Homemade X and O S'mores

Remember way back when (3 short months ago) when I was waxing on about getting back on the workout wagon and having one last throwdown with those homemade chocolate peanut butter cups as a sayonara?  Well let me just say that once Thanksgiving hit a couple weeks later I entered what I am now calling Holiday Food Coma 2010.  Sadly said coma has carried on to present day and I find myself with more junk in the trunk than I'd care to admit.

So today I returned to Jillian Michaels by completing 4 circuits of No More Trouble Zones during which time I realized I can no longer even properly womanhandle 2lb weights.  It's gonna be a long way back up this dirty mountain.  You see over the weekend I was thumbing through the Williams-Sonoma catalogue carrying on about how fun it would be to try this or that gadget when there they were staring at me from their little cups...X and O s'mores - 8 for a mere $24.95.  Of course I said to myself - challenge! (pronounced shall-onje!)  and decided that much like the Peppermint Bark I would take it to the kitchen and recreate my own.  Shortly thereafter I realized that a return to Jillian was in high order and I have to stop looking in the Williams-Sonoma catalogue.  

These are wonderful and we had so much fun making them from scratch:  gluten-free graham crackers dipped in chocolate with Thomas Keller's marshmallows sandwiched in between.  If you want to give your special someone (ahem, yourself) a homemade gift for Valentine's Day, I couldn't recommend them more highly.

Nothing says true love on Valentine's Day like a set of homemade 

x and o s'mores accompanied by chocolate dipped strawberries.

Graham Cracker Recipe - listed here
*Where they call for a gluten-free blend you can use mine listed here*

 Voila!  So simple and it takes 40 minutes tops - start to finish.

If you want me to list the step by step, just let me know and I'm happy to do it. 

I recommend baking the wafers one day and dipping them the next.  On the same day that you bake the cookies make the marshmallows.  The Chef worked for Thomas Keller at French Laundry and holds him in high regard.  He pulled up this marshmallow recipe that was super simple.  I totally could have done it on my own.  Rather than list the play by play, please see the link.  It took no more than 30 minutes and we let the marshmallow set over night then used our same cookie cutters to cut out matching shapes like so:

That's powdered sugar dusted around them.

To get the chocolate ready I simply used the same method and ingredients from the Peanut Butter Cup Recipe for tempering.  I've received a lot of emails from people saying how easy it is, so no worries you don't need a double boiler.

Assembly:  

• Dip one side of each graham wafer into your tempered chocolate and transfer it to a parchment lined cookie sheet for the chocolate to set (about half an hour). 

• One by one dip the other side of each wafer and let sit until just sticky, then put marshmallow on top and add the additional dipped wafer on the other side creating a little s'more sandwich.  

Let them set about 20 minutes and they're done!

Confession:  I dipped the remainder of the graham crackers in the leftover chocolate and froze them.  And then I dipped some strawberries in some more leftover chocolate.  And then I said hello Jillian:  It is time.  So from here on out it's protein style turkey burgers, grapefruit, nuts, and hardboiled eggs.  Death to saddle bags, but these made a wonderful last supper... I highly encourage the rest of you to enjoy!