Perhaps no other camping tradition is more memorable, as a child, than melting your own marshmallow over an open fire, than squishing it between two halves of a graham cracker along with a piece of chocolate candy bar. S’mores are a huge hit with the kids, of course, but they have such a rich tradition that they remind many adults of their childhood family camping experience, too.
Toast two marshmallows over the coals to a crisp gooey state and then put them inside a graham cracker and chocolate bar sandwich. The heat of the marshmallow between the halves of chocolate bar will melt the chocolate a bit. Though it tastes like “some more†one is really enough.
“Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts,†Girl Scouts of the United States of America, 1927
I do not know if one is ever really enough, but I do know that making s’mores is a great family camping activity and it is something that the kids can participate in at a very young age, which is always exciting. After all, there are few activities more exciting in a child’s life than playing with fire and eating candy.
There are numerous variations on the s’mores theme, the most popular being the addition of peanut butter, or even the substitution of peanut butter cups for the traditional chocolate bar. Oftentimes it is too close to bedtime for the kids, by the time we get back to our campsite and eat dinner, so we forgo the graham crackers and let the kids poke a piece of chocolate into the marshmallow and roast it. This is quicker and not nearly as messy. Another variation on this theme is to drizzle chocolate syrup directly onto the roasted marshmallow.
Campfire s’mores are not just about eating candy, when it comes to passing on family camping traditions. Another great aspect of s’mores, for the kids, is scouting for that perfect marshmallow roasting stick. We have seen elaborate multi-forked roasting sticks capable of holding half-a-dozen marshmallows at a time, from our youngest daughter who has quite the sweet tooth! One of the great lessons of marshmallow roasting, though, is that trying to divide your attention between too many fires can lead to crisply results. But that is not always a bad thing.
See also…
You have a lovely daughters Roy. Smores is always part of our camping routine. My kids love it so much and I think I like it again. I don’t know but I forgot about Smores for quite sometimes. Good thing my husband introduced it to them during our first camping trip.
Thanks, Dan – s’mores are a great camping tradition for the kids!
It just would not be camping without Smores.
I’m personally not a fan of smores. I might only eat one toasted marshmallow a season. My kids love them though. Our variation on the smore is instead of a chocolate bar, spread the graham cracker with nutella. Less messy that way.
Love your blog by the way.
Thanks, Angela – Nutella is an interesting twist that I haven’t seen before.
in-a-tent – that brings back memories of breakfast in Coventry! I hope to get back over there someday.
Being a child of the 70s in the the UK my camping food memories involve flasks of tea and Mr Kipling’s cakes consumed on the back seat of a car, parked so we got a view of the sea until the tea steams the windows up.
These s’mores sound much more fun, although as anyone from the UK will tell “Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes” 🙂
in-a-tent’s last blog post..Breaking wind
Joshua – 🙂 I thought you’d get a kick out of that excerpt from the GSA pamphlet (some sources call it a book, but I think it was more of a pamphlet).
Eric – straight peanut butter does work better. The peanut butter cups don’t melt very well, unless it’s been a hot day 🙂
Had my first s’mores with peanut butter cups this past weekend. Very tasty except you want to make sure the pb cups are not too cold or else the graham crackers will just break around them.
Eric’s last blog post..Family Camping – More lessons learned
Yeah! I wonder why the Girl Scout contribution to American culture is mainly food related: s’mores and cookies. Of course, the sash as a non-pageant item is co-owned by Girl Scouts alongside the Boy Scouts.
I love the fact that you photograph your girls in your posts. It totally reinforces the family camping feel of the blog.