Dark Chocolate S'mores Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt
Rich, fudgy chocolate cookies with marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate chunks, topped with a toasted marshmallow and a sprinkle of smoked sea salt. Tastes like a summer evening by the campfire.
Servings: 30 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 c flour
- 3/4 c dutch cocoa powder*
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- 1 c butter softened
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1 c brown sugar packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 c chocolate chunks semi-sweet or bittersweet
- 3/4 c mini marshmallows
- 1 c graham crackers broken into small pieces
- 15-16 large marshmallows cut in half
- smoked sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper**.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until well blended and fluffy.
- Add eggs, vanilla, and almond extract and mix until combined, scraping bowl as needed.
- Gradually add flour mixture and mix just until combined. There should still be bits of unmixed flour mixture throughout the dough.
- Add chocolate chunks and mix until well-disbursed in the dough.
- Add mini marshmallows and mix just for a few seconds. Use a spatula to gently fold in the graham cracker pieces. (Mixing with the mixer will break them up too much)
- Scoop onto prepared cookie sheets using a medium cookie scoop or spoons. Dough balls should be about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
- Smush tops of dough balls with the back of the cookie scoop or your thumb to create a shallow crater. Sprinkle on a little smoked sea salt, then put half of a large marshmallow on the top. Press gently so it sticks to the dough.
- Bake for 7-8 minutes or until cookies are set and marshmallows are lightly browned and puffy. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Cool completely.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. Cookies will stay fresh for about 5 days.Note: this might be obvious, but the marshmallow on top will cause the cookies to stick together if you stack them. Separate with some parchment paper to help contain the stickies, or just give in to the delicious messiness. :)
Notes
*Dutch process cocoa powder (or, "cocoa processed with alkali") is not the same as "natural" cocoa powder (which is what most of the cocoa powder you'll find in the grocery store is). I use Hershey's Special Dark, because it's the only Dutch cocoa that's readily available where I live, but you can use any brand Dutch cocoa you prefer. You could also use regular or "natural" cocoa powder if that's what you have, but the cookies won't be quite as fudgy.
**I don't always use parchment paper when baking cookies, but in this case the melted marshmallows end up sticking to the cookie sheets like glue, so you'll definitely need parchment (or silicone baking sheets if you have them).
Updated 4/14/20: I added 1/4c more flour to the recipe, as I was hearing from folks that the cookies were spreading out a lot. The extra flour will help.