justices this week that took away our inalienable rights to things like bodily autonomy and clean air have left me emotionally winded. I am trying to take hope in things like Cassidy Hutchinson’s brave testimony and am happy 13 million people tuned in to watch. I’m also pleased the brilliant Ketanji Brown Jackson has joined the Supreme Court. I also got to see Rhys Darby perform in person, and if you haven’t watched “Our Flag Means Death,” do it now. Of course, then I hear stories of women who can’t get D and Cs if they have a miscarriage, because doctor’s worry they’ll be prosecuted and I. just. can’t.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. And my dad, who managed to escape the Holocaust to America, fought to defend the U.S. in World War II as a newly minted citizen and went on to give his family a reasonably idyllic suburban life would want me — and all like-minded people — to not give up and let the bad people win.

Ahhhh, but I go on, and here you are waiting for dessert (also a course that was NEVER missed in my house)!

Forget apple pie, few desserts are more all-American than s’mores. And with my love for cookies, I decided to transform s’mores from sandwich to cookie form. The result is thin, chewy cookie with all the hallmark flavors of a s’more: graham cracker, Hershey bar and marshmallow. I hate to put naughty ideas into your head, but these cookies would make great ice cream sandwiches…

A raw cookie, waiting for its stunning transformation.

These are quite simple to make and always a big hit at any 4th of July gathering.

Onwards and upwards, my friends. Onwards and upwards.

S’mores Cookies

makes 5 dozen

What You’ll Need

1 cup/8 ounces butter, softened

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cup finely crushed graham crackers *

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

6 Hershey bars (or other milk chocolate totalling about 9 ounces), broken into pieces of various sizes

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

5 to 6 ounces mini-marshmallows

What You’ll Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, graham cracker crambs, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. Using an stand or hand mixer, cream the butter with the white and brown sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Be sure to scrape down the sides mid-way through. Add the eggs one at a time and blend for 1 minute each. Add the vanilla.

4. Add the flour mixture, Hershey’s chocolate and the chocolate chips and mix until the dough is fully blended and the chocolates are evenly incorporated.

5. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheet, leaving about 2 1/2-inches per cookie, because these cookies like to spread more than a man on the R train. Press 3 to 4 marshmallows into each dough ball, slightly flattening the cookie as you do so. Bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are light golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your oven. Unlike real s’mores, these cookies do not taste as good when burned.

6. Let the cookies cool for at least 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a cooling rack.

• I crushed about 8 large graham cracker rectangles to arrive close to 1 1/3 cups of crumbs.

As my father loved to say in fake Latin:

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Happy-ish Fourth. Eat cookies. Get strong.