I love taking a nostalgic flavor combination like chocolate, graham cracker, and marshmallow, and putting a fun spin on them. Nostalgia is always a great basis for a solid dessert, and I think almost any child raised in America could relate to a s’more. Graham cracker, gooey chocolate, and a toasted marshmallow. That’s childhood right there. Since I had a ton of finely ground graham cracker lying around, I figured, why not just make a s’more dessert with them? And that was how the S’mores Slice came into existence! The graham cracker crust was a fun no-bake one that I made by mixing graham cracker powder with melted blonde chocolate. It is very straightforward and easy to make, and comes together in 15 minutes. For the chocolate layer, that was where I wanted to experiment. It has been a while since I made chocolate delice, which is a French dessert that essentially combines chocolate ganache with pastry cream, and given the silky, creamy texture of delice, it just made sense to pair that with the buttery, snappy graham cracker crust. And lastly, I went with one of my personal favorite recipes in my Swiss Meringue marshmallow, made by whisking a Swiss meringue with gelatin powder to form this super stable, fluffy marshmallow. All in all, I was pretty happy with how the end product came out, just because it was everything I like in a dessert – creamy, crunchy, toasty, bitter, and sweet, all adjectives I look for in a well-balanced end to my meal!

Makes 6 servings:
For the graham cracker crust:
1/4 cup blonde chocolate
1/4 cup finely crushed graham crackers
a pinch of salt
1 tsp canola oil

Melt half of the blonde chocolate over a double boiler. Take the bowl off heat and mix into the melted blonde chocolate the remaining until that is fully melted in as well. Grind the graham crackers into a fine powder and mix that, the salt, and the oil into the blonde chocolate as well. Press the mixture into a cooking spray-lined 4-inch by 6-inch rectangular mold and refrigerate until firm, at least 10 minutes.

For the chocolate delice:
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsps gelatin powder
3 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
3/4 cups dark chocolate, melted
1 tbsp chocolate liquor

In a pot, heat up the milk and cream on low. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch, gelatin, granulated sugar, and salt. Pour half of the milk onto the egg yolks, and whisk until combined. Then return the yolks and milk all to the pot and whisk everything on low heat for 2-3 minutes, until the sugar and gelatin are fully dissolved into the mixture. Fold into that the melted dark chocolate first, then the chocolate liquor. Pass everything through a sieve to remove any lumps. Pour the chocolate mixture into the mold and freeze for at least 2 hours before attempting to unmold.

For the Swiss meringue marshmallow:
2 egg whites
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar*
1 tbsp gelatin powder
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl over a double boiler, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, gelatin, and salt until the egg whites are frothy and the sugar and gelatin powder are fully dissolved into the egg whites. Transfer the bowl from the double boiler into a stand mixer bowl. Add to the mixture your vanilla extract and whip everything together with a whisk attachment until stiff peaks form and the meringue-marshmallow batter is tripled in volume. Spread the marshmallow over the top of the slice and toast with a blowtorch to finish.