I know you're going to think I'm lying, but it's actually been quite chilly in Florida the past few days. I've started sleeping with our comforter at night for the first time ever! Seriously, we've never had to use it until this past week and it's been glorious. I have a hard time sleeping when I'm hot so being able to snuggle up in a fluffy comforter makes me sleep like a baby.
Another thing that I love about colder weather, other than getting to use a comforter at night, is fires. Some of my favorite memories involve sitting around a camp fire with good friend while roasting a mallow. It always seems like the best conversations happen late at night around a camp fire--when most of the party has left and the fire has died but the coals are still hot.
My friend recently had a birthday party and I brought some chocolate, marshmallows and homemade graham crackers just in case a late night fire pit happened. It didn't, but the beautiful thing about s'mores is that you can make them in the microwave or oven if you don't have a fire nearby. And that's exactly what people did. The marshmallows expanded drastically in the 13 seconds that they were in the microwave so some people had to eat their s'mores with a fork and knife. That's definitely not a bad thing. Gooey, drippy, chocolaty s'mores. Delicious.
The recipe I used was from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen blog. Basically I just "veganized" her recipe. They turned out great!! The process takes a while, but they're easy to make. The dough needs to be chilled before it's rolled out and cut into squares and after each "roll-out" I would place the scraps back in the fridge to firm up again before I re-rolled the dough and cut more squares. Like I said, not hard, just a little tedious.
Vegan Graham Crackers
(Makes 24-30 Squares)
Ingredients:
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
· 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· 3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
· 7 tablespoons earth balance spread
· 1/3 agave nectar
· 5 tablespoons almond milk
· 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
· 3 tablespoons sugar
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:
1. Place the flours, brown sugar, baking soda and salt in a food processor and pulse using the steel blade
2. Add in the butter and pulse until the consistency becomes a course meal.
3. In a small bowl whisk together the agave, milk and vanilla.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the food processor and pulse on and off until the dough forms. Do not over mix!
5. Take the dough out and lay it on a piece of saran wrap. Flatten it into a rectangle about 1-inch thick and wrap all the dough in the saran wrap.
6. Place the dough in the fridge for 2 or more ours, even overnight.
7. After the dough has gotten firm, remove half from the fridge.
8. Flour a work space well and roll the dough out into a rectangle that is 1/8 inch thick and 4 inches wide. Trim the edges to be straight.
9. Cut the dough into squares 2 x 2 inches big and place on a parchment-line baking sheet.
10. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar topping and place the tray in the fridge for 30 –40 minutes to firm up (or in the freezer for 20 minutes).
11. Take the scraps and form them into a ball. Place the ball in the fridge to firm up.
12. Repeat this process with the remaining dough, making sure the dough is well-chilled before trying to roll it out.
13. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Adjust the oven rack to the upper and lower positions.
14. Once the squares have been in the fridge for 30-40 minutes, remove the sheets from the fridge and decorate the squares by making a vertical line down the middle of each square. Then use a fork to poke two rows of vertical dots.
15. Bake the squares for 15-25 minutes depending on your oven temperature. Rotate the crackers half way through baking.
16. Make sure you check them occasionally so that they don’t burn!
17. Let them cool and eat plain or with some chocolate and marshmallow sandwiched in between.
Eat Consciously,
Faith
