S’mores are only for campfires.
It’s a rule everyone knows.
After all, if we had s’mores every day, they wouldn’t be special, right?
Right.
God thinks so, too. That’s why “thou shalt not roast s’mores except around the campfire” is one of the ten (or so) commandments, somewhere after “dude, you gotta quit coveting your brother’s Pokemon cards or else do an extra job to earn the money to buy some for yourself.” (Psst… that last one is also known as the You Git What You Git and You Don’t Throw a Fit commandment, or, alternatively, the Get Off Your Whiny Hiney, Kiddo, and Fix Your Problem commandment. It’s almost like God was a parent, you guys.)
So. S’mores are only for campfires. The Bible says so.
And that’s why I’m going to ask you to keep this post on the down-low, folks. Shhhhh! ‘Cause we just got back from camping (and whining and tenting), and I still had a hankering for s’mores.
Did you know you can make s’mores at home? Like, right in your kitchen? By the heat of your stove?
YOU CAN!
I mean … shhhhh … you can.
Of course, I first discovered home-bound s’mores-making when I was 16 and my mom wasn’t home to tell me that roasting marshmallows over the open stove flame is poor form. And probably dangerous. And generally a bad idea. So, in a fit of brilliance, I stuck a marshmallow on a fork and roasted away. And ate. And roasted again. And ate. And roasted again. Mmm!
Maybe you already know all about at-home s’mores. But just in case you’re missing this important life skill, I feel it’s my duty to lead you astray. You are, after all, my kind of people. I owe you. And I pay my debts in junk food.
And so, here you go.
At-home S’mores:
The Instructions
1. Secretly buy miscellaneous chocolate candy at the store, and stuff it way down deep in your purse with the matchbox cars and used Kleenex and empty lip gloss cadavers. Your goal? That no one will find them. Maybe, if you’re really lucky, not even you.
2. At home, assemble the s’mores fixin’s.
3. Glance over at your extra-grody stove top, realize that it’s no place for taking bloggy pictures, and feel overcome with the certainty that you’ll never have it all together. Ever. Sigh in frustration and add a few piratey ARGHs for maximum expression of self-directed angst.
4. Now choose to reject shame. Again. Because, by golly, this is life with children. It’s messy. And full of burnt noodles.
5. Do your pride a solid and semi-wash that stove top. Not, like, thoroughly or anything extreme. Who has the time? But, even though almost no one will notice, your heart and your Marine father will be glad you did. That, for today, is enough.
6. Move on. Sheesh, Beth.
7. After you put chocolate on the graham cracker, zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds or ’til just melty.
8. Enlist a herd of small children and neighborhood teenagers to burn sugar onto roast marshmallows over the stove burner. **
**FYI, my firefighter friends do not approve this message.
9. Assemble drippy, melty, semi-burnt, perfect, delicious s’mores.
And eat ’em.
Yum!
10. Wonder how in the world you’ve gained back 16 of the 40 pounds you once lost. Gosh. Life is full of mysteries, isn’t it?
Enjoy breaking the s’mores rules, friends!
xoxo,
B
P.S. This is Cai, while camping, one s’more in. He had at least 4 more that night.
When he finished, there were graham crackers in his ears and marshmallow on his spine, is what I’m saying.
P.P.S. And then he passed out.
Which makes me wonder why Sugar Comas aren’t a recommended sleep aid.
……….
If you have a favorite s’mores recipe, do share it in the comments! My friend Molly puts her marshmallows in Oreo cookies (genius!) and my friend Eric substitutes the graham crackers for snickerdoodles and roasts the entire concoction over the flame to caramelize the cinnamon sugar (I gained 12 pounds right there – a pound for every bite – and it was worth it).
What’s your s’mores suggestion?
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48 responses to “At-Home S’mores (aka Breaking the S’mores Commandment)”
Just ate my healthy breakfast….scrambled egg whites with mozzarella cheese and mushrooms on 1/2 a flat out with spinach. And now I am heading into my kitchen to dig up stuff for s’mores via microwave. Guess I HAVE to get on my elliptical now (but it’s so worth it!)
I guess I am boring – I make s’mores in the oven with the broiler. On a side note , growing up we used Marie biscuits for the cracker.
When I read your title I had flashbacks to college and wondered if you were using forks to hold the marshmallows. One day I decided I wanted a roasted marshmallow, so I got out the marshmallows and a fork and turned on the gas stove. Then I proceeded to burn mouth on the darn fork. May I suggest using a wooden skewer instead of a fork?
My cousin does the Oreo thing, too. We call them S’moreos.
Peanut Butter…crunchy. My sis is militant about her smores. Move a rock close to the fire top with graham cracker and part of a HERSHEYS WITH ALMONDS candy bar, so it can melt. Spread other half with crunchy peanut butter. Roast marshmallow, and you know the rest….but there’s one more requirement-MILK. So there you have it. Oreos, nutella, reeces, that there’s all cheatin’.
Wow, the comments! When we’re craving s’mores we do the quick and easy graham cracker on a plate topped with meticulously spaced semi-sweet chocolate chips–these are good because we are almost guaranteed to have them in the house even if we have no other chocolate–about 30 or so, topped with two large marshmallows and microwaved for about 30 seconds. We all get a kick out of watching the marshmallows grow and grow and keep expanding like some alien life form, but have never had a problem with them being too chewy, Top with another graham cracker–or a saltine, whatever we have on hand really–instant bliss.
That’s really the best thing about s’mores–their adaptability. They are a true dessert sandwich. We are also big fans of using reese’s while camping. This was my rebel husband’s innovation so I had a hard time wrapping my head around breaking the s’mores rules at first, but once that barrier was broken I was up for all kinds of s’mores innovations. I’m going to have to try some of the fabulous substitutes listed here for the graham crackers, and possibly Peeps for the marshmallow component…..
Oh this reminds me of one of my good friends “smores”. She uses ritz crackers,hershey kisses, and marshmallows and bakes them in the oven till the marshmallow is melty. I don’t particularly care for this smore (and I thought I would because of the salty/sweet combination which I’m usually a big fan of), but she and her daughter will eat these by the panful.
We discovered making s”mores with Reese’s a couple of months before my son was diagnosed with a peanut allergy. I was so sad b/c they are the best thing ever! Perfect amount of chocolate and peanut butter that gets all gooey with the warm marshmallow.
Yum!
Ha!! My mom and I were JUST talking about s’mores yesterday!! (Because, after asking my 3 year old daughter if she wanted a PB&J sammich, she said, “No I want a jelly sm’ore!” Which actually sounds like ‘saammooowrwwrwwweee.’)
So she had a half a PB&J (cuz you gotta be healthy, right?) and 2 graham cracker/jelly s’mores.
THIS post is why you’re awesome, Beth. But I gotta say, I kinda feel like I’ve been caught sneaking peeks at dirty magazines because I have never once ever considered that there might be another way to make a s’more other than the ecclesiastical Hershey bar / graham cracker version. It’s sinfully brilliant! I’m headed out to the grocery store now…and tomorrow morning you can find me in the confessional.
The cure for stove shame: DISPOSABLE DRIP PAN COVERS!!! These have saved me time and time again. At Wal-Mart, in the kitchen gadget aisle they sell round or square drip pan covers made out of heavy aluminum. We keep these stocked in our kitchen so when they get dirty we take them off and toss them and put new ones on. Best. Invention. Ever.
Huh. I never knew, Julie. I wonder what I’d gripe about if my stove was clean all the time. Oh, wait. I still have toilets in my life and little boys to decorate them. Any chance they make toilet drip pan covers, too?? 😉
Beth, we are in the middle of remodeling our bathroom and had to take it down to the studs. He REALLY didn’t want to do it, but I got hubby to install a wall-mounted toilet- NOTHING TOUCHING THE FLOOR! He can have anything he wants for a really long time!
I hate Hershey’s chocolate & I’m not a fan of graham crackers, so I never really ‘got’ the obsession with s’mores…
THEN…
I went out & bought Nilla Wafers & Dove Chocolate & CARAMEL flavored marshmallows! MMMMMMMMM – Heaven!!
I have a friend whose chocolate motto is “Dove or Above.” She will love this, Amber.
And AGAIN with the flavored marshmallows, you guys. I seriously had NO IDEA.
It’s hot here in Nebraska, so bringing s’mores fixin’s while camping means the chocolate is going to melt into a gooey mess before you are making the gooey mess for yourself. Some replacements to avoid that are to bring a can of fudge frosting to use in place of the chocolate. Or to use chocolate chip cookies. Or any kind of cookie. My SIL makes s’mores bars that are Awesome.
Yum! Good hot-weather fixes, Lynnette.
My family camped a lot, in three seasons of the year, nearly every year. I was a Girl Scout for 13 years, and did lots of overnight camps. I have probably made my weight in s’mores (probably my highest pregnancy weight in s’mores, to be honest).
I have never until this day realized I could have been using something other than a Hershey bar.
Which yes, is the classic and therefore sacred combination. But oh lord, a Reese’s s’more? You are my hero.
I just have to echo this. I’m a big camping, roasting marshmellows over the fire kinda girl, but gosh….in the home, and with something other than chocolate bars?!!! I can’t decide if I’m a completely offended rule follower or an excited mama with delicious joyful treats in my future.
See! This is what I was talking about. Maybe it was Girl Scouts that ingrained in us the “proper” recipe for a smore?
“I can’t decide if I’m a completely offended rule follower or an excited mama…”
Heh heh. You three ladies make me laugh. So glad to challenge the s’mores status quo. I feel like such a rebel. 😉
Thank you for posting this recipe, from someone who never camps and rarely gets a camp fire/bonfire opportunity! I am in the UK and first discovered s’mores as a teenager when a lovely lady at our church (who came from Minnesota) started inviting the youth group to her farm for fun days out. In the evening we would have a bonfire and make s’mores. We don’t have Graham crackers here but she had worked out her own way of doing it, using a chocolate digestive biscuit on either side of the marshmallow. (When we visited friends in America they begged us to bring chocolate digestives so I don’t think you can get them there, they’re a round crunchy sweet oaty snack coated with chocolate on one side). Using this method you don’t even have to add the square of chocolate! So that’s my handed down recipe for British s’mores, for anyone who’s sitting there going “what’s a graham cracker?” but can lay their hands on a pack of McVities!
PS she also used to make Sloppy Joes – there are so many things us Brits are missing out on!
OK, Helen.
a) Digestives are my friend. I’ve been to your lovely (gray, rainy, not unlike Oregon) country several times, and I always buy digestives on Day 1 because they’re heavenly.
b) Why are they named digestives? That is the WORST possible name for a delightful cookie (or biscuit, if you must ;)). Completely unappetizing title. Is it a deterrent? To try to keep Yanks from buying the entire supply? Tell the truth.
c) Using digestives for graham crackers? Brilliant. You’re clearly able to compete at a high s’mores level, despite coming late to the sport. Nice work, Helen.
And – for my American friends – you CAN buy digestives here at Cost Plus World Market.
Ah. I feel as though I’ve done good today.
I can personally vouch for Helen’s culinary competence at the highest of levels, and am delighted that she has completed all this research for it means that I too can come to the s’mores party. Yay!
Of course you can’t buy “chocolate digestive biscuits” here, that would be insane. Nobody would buy anything here with such a name. I’m sure you can buy something similar, but I’m even more sure it’s called something else…..
Oh thank the LORD your stovetop looks like that! Mine is a ceramic top and still manages to get dirty because who has time to spend 30 minutes getting caramelized sugar off of it? Not me on your average day.
S’mores have that wonderful ability to grow exponentially as they spread across a child’s face. There will be the equivalent of an entire bag of melted marshmallows, two bars of chocolate and a cup of graham cracker crumbs stuck to my daughter’s face and hair by the time we’re done, and I swear I only let her have two. Luckily the bath takes care of the smoky smell and 75% of the mess. The rest they snack on for the next few days.
Yes. This just EXACTLY describes the s’mores experience, Meghan. S’mores are like love and mortification; they know no bounds and get all over EVERYTHING.
Also, please see the reply to Paula above. It’s about the stove and lying. 🙂
I’m still stuck on the stove-top-shame part. I love my gas range, but hate hate hate the way stuff burns onto it and it has all those nooks and crannies that are IMPOSSIBLE to clean and there’s no product out there that can scour that away and I know because I would spend HUNDREDS of dollars on it if I could find it. So yeah. I won’t be taking photos of my range top. I’m not yet to that point of acceptance. And I no longer have small children at home either. Just big people who don’t wipe up the spills when they’re cooking and then the next person comes along and something else boils over (something like potato-boiling water with all that starch in it) and there’s no way all THAT burned-on gunk is coming off. Yeah. I’m stuck on the stove…
Hehehehe.
I thought about not including the stove truth.
But then I thought about Meghan coming over the other night and asking if my house is always clean. And about my guffaw and response, “Um, no. This clean room is a total lie.” ‘Cause it was. I shoved stuff around. And I hid the mess. And I stuck a pot on that stove top.
And I just couldn’t bring myself to pretend that the stove was pristine.
My public life would be a lot prettier if I could play pretend more. But it would also be more boring.
P.S. I just boiled potatoes 2 nights ago. I feel your pain.
Graham cracker, a roasted marshmallow, Nutella, and sliced bananas. You are welcome.
Holy Nutella, Batman! Why have I never thought of this? THIS is why I blog. Because you enrich my life. I shall try this. And I shall call it Breakfast S’mores. And I shall restart my running plan, ’cause I am gonna NEED it. Bless you.
And I also forgot to say that Beth, I wish we were next door neighbors because I think we could be best friends. LOL
Aw! Nicest comment, Maria. THANK YOU. I’d roast ‘mallows with your lighter any time. 🙂
I like cinnamon grahams on my smores. They are the best. I never would have thought of using anything other than hershey bars for the chocolate until I read your post! Wow, I am SUCH a conformist! And here’s a tip for everyone with an electric stove – hence no open flame to roast over in the house… You can microwave the marshmallows. You have to watch closely because it happens quickly. As soon as they puff up, they’re done. If you cook them longer than that they will get hard and it will be like eating the inside of a charleston chew. 10 or 15 seconds is all it takes, and they don’t get that brown crispy outside part, but they are still really good. And when I’ve NEEDED that brown crispy outside part, I have actually roasted marshmallows on a fork over a lighter… LOL
I forgot to say – and you probably could have figured this out but I don’t want anyone mad at me because the marshmallows melted onto the bottom of their microwave…
When cooking the marshmallows in the microwave, you should put a graham cracker on a plate, chocolate on top of that, and the marshmallow on top of that. Then cook just until the marshmallow puffs.
Cinnamon grahams = genius!
Also – you CAN roast over an electric burner. In fact, it works better than a gas flame ’cause the glowing burner works like coals and makes it harder to burn the marshmallow.
(Geez. I’m kind of embarrassed that I’ve been doing this so long that I can analyze gas vs. electric stove differences for the purpose of s’mores-making. Please feel free to roll your eyes with me.)
The visual of making marshmallow brulee with a lighter, Maria? Heh! Rad!
And thanks for the microwave directions.
We made some inside a tortilla! Rolled up s’more goodness for the kids, and I get to pretend I’m in france enjoying a crepe.
We used to make sopapillas out of tortillas – a little butter in a pan, saute the tortilla, drizzle honey and cinnamon when done. Pretty sure the only thing that can make it better is your way… with chocolate.
You’ve outdone yourself this time, Beth! Loved it and I don’t even like s’mores.
Thanks, John. I like to think I’m spreading the good news of s’mores everywhere, even to the doubters. 😉
And here’s hoping your RV surgery goes well!
My life is lacking. I have never had s’mores. And I am 52 and now allergic to grains, I guess I would have to make my own cookies to try this.
I do love your tower of s’mores!
Gaylin, don’t fret! I make our own Graham Crackers for the same reason (well, and a few others, too– we’re Milk/Egg/Gluten/Peanut/TreeNut/Quinoa/Oat free around these parts.). There’s lots of options online for recipes that fit your dietary needs, (or you can just get creative and bake from your heart). 😉 And there are gluten/nut/milk/egg free chocolate chips/chunks (EnjoyLife brand), too, that are INSANELY good plain with a glass of wine, melted in ganache, in s’mores….. you get it. They’re amazing.
Admittedly, it’s WAY more work than when you just buy it at the store. But I appreciate it all the more. And I suspect it’s part of the reason it’s all the more delicious. 🙂
I have been baking grain-free for almost 17 years now. So thankful that there is more products out now that make this easier. I love almond flour. I have a great ginger cookie recipe made with quinoa/coconut flour. Since I can’t eat rice, I do find I end up making a lot of stuff at home, rice seems to be the go to flour in store bought products.
The question now is do I buy regular marshmallows or go to the chocolatiers and get flavoured fancy ones – like Baileys or orange or ???
WHAT? There are fancy flavored marshmallows?? How do I not know this?
Make your own marshmallows… plain and fancy! Its easy: http://psych-inthekitchen.blogspot.com/2011/08/homemade-marshmallows-totally-worth-it.html
You can add all kinda of cool flavors! I like to make peppermint mashmallows for hot chocolate. You can even dye them with food coloring and cut them out with cookie cutters!
A local chocolatier (in Vancouver, BC) makes all kinds of flavours of marshmallows. At Christmas time I went there for drinking chocolate with peppermint marshmallows. I adore their salted caramel ones as well.