S'mores Pie

We celebrated the much-anticipated 5th birthday of my lovely Amelia with this pie/cake last night. She blew out the candle, made her wish and smashed her fingers into the gooey marshmallows, squealing with delight! I found this treat in Southern Living Magazine via Pintrest (I'm a skeptic of recipes found there, but searching down the original recipe from a legit source eased my worries.) Starting with the original recipe, I modified it a bit to omit nuts and I wanted the golden brown marshmallows to be the visual rather than the chocolate frosting.

The result was a rich, moist, brownie-like filling inside a buttery, crunchy graham cracker crust topped with chewy, toasted marshmallow. The flavors are so good! The only down side was in order to get the filling fully cooked the graham cracker crust gets very browned. I think if I were to make this again I would use half the amount of filling to keep it from over browning as well as to cut down portion sizes. It is a tasty pie, but the richness makes a small piece sufficient!

Ingredients:

Graham cracker crust
 
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about half a box)
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted

Filling

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter
4 oz semi sweet chocolate bar

Topping

3 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:

Heat oven to 350
Mix crust ingredients together until combined and press firmly into the bottom of a 9" spring form pan, taking them about 1 1/2-2" up the side. Set aside.
In a double boiler melt butter and chocolate until smooth. Remove to heat and allow to cool slightly. Meanwhile combine sugar, flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl. Whisk in eggs, vanilla and chocolate mixture. ( I added a small amount of chocolate at a time to help temper the eggs and keep the warm chocolate from cooking them.)
Pour into prepared crust and bake for 60-75 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan. Just before serving move oven rack to lowest position and set broiler to low setting. Top the cooled pie with marshmallows and place in broiler until preferred browning is achieved. Remove outer ring and serve immediately.

After cooling the marshmallows become hard and chewy, making leftovers less appealing. I served the leftovers the next day and opted to remove the marshmallows and start with fresh, toasting them in the broiler as before.

I came across this recipe while planning a shared party for birthdays. What cake would be more appropriate for a bonfire party than a s'mores cake? That, coupled with the fact that my children are marshmallow fiends, made this cake a no-brainer for me. I knew I wanted to make a layered cake that looked a little rustic so I thought that maybe I could pull off using it for the party. It turns out this wasn't the best choice in cake for the party because it is best eaten immediately and the cool temperatures outside turned the marshmallows tough. It was very pretty though (I placed marshmallows closer to the edge so they would spill over) and the kids were impressed regardless! We made round two on Amelia's actual birthday and enjoyed it fresh from the oven in all its toasty, gooey glory!