When we went camping last month, we brought along ingredients for s’mores. For my boys, it just wouldn’t be camping without s’mores. I didn’t grow up with s’mores. While we did roast marshmallows when we camped, I don’t remember having s’mores until pre-teen slumber parties. I have to confess, s’mores are a little sticky sweet for me. But it’s a tradition. So I usually have one.
On our campout, my oldest son decided to roast a banana. It fell in the coals a few times, but he pronounced it a hit. He didn’t share, so I can’t vouch for it. He then had the idea to use the good Cadbury chocolate for the s’mores, but sadly someone had eaten all of it. We talked about using different chocolates and that maybe that roasted banana would have been good on a s’more, too.
The next week at the library we stumbled across the book, S’mores: Gourmet TREATS for Every Occasion by Lisa Adams. She says that the basic s’more recipe showed up in a 1927 Girl Scout handbook. In her book, Adams starts off with some basic changes like using cinnamon graham crackers instead of regular, or almond chocolate instead of plain milk chocolate. But from there, the ideas get wilder than anything we thought of around the campfire. Think about a regular s’more with a slice of strawberry, or mango on it. Yum. Imagine instead of graham crackers you use chocolate chip cookies, and cookie dough and the roasted marshmallow. She even has one recipe with slices of tart apple as the crackers with the marshmallow and melted caramels sandwiched between.
We are off in a few days to visit our favorite cabins at The Rocky Mountain National Park. We usually roast marshmallows there in the fireplace, and often have s’mores. It’ll be interesting to see what we can come up with. Those caramel apple ones sound like something we just have to try.
I think it is great fun to take a tradition and twist it just a little to make it your own.
More S’mores:
Smores Cake
Go-Grab-a-Glass-of-Milk-S’mores-Brownies