BABYSITTING AND S'MORES PIE

I'm babysitting my friends' eight year-old daughter Asha. She's been looking forward to baking a pie all week. I let her pick the pie flavor and she chose s'mores. Asha says she likes to bake pies with me but the truth is she likes to EAT pie. Lots of it. She has a voracious sweet tooth. In fact, there's already a cherry pie in the fridge, and only two slices of a whole pie remain. I'm sure she had help with that; her mom also has a sweet tooth. 

Once we popped the pie in the oven we had a little time to kill. So, we took turns spiking a marshmallow on the end of a long metal turkey thermometer, and toasted it over a gas burner of the stove. I love how they catch fire and make that sizzling sound. Then you blow it out. Do it again. Blow. Repeat. Until all the sides of the marshmallow are golden brown with charred spots. It's delicious. We both love the gooeyness of warm melted marshmallow and yumminess of burnt sugar. Roasting marshmallows is the best. Eating them is even better. 

I used a fairly easy S'mores Pie recipe from Gimme Some Oven. We skipped a step and used a pre-made 9-inch graham cracker pie crust. This is something I normally wouldn't recommend but I wanted to keep it simple for Asha. 

S'MORES PIE

(Yields about 12 slices)

Crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

3/4 c heavy cream

3/4 c milk

10 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (we used chips)

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

2 eggs, whisked

20-30 large marshmallows (we used 10-15 jumbo)

1. To make crust: Preheat oven to 325º F. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until evenly coated. Press mixture into a greased 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 
2. To make filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together cream and milk. Warm over medium-low heat. Add in chocolate and stir until chocolate has completely melted and is smooth. Slowly add in vanilla and whisked eggs, and whisk until smooth. 
3. Pour chocolate filling into baked pie crust. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until chocolate filling is set and does not jiggle when pie is lightly shaken. Remove from oven.
4. Using kitchen shears or a knife, cut marshmallows in half. Place halves in concentric circles over the top of the pie until covered. 
5. Lower oven rack to the middle position, and set oven to the lowest broil setting. Place pie on the rack and lightly toast the marshmallows. Watch them closely and pull them out the second they begin to slightly toast to a golden brown. They can and will catch fire in a matter of seconds. You can also use a kitchen torch to toast the marshmallows instead. 
6. Chill pie in the fridge to set for 2-3 hours. Or it can also be served slightly warm. Drizzle with chocolate sauce if desired.