Newport Foodies

I have a ten year old daughter and a new puppy, so my days are full of entertaining others. Mia still has a few more weeks left in summer and I want to make sure we fill it up with as many fun activities as possible before school starts. Mia has been begging to have her friend Coco over to play in our jacuzzi, so I thought that it would be a perfect time to pull out some of my favorite kid-friendly recipe for them to make together.

S’mores “Haystack” Cookies

Remember haystack cookies? You mix chocolate with Chinese crunchy noodles and whatever else you feel like then let them harden in the fridge. My mom and I often make them together when I was growing up. I loved making them because they were easy, messy, and full of flavor combo possibilities. My mom liked to put roasted Spanish peanuts into hers, but I like to mix things up even more. S’mores are Mia’s favorite dessert so I tweaked the classic haystack recipe just for her.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
• 1 cup crushed graham crackers
• 1 cup marshmallow bits

Kids can do 95% of this recipe by themselves, but I would suggest you provide ample supervision while melting the chocolate.

As you have probably noticed, there are no crispy noodles in this haystack. We used graham crackers instead. Break up a cup of graham crackers into little pieces, varying from really small pieces to about 1/2 inch squares. Set aside.

Measure out 1 1/2 cups of both chocolate chips and butterscotch chips and pour into a microwave safe glass bowl.

We melted our chocolate and butterscotch in the microwave, but you can also use a double boiler method, if you prefer. Place your chips into the microwave for 45 seconds, remove, and stir.

Repeat this interval once more then switch to 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval until the chocolate is smooth, shiny, and deliciously melted. Ours was perfect after 3 cycles.

You can let the kids have at it from here on out. Pour your graham crackers and cup of marshmallow bits into your melted chocolate and stir to combine.

You can just eat mixture as is (like I wanted to do) but you should probably finish the cookies and act like a dang adult.

Line a cookie sheet with tinfoil and use large spoons to make your cookies on the tinfoil.

Once you have used up all of your mixture pop your cookie sheets into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes or until the cookies are cooled and hardened. Serve immediately.

 

As a special surprise, I ordered a personal cotton candy machine from Amazon for Mia and Coco to play with. They had an absolute blast!

I took a few fails, but we finally got the hang of spinning the candy floss at just the right velocity. Both Mia and Coco made cotton candy that the OC Fair would be proud to serve. After all of our sweet treats were complete, we headed out back to cool off and to stuff our faces!

Mia and Coco had an amazing time splashing around in the jacuzzi and trying their hardest not to get their cotton candy and cookies wet. It is definitely a summer day for the memory books! We hope you have an incredible rest of summer!