Chewy Graham Cracker Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Graham crackers were on sale a couple weeks ago, so, naturally I ended up with a ton of them. And I remembered how much I like graham crackers. 

After quite a bit of scouring for a an appropriate way to work through my new stash of crackers, I found this Nestle recipe for butterscotch Graham cookies… which I made. And which were pretty good. But the butterscotch somewhat overwhelmed the graham cracker, and I really wanted that to come through.

The cookie base is pretty great, though, so I figured they might be real good with chocolate chips. And once you add chocolate to graham crackers, you pretty much have to add marshmallow. I think it’s a rule.

That being said, baking marshmallows in the oven (as part of cookie dough) usually results in sugary crunchy goo rather than delicious marshmallowy goodness. So, I had the seemingly brilliant idea to make sandwich cookies using marshmallow fluff as the filling! Seemingly brilliant.

In practice, I learned a very valuable lesson about marshmallow fluff…

It doesn’t stay put.

I would have called these some variation of “S’mores Cookies” – as that’s what I attempted to do with them – but I can’t in good conscience recommend this strategy unless you’re serving the cookies immediately. Otherwise, they’re not particularly transportable. Stacking them just encourages the already unstable fluff to ooze out in every direction. And makes a big ol’ mess, even if it still tastes real good.

As marshmallow-free cookies, they’re still quite tasty, though! And you can add whatever chips suit your fancy.

Chewy Graham Cracker Cookies with Chocolate Chips (adapted from Nestle)

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl, and set aside.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fluffy and thoroughly combined (1-2 minutes). Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, just until combined (30 seconds – 1 minute).

Add the flour mixture and mix just until combined (all four seems to be incorporated).

With a wooden spoon (or some such), stir in the chocolate chips.

I used the larger cookie scoop (1 1/2 Tbs) to drop onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving a fair bit of space for spreading. You can eyeball it with rounded tablespoons full. I put 12 scoops of dough on a half-sheet pan, and that worked out well.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until set in the middle and brown around the edges.

Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.