All right, everyone. Time to throw in the towel. I’ve officially made the best s’mores ice cream on the internet. Maybe even in the world at large. I don’t normally make such bold claims about the superiority of my recipes, but this is the real deal.
So what makes this s’mores ice cream different from the rest? Let me tell you: smoked hot fudge sauce and toasted marshmallow fluff swirled into graham cracker ice cream. This isn’t an amateur’s game, where you just toss some crushed up grahams and chocolate and marshmallows into vanilla ice cream. Not that I’d kick that out of bed. Actually, I would, because I don’t allow eating in bed. But my point is that this ice cream is for people who are serious about s’mores.
The first step is cold-smoking chocolate for 3-4 hours. But don’t close the tab! If you don’t have a cold smoker attachment or even a smoker at all, it’s fine. All you need is a grill and this beautiful piece of ingenuity right here: The A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker. Cheesy name aside, this puppy is super cheap and does the most miraculous of things: cold smokes anything you want with just a metal tray, a little bag of pellets, and a grill (or, hell, a box). In a moment of desperation for smoked things, I bought it on Amazon and figured if it didn’t work, I’d be out 35 bucks. But, as its name implies… it is amazing. I smoked tofu, chocolate, butter (yusss), and sugar in my grill, and have plans to smoke about 60 more things, including my first born child.
If you’d like me to further convince you, a jar of smoked chocolate chips from Hot Cakes in Seattle costs $15 for 7 ounces. For just $20 more, you could have unlimited smoked chocolate chips for the rest of your life. No, they aren’t paying me to write this post. I’m just really, really, really jazzed about it because I love smoked foods. But if you just aren’t that into the idea, walk away now, because this recipe depends heavily on smoked chocolate. Because you turn that smoked chocolate into hot fudge sauce.
Okay, so now that you’re still with me, let’s talk about marshmallow fluff. I almost grabbed a jar of it off the shelf at the grocery store, because I was feeling lazy. And that’s perfectly okay. But when I looked at the ingredient label, I realized I had all of the ingredients at home already, and a tub of egg whites that needed used up. So I made my own fluff. And then I did something glorious. I spread the fluff onto a sheet pan and torched it with my kitchen torch. Then stirred it up and torched it again. And again. I only used half of the torched marshmallow fluff in the ice cream. I’ll let you use your imagination about what I did with the other half. (Ew, no I won’t. I ate it, you sickos.)
Finally, graham cracker ice cream. This is the easiest part of the whole recipe! Heat some milk and cream, toss in some graham crackers for a few minutes, strain them out, and churn. There are a few other steps in between, but you get the idea. The graham crackers soak up a lot of the milk and cream, so I actually used twice as much as I do for a normal batch of ice cream. You’ll be left with a gooey graham cracker sludge once you strain out the cream. Try not to eat it with a spoon. You will fail.
And then you just… slop all of those components together into a container and freeze it until it’s ready to go. It’s a lot of work, I agree. But it is the World’s Best S’mores Ice Cream, so it’s definitely worth the effort.
CAMPFIRE S’MORES ICE CREAM
- Cold smoker or a grill and A-MAZE-N Smoker, wood and/or wood pellets for the smoker (I used hickory pellets)
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate
- ⅔ cup (160 mL) heavy cream
- ½ cup (150 grams) light corn syrup
- ⅓ cup (70 grams) brown sugar
- ¼ cup (25 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons (30 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups (950 mL) heavy cream
- 2 cups (480 mL) whole milk
- 1½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoons agar agar flakes (optional)
- 2 packages graham crackers (18 rectangles or 280 grams)
- 2 large egg whites (60 grams), at room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- pinch salt
- ¾ cup (225 grams) light corn syrup
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (60 mL) water
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
- For the A-MAZE-N Smoker, fill the maze with hickory wood pellets, light it at one end, and place it in the bottom of your [Weber or other] grill. Place the grill grate above the pellet smoker. Spread chocolate chips evenly across the bottom of a square baking pan and set it inside the grill. Cover the grill and vent it slightly so a thin stream of smoke can escape. Smoke the chocolate for 3-5 hours, depending on how smoky you like it.
- For this usage, don’t worry if it is hot out and the chocolate begins to melt, but if your chocolate melted together, chill it in the refrigerator so that it is easy to chop. (If you want to make extra, intact smoked chocolate chips, rest the pan in an ice water bath and replenish the ice often.) Once the chocolate is smoked to your liking, remove it from the grill, extinguish the embers, and save any unused wood pellets for another use.
- Combine 3 ounces of chocolate, heavy cream, corn syrup, brown sugar, cocoa powder, and sea salt in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low so the sauce is just simmering, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the remaining 3 ounces of chocolate, butter, and vanilla extract until smooth. Let cool for 20 minutes, then transfer the sauce to a jar and chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- In a large saucepan, combine cream, milk, and sugar. Whisk quickly with one hand while you sprinkle in the agar agar flakes. Bring the cream mixture to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Lightly crumble the graham crackers into the cream mixture, cover the pan, and let steep for 4 minutes. Strain the cream into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve or chinois, pressing the graham crackers with a rubber spatula to release as much cream as possible. It’s okay (and maybe preferable) to have a little bit of the graham cracker solids make their way through the sieve.
- Pour the cream mixture into a zip-top freezer bag, seal, and submerge in an ice bath to chill the mixture down to 40°F. (Alternatively, you can chill the mixture for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator.) While the ice cream mixture is chilling, make the Toasted Marshmallow Sauce.
- Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and salt. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form. Remove the bowl from the mixer and place close to your stove on a damp towel (this will help prevent the bowl from moving when you’re whisking the syrup in later.)
- Combine corn syrup, sugar, water, and ¾ teaspoon of vanilla extract in a small saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once sugar has dissolved, bring the syrup to a boil, swirling the pan occasionally (don’t stir it!). As soon as the mixture reaches 240°F on a candy thermometer, remove it from the heat.
- Drizzle the syrup into the egg whites, whisking quickly with your opposite hand. Try not to get syrup on the sides of the bowl or on the whisk wires. Once all the syrup has been added, return the bowl to the stand mixer and beat on low speed for another 2 minutes, until glossy.
- Pour the marshmallow sauce onto an unlined metal baking sheet. Spread it out evenly with an offset spatula, then use a kitchen torch to toast the surface of the marshmallow sauce. Stir the sauce and torch the surface again. Repeat this process one more time.
- Heat up the hot fudge in the microwave so that it is pourable, but not too hot. Chill a loaf pan or large rectangular storage container in the freezer. Churn the Graham Cracker Ice Cream according to manufacturer instructions. Dollop a few large dollops of ice cream into the bottom of the container, then drizzle hot fudge and a few spoonfuls of toasted marshmallow sauce. Continue alternating the three components until All of the ice cream is used. You may have extra hot fudge sauce and marshmallow sauce. Press parchment paper against the surface of the ice cream and freeze until firm before serving, at least 4 hours.
