Campfire Cookies (21 page)

4 cups graham cracker crumbs

12 ounces (2 cups) chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semisweet)

2 cups miniature marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan with either butter or cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix butter and cracker crumbs. Press half this mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and marshmallows. Top with remaining butter-cracker mixture. Bake 15 minutes.

These are easiest to cut if they are completely cool. Consider refrigerating for a few minutes if you are in a hurry.

Use your favorite sturdy cookie dough recipe, store-bought cookie dough, or the oatmeal cookie recipe below.

The secret to successful campfire cookies is a successful campfire made with a grownup's help. This means your fire should have burned for a while so that the briquettes or wood are glowing but no longer producing flames. There should be a grate of some kind over the fire, approximately six inches above it.

Place a piece of aluminum foil on a griddle or a very sturdy cookie sheet suitable for camping (meaning not the nicest one in the kitchen). Grease the foil, either with cooking spray or butter. Drop the cookie dough by generous teaspoons onto the foil. Allow a two-inch space between the future cookies.

Now you build the oven by tenting an oversize second piece of foil over the griddle, allowing about four inches of space above and around the cookies so air can circulate. Crimp the upper and lower edges together loosely.

Wearing fire gloves or similar protection, set the griddle or skillet with its foil oven on the grate over the campfire.

After 3 or 4 minutes, lift an edge of the foil with tongs so you can see how the cookies are doing. You may need to adjust the height of the grate if the bottoms of the cookies are burning, or you can try removing some coals. It takes practice! Depending on your fire and the dough, the cookies should be done in 7 to 10 minutes.

With added raisins, these are Vivek's mom's favorites.

(Makes 36 cookies)

1 
¹
/
₂
cups flour

¹
/
₂
teaspoon salt

¹
/
₂
teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 
¹
/
₂
cups raisins, chocolate chips, or a combination (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheets with either cooking spray or butter, or use parchment paper as a liner.

Thoroughly combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.

In an electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix until just combined.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients slowly and mix until combined. Then mix in remaining ingredients. Do not overmix.

Using about a tablespoon each, roll dough into balls and place about two inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until brown around the edges. Let cookies cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool to room temperature.

Also by Martha Freeman

The Secret Cookie Club

SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2016 by Martha Freeman

Jacket and chapter opener illustrations © 2016 by Brenna Vaughn

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Book design by Krista Vossen

The text for this book was set in Kepler Std.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Freeman, Martha, 1956–

Title: Campfire cookies / Martha Freeman.

Description: New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2016] |

Series: Secret Cookie Club ; [2] | “A Paula Wiseman Book.” | Summary: “Secret Cookie Club members Grace, Emma, Olivia, and Lucy are thrilled to be back in Flowerpot Cabin with their beloved counselor, Hannah. But when a mysterious letter arrives, Hannah is plunged into despair. After puzzling out the contents of the letter, the campers make a plan to help Hannah—a plan that requires a daring mission to boys' camp and a big batch of campfire cookies.”—Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015029657| ISBN 9781481448215 (hardback) | ISBN 9781481448239 (eBook)

Subjects: | CYAC: Friendship—Fiction. | Camps—Fiction. | Cookies—Fiction. | Clubs—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship.

| JUVENILE FICTION / Cooking & Food. | JUVENILE FICTION / Girls & Women.

Classification: LCC PZ7.F87496 Cai 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015029657