The S’more The Better

Is there anything better than sitting around a bonfire on a clear summer night, lightening bugs twinkling in the air, your family’s laughter echoing in your ears and a warm, gooey, chocolatey s’mores sticking to your fingertips?

I don’t know about you, but this sounds like heaven to me. Frequent fire nights are a staple in my household in the summer months, sometimes with friends and family, and sometimes just the four of us. One thing I can assure you of if you join us around a bonfire is that there will be s’mores. I have a love affair with the popular confection. In fact, I even have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to just s’mores! The fact that you can make s’mores with such simple ingredients that give such a yummy outcome is probably one of the reasons I am a S’moresaholic.

Over the years, I have played around with the traditional ways of making s’mores and have come up with some crowd-pleasing variations. I have also experimented with different dessert recipes based off of s’mores and have found the ones I am sharing below to be some of my favorites…you don’t necessarily need a campfire to enjoy the deliciousness of this favorite summer treat!

OG S’mores

Ingredients:

4 whole graham crackers

4 marshmallows

4 pieces of chocolate (such as Hershey’s)

Instructions:

1. Break all graham crackers in half so you have 8 squares.
2. Place one chocolate on 4 graham squares.
3. Place your marshmallow on a skewer or a marshmallow roasting stick.
4. Roast over an open flame or grill until your marshmallow is toasted to your preference.
5. Transfer your marshmallow onto the graham cracker with the chocolate and then top with a second graham cracker square.

You could use an air fryer if you aren’t in the mood to make a fire. Just put one graham cracker square with one marshmallow and then place into air fryer marshmallow side up and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on 390F degrees. When the marshmallow is golden, remove from air fryer and top with a piece of chocolate and another graham cracker square and voilà! You now have an air fried s’more!

Here are some variations on the OG S’more I have tried in the past!:

• Use a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup instead of the Hershey’s chocolate
• Swap out the chocolate and spread some Nutella on the graham crackers
• Add strawberries to the original s’more recipe
• Instead of graham crackers, use Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies
• Make an Elvis S’more! Omit the chocolate from the OG S’more and instead add banana slices and peanut butter

The possibilities are endless, so get creative!

As I mentioned before, I have an entire Pinterest board which solely consists of everything s’mores. I am sharing two of my family’s favorite ones below!

Golden Grahams S’Mores Bars

Ingredients:

• 5 cups mini marshmallows
• 1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips
• 5 tablespoons butter or margarine
• ¼ cup corn syrup
• 7 cups Golden Grahams
• 1 cup mini marshmallows

Instructions:

1. Butter/grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
2. Add 5 cups marshmallows, chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup to a large sauce pan.
3. Melt the mixture together over low heat while gently stirring with a rubber spatula.
4. Once melted, remove from the heat and immediately stir in the cereal and the remaining cup of marshmallows. It will be very sticky.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and flatten down using the back of your spatula (if you lightly grease the spatula, it helps).
6. Allow to harden at room temperature for 60 minutes before cutting into squares.
   

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Easy S’MORE Dip

  Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons milk of your choice (2%, skim, almond, oat, etc.)
• 5 ¼ cups of mini marshmallows (you could do a little more than this if desired)
• Graham crackers

Instructions:

1. Pour the chocolate chips into a medium-sized sauce pan.
2. Add 3 tablespoons of milk and 1 ¼ cups of the marshmallows.
3. Heat the ingredients over medium high heat, stirring constantly; they will melt down after a couple minutes.
4. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into a 9-inch pie dish, smoothing it out nicely over the bottom of the dish
5. Sprinkle the remaining 4 cups of marshmallows onto the chocolate.
6. Set your oven to broil and place the pie plate into the over. Allow the marshmallows to get nice and toasty. This should only take a couple of minutes so be sure to watch it carefully.
7. Grab some graham crackers and dig in!

There are tons and tons of s’mores recipes if you want to try out some other ways to enjoy this summer favorite dessert. 

When I think about s’mores, I also think about the fun times and memories associated with them. They just scream summer and family time, and what could be better than that? Do you have any favorite s’more recipes you and your family love?