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S’mores Cookies – Baking with Kids
Turning Camping Leftovers into a Sweet Memory
This month’s Baking Cookies with Lolli followed our camping trip. After a weekend of camping filled with campfires, laughter, and fishing, Pooh-Bear and I came home with an unexpected problem… way too many S’mores ingredients. We had extra marshmallows, more chocolate than any two people should be left alone with, and enough graham crackers to build a small log cabin. Rather than let them sit in the pantry, we decided to turn those camping memories into a new treat, S’mores cookies.
The base of these cookies is not just any chocolate cookie. It’s fudgy, gooey, and packed with rich flavor from melted semi-sweet chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and a little surprise — crushed graham crackers mixed right into the dough. Once baked, each cookie gets crowned with a few mini marshmallows, a sprinkle of more crushed graham crackers, and of course, a piece of a Hershey’s candy bar. Every bite tastes like sitting by the campfire without worrying about the wind blowing smoke in your eyes.
Ingredient List
S’more’s Cookies:
1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 Cup salted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup dark brown sugar
1/2 Cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 Cup flour
1/2 Cup crushed graham cracker, plus extra graham crackers for the topping
1 tsp baking soda
2 Hershey's candy bars
1 Cup mini marshmallows (or more)
Makes 20 cookies
1 hr Prep
9 mins Cook Time
Mix The S’mores Cookie Dough
Melt together the butter and the semi-sweet chocolate chips using either a double-boiler or by microwaving in a microwave-safe bowl 15 seconds at a time and stirring between heating to avoid having the chocolate burn.
I let Pooh-Bear put the pre-measured sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs into a bowl and begin whisking them together while I poured in the heated chocolate. She did a pretty good job combining all the wet ingredients.
Our next step was to crush the graham crackers. For a three-year-old, this might be her favorite part. I put about three graham crackers into a plastic sandwich bag and let her crush away. She loved pounding the graham crackers into dust. Add a half-cup of crushed graham crackers to the batter.
Next, we added the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and a pinch of salt. If you are using unsalted butter, you’ll need to add a little bit more to cut down on the ingredients. Here, the dough got a little too stiff for her to mix on her own, and I gave her a little bit of help.
Now, you’ll need a bit of patience, which is in short supply with a three-year-old, and honestly, with me since I was so eager to try these yummy cookies. Cover the dough and let it chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Roll Into Balls, Decorate, and Bake!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
I scooped out enough dough to make about a 1-1/4″ ball. Pooh-bear and I have been practicing making play-dough shapes; balls, worms, and more, so this was another extra fun step for her to shape the dough into a ball.
Next, smush the balls and make a small crater. Put 3-4 mini marshmallows into the crater and then crumble graham crackers over the top. There will be some chunky pieces of graham crackers and some dust. It’s okay.
Then, put a square of Hershey’s chocolate candy on top. It will sort of balance there.
Now, bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. My cookies were perfect at 9 minutes even.
We brought a batch to our family reunion and, let’s just say, they didn’t last long. Folks were hovering by the dessert table, and I spotted more than one adult sneaking a second (or third) cookie. Pooh-Bear beamed every time someone told her how delicious they were.
Making these cookies with kids is pure joy, but fair warning, the dough needs to chill in the refrigerator for an hour before baking. This is perfect for letting little helpers take a break to play while you clean up the first wave of mess. Younger children can be the official “mixers” and “topping decorators,” which is where the fun really happens. Pooh-Bear took her job very seriously, carefully pressing the marshmallows and chocolate pieces into each cookie like she was tucking them into bed.
One of my sanity-saving tips for cooking with kids is to have all my ingredients measured and ready to go before we start. It keeps things moving and helps avoid accidental sugar avalanches. Of course, if I want to work on counting and measuring skills, I just accept that the kitchen is going to look like a baking tornado hit… and try not to step on a runaway marshmallow.
In the end, these S’mores cookies were more than just a way to use up leftovers. They were a way to bring a little piece of our camping trip home and share it with our whole family. And honestly, watching Pooh-Bear proudly hand out cookies she helped make was sweeter than the dessert itself.
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