Welcome to the Summer of S’mores! Or so it has been proclaimed by the media. The assessment is based on new items such as s’mores-crafted mochi ice cream pods; Starbucks Golden S’mores coffee blend with “notes” of marshmallow and graham and an earlier-released S’mores Frappuccino, natch; Dan Whalen’s puffy-jacketed “S’mores!” cookbook (Workman); also, the Target S’mores Caddy, a plastic case designed for ferrying your marshmallows, your graham cracker packs and your 1.55-ounce Hershey’s milk chocolate bars; no room for wire hangers, fyi. (I am automatically disqualifying S’mores Oreos, because the brand has lost its soul.)
Which brings us to the S’mores Torte, qualifying in our book as one-bowl baking because its ingredients are brought together in the same pot used to melt butter, its initial ingredient. What I am really saying is this a s’mores-related thing you will want to make, and eat until it is no more.
Now, “torte” sounds awfully highfalutin. But the term is accurate, because a torte is a kind of cake made with little or no flour, and its texture is denser than your typical cake. Here, the graham crackers are reduced to a fairly fine crumb, stirred into the melted-butter-and-chocolate mix with sugar, egg and the marshmallows, which must be of the mini variety and fresh enough to squish between forefinger and thumb.
As you can imagine, this torte (s’morte?) smells pretty wonderful as it bakes. You must wait until it has cooled to almost room temperature or risk serving portions akin to slightly grainy chocolate spoonbread, which is not a bad way to go, but out of the running, tortewise. We liked how this set and sliced up best after the torte, still in its pan, chilled in the refrigerator – the same method I use with batches of freshly baked brownies.
