Homemade Peanut-Free Nutter Butters! MMMmmmmm!

S'MORE POPS!

A pretty-darn cute recipe idea flashed across my screen the other day.  Some practically-perfect-looking flower-shaped S'mores Pie Pops!  Thanks for the idea, Debbie! So cute! Innovative! And...EASY!

I ACTUALLY, in a shocking turn of events, ALREADY had all the ingredients in the house! Including a pre-made pie crust.  I took that out of the freezer the other day and stuck it in the fridge to thaw, so that when the inspiration or the mood or the desperation struck, this daddy would be armed and ready!

So - today... lazy Saturday... nothing planned... Soccer was already over by 10am... and I thought "today's the day!"  I mean... it's hot and muggy in the house --I refuse to put the A/C back on, because, it's been so lovely and fall-ish out recently --why not turn the oven on and do a baking project?!?!

I'm a little crazy sometimes.  

But my CREATIVE PURSUITS 

WILL NOT BE STOPPED!

So... I try to interest my 5.5 year old... "Wanna make S'mores Pie Pops?!"  She was PSYCHED!  She immediately got a piece of paper to make a checklist of all the things we need so that as I got out the ingredients, she could keep track! (She doesn't write words yet, so... ) Then, for the next fifteen or so minutes, she rattled off a running monologue involving the word CHECK countless times... as she "Checked!" and "Unchecked!" everything 40 buh-zillion times and then I already had a headache before we even started constructing these little things...

Egg! Check! Egg! Uncheck!
Chocolate! Check!  Checking things! Check!  Check! CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!  CHHHHHEEEEECCCCCKCKKKKKK!

[takes deep breath]

And so it's time.....
Got my parchment on my tray. Turned on the oven. Inspected a baggie with an old partial Hershey bar in it... threw THAT out... and opened a new one. Located my bag of mini-marshmallows. Cracked an egg into a little bowl and beat that with a fork. Threw a little flour down on the counter - which I cleaned THOROUGHLY with our Shaklee Cleanser first! (#GreenDad #ShakleeFamily) Unrolled the pie crust. I got O up on her step-stool and she helped with the rolling pin.  

EASY SO FAR!

I selected a smallish circle cookie-cutter.... actually, the blog I was following had cute flowers, and OF COURSE, my daughter argued for reindeer-shaped ones... but I stood my ground.

-Win argument with daughter. CHECK√

And then the cutting out of the circles... Sammy got in on the action too... cut a few circles... then started just playing in the flour.  So I kicked him out.

I laid half the circles out - staggered, and I juuuust happened to have lollipop sticks from past cup cake topper-projects.... so... that was great.  (I woulda just made little S'mores Empanadas if I hadn't had the sticks...)





















Following the instructions, I brushed the circles with egg, and pressed the stick in.  Then I put about 3/4 of a rectangle of Hershey chocolate and about two mini marshmallows (cut in half) on top of that. We laid the other circles on top and pressed them together with a fork.  NOTE TO SELF: it's hard to fork-crimp if you're close to the raised edge of the pan.... so.... next time, I'll put the dough circles more central and point the sticks out toward the edge of the pan.  #LearningCurve #TeachableMoment

They looked right! I brushed the tops with more egg and dropped some sanding sugar on the tops. I love this stuff... tend to always have it on hand! 








Into the oven they went!!! 

20 minutes later... delicious smells... pie crust... mmmmm.... melted chocolate.... mmmmmm

TIME TO EAT! 

They cooked up so perfectly! #GoldenBrown perfection!  A little puffed up.... 

(There's one that I rushed at the end and didn't cut the marshmallow... can you tell which one?!)

And I called the kids to the table, and the husband from the nap!  Everyone ran to the table!

Consensus... yummy!  Delish! We wondered where the marshmallow went... I think it all melted into the chocolate.  It was like a light and flaky air-cavern of pie-crust with some chocolate inside.  But it still tasted like chocolate AND marshmallow... but it was some sort of sorcery... the marshmallows
were GONE!  

And speaking of gone... we're down to 3, and a pile of crust-crumbs on the table!

All in all.... a fun little project.  

My #EDadEvaluation:  Easy. Yummy. Good way to involve kids. Cute. Fun idea. Definitely more show-value than taste.  I mean... it's chocolate and marshmallow in pie crust... you know what it's gonna taste like... but for a party... or a camping-themed event... or just of the innovation of having a pop-version of a classic treat.... I say sign me up for s'more! 

Have a GREAT day! 

Love on your family! 

...and... 

#MakeSomething!