Passionfruit s'mores

Tam West

S’mores are an American classic, traditionally made around campfires by smushing a toasted marshmallow between graham crackers with some milk chocolate. Authentic graham crackers can be pretty hard to come by in New Zealand. More like a thin cookie than a cracker, they get their name from graham flour, which they used to be made with. My recipe, although not at all like the pre-made crackers, is pretty simple and, of course, delicious. If making your own marshmallows scares you I won’t hold it against you if you use a pack of Pascals.

Graham crackers

1 ½ cups	Flour
½ cup	Brown sugar
1 tsp	Baking soda
1 pinch	Sea salt flakes
50 g	Unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
2 Tbsp	Honey
3 Tbsp	Milk
½ tsp	Vanilla extract

Passionfruit marshmallow

¼ cup	Water
5 leaves	Gelatine
¾ cup	Sugar
½ cup	Passionfruit pulp, in syrup, seeds strained (Main)
1 pinch	Salt
½ cup	Water
⅓ cup	Icing sugar, for dusting

To serve

12	Graham crackers (Main)
12	Passionfruit marshmallows (Main)
¼ cup	Dark chocolate, shaved with knife

Directions

To make the graham crackers

1. Place the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt into food processor and blitz for 30 seconds to combine. Drop in the diced butter and continue to blitz until mix looks like coarse breadcrumbs.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Pour the liquids into the food processor and process, just until dough forms. Quickly work into a smooth dough with your hands, then wrap in cling film and chill for 2 hours.
3. Heat oven to 160C.
4. Between two lightly floured sheets of baking paper roll out the dough to 2mm thick and place in the fridge for 5 minutes to make it easier to work with.
5. Cut into rectangles 3cm by 6cm and place on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Allow a little room between each cracker. Prick each one carefully with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on the top and bottom. They will harden as they cool.

To make the passionfruit marshmallow

1. Place cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer and add the gelatine leaves one by one. Let stand 30 minutes.
2. Combine sugar, passionfruit, salt, and½cup water in a small saucepan. Cook this syrup until it reaches 118C (firm-ball stage). You're best to use a candy thermometer for this. Immediately remove saucepan from heat. With whisk attachment and the mixer on low speed, slowly pour syrup into the softened gelatine. Once it's all in, increase speed to high and beat mixture for 15 minutes until very thick, elastic and doubled in volume.
3. Line a tray with baking paper and generously dust with icing sugar. Pour marshmallow mixture on to the pan and then with slightly wet hands, push out to 3cm thickness. Dust with more icing sugar and allow to dry for an hour.
4. Using a sharp knife, cut marshmallow into rectangles 3cm by 6cm and roll in more icing sugar.

To serve

1. Place a marshmallow on top of each graham cracker.
2. Using a blow torch, caramelise the marshmallow until it is golden and slightly softened. Sprinkle with chocolate while the marshmallow is still hot.
3. Top with another graham cracker, consume when warm.