Takes 10 minutesthe recipes
FROM classic TO CRAZY
A piece of semi-melted chocolate is usually the glue in the middle of the traditional gooey and crunchy s’mores components. But . . . why not swap in another type of chocolate (candy!) between that graham cracker and marshmallow? Here, I went for the classic peanut-butter-and-chocolate combo, but why stop there? Take a look at the box for ideas on other kinds of candy that would make a great twist on a s’more. Makes 12 Takes 10 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
12 peanut butter cups
12 regular marshmallows
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the prepared baking sheet. Top each square with 1 peanut butter cup. Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each peanut butter cup. Broil the s’mores until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
3 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish and top with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
Candy Bar S’mores!
The candy bar options for s’mores go way beyond chocolate bars and peanut butter cups. Here are some other options that work great—but let your imagination run wild! Depending on what you use, just cut it to fit the s’more. I like to let the thicker candy bars melt for a minute in a warm oven right on the graham cracker and smoosh them down a bit before adding the marshmallow.
Butterfinger
chocolate bark
Crunch
Kit Kat
Milky Way
Mounds
Peppermint Patties
Snickers
Take5
Twix
Whatchamacallit
S’mores aren’t the only childhood favorites that come in the form of a conveniently packaged sandwich. Being from New England, I put Fluff in my PB&J, so it was practically a s’more already. (Fun fact: Fluff was invented in Somerville, MA, and the Fluffernutter has been proposed as the official state sandwich of Massachusetts.) These PB&J s’mores taste like memories. The melty peanut butter and jelly make this one of the stickiest s’mores of the bunch, but you will be licking the happy mess off your hands with a smile. Makes 12 
Takes 10 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
2 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
12 regular marshmallows
½ cup of your favorite jelly (I like strawberry.)
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the prepared baking sheet. Spread about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter on each cracker.
3 Top each square with 2 chocolate pips. Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each s’more. Broil the s’mores until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
4 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish. Top each marshmallow with about 2 teaspoons of jelly and another graham cracker square. Serve immediately.
I love the complex s’mores in this book so much, but it’s really hard to beat anything with Nutella in it. This s’more is simpler than many of the other recipes, but something about that creamy Italian chocolate–hazelnut spread is magic. You don’t want to add too much more to it. Makes 12 
Takes 10 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
¾ cup chocolate-hazelnut spread, such as Nutella
12 regular marshmallows
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the prepared baking sheet. Top each square with 1 tablespoon of chocolate-hazelnut spread. Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each s’more. Broil the s’mores until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
3 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish and top with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
Ice cream is one of the most universally beloved summer treats. Turns out, this perfect little ice cream s’morewich works well with lots of different flavors in addition to vanilla. My favorite is mint cookies and cream, but coffee, strawberry, butter pecan, and peanut butter ripple all taste awesome. It’s fine to wait a few minutes after getting the ice cream out of the freezer so that it’s more scoopable, as long as you will eat the s’morewich right away. Makes 12 
Takes 10 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
2 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
12 regular marshmallows
¾ cup vanilla ice cream
¼ cup rainbow sprinkles
12 maraschino cherries (optional)
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 Place 12 graham cracker squares on a serving platter. Top each square with 2 chocolate pips and set aside.
3 Place the marshmallows on the prepared baking sheet. Broil them until they’re golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
4 When the marshmallows are done, top the chocolate with 1 heaping tablespoon of ice cream and 1 teaspoon of sprinkles.
5 Place 1 toasted marshmallow on each s’more. Top the s’mores with the remaining graham cracker squares and the maraschino cherries, if desired. Serve immediately.
The first time I tasted salted caramel, it was a game changer for me. I consider it to be a real entry point for people when it comes to combining salty and sweet foods and getting more adventurous with desserts. I’m excited to introduce you to this foolproof recipe for salted caramel—it’s really tasty, and it’s perfect for drizzling on a classic s’more. Makes 12 
Takes 25 minutes, plus 1 hour to rest
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 4 pieces
½ cup heavy (whipping) cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
For the s’mores
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
2 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
12 regular marshmallows
1 Place the sugar in a medium saucepan over high heat and whisk as it begins to melt. It will form clumps first, but eventually will become liquid, about 5 minutes.
2 Stop whisking and continue to cook the sugar, gently swirling the pan occasionally, until it turns a deep amber color, about 3 minutes more.
3 Add the butter. Whisk until it’s melted, about 1 minute—the caramel will bubble up rapidly during this step. Remove the mixture from the heat and whisk in the cream. The sauce will be opaque, thick, and slightly lightened in color from the butter and cream. Add the salt and whisk to combine. Pour the caramel sauce into a jar and let it cool in the refrigerator for an hour before you prepare the remaining ingredients. As it cools it will thicken more, but will stay pourable.
4 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
5 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the prepared baking sheet. Top each square with 2 chocolate pips. Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each s’more. Broil the s’mores until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
6 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish. Drizzle the salted caramel sauce on the toasted marshmallows and top with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
Gooey, melty, crunchy holidays
Although every day is a day for s’mores (especially now that we know how easy it is to make them indoors), here are a few key dates for those wishing for a bit more s’mores fanfare. Mark your calendar for these important holidays:
July 5 National Graham Cracker Day
July 7 World Chocolate Day
August 10 National S’mores Day
August 30 National Toasted Marshmallow Day
October 28 National Chocolate Day
M ost of my favorite breakfasts include bananas and strawberries. The combination of sweet and tart—plus the feeling that I’m eating healthy—is always a winner for me. That’s why when I eat bananas for dessert I need to brown them first to bring out that sugary caramelization. The fire adds a nice charred flavor and slightly crunchy crust to complement burned marshmallows in a s’more. Makes 12 
Takes 15 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
3 large strawberries, hulled, each sliced into 8 thin rounds
2 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
2 very ripe (almost 50 percent blackened) bananas, each cut into 6 pieces
Pinch of kosher salt
Pinch of sugar
12 regular marshmallows
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 Place 12 graham cracker squares on a large plate. Top each square with 2 strawberry slices, followed by 2 chocolate pips.
3 Place the bananas on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with the salt and sugar. Broil the bananas until they start to brown, about 5 minutes.
4 Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands, place on top of the bananas, and return the baking sheet to the broiler until the marshmallows are golden brown, about 3 minutes more. Keep a close eye on them.
5 Place 1 toasted marshmallow and 1 charred banana piece on each s’more. Top the s’mores with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
A Graham of Chance
If you’ve set up a s’mores bar with lots of different add-ins and ingredients, why not add a fun game to the festivities? Assign each ingredient a card number. Each person chooses his or her two stable ingredients (e.g., marshmallow, chocolate, or graham cracker) and for the third, draws from the deck!
I used to work in a gelato shop where the owner was always hesitant to put American flavors, like cookie dough, on the menu. He wanted to stay authentic to traditional Italian gelato, while I generally swayed more toward, “Why not give the people what they want?” When I made this cookie dough mixture as a test run, though, there was no more debate. We both loved it and put it on the menu the next day!
You should have exactly the right amount of cookie dough to be able to snack on some as you add heaping tablespoons to the s’mores. If you somehow do end up with extra dough, it will keep in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to two weeks. Makes 12 
Takes 25 minutes
¾ cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
12 regular marshmallows
1 Toast the flour in a dry frying pan over medium high heat to darken it slightly in color, about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
2 Place the butter and sugars in a large bowl and beat to combine using a handheld electric mixer, about 2 minutes. Stir in the toasted flour, milk, vanilla, and chocolate chips. Set the dough aside at room temperature.
3 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
4 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the prepared baking sheet. Top each square with 1 heaping tablespoon of cookie dough. Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each spoonful of cookie dough. Broil the s’mores until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
5 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish and top with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
The Various Personalities of
MARSHMALLOW ROASTERS
The Couch-Mallow is relaxing and doesn’t need to be bothered with cooking a marshmallow properly. This person will try to find a hole in the rocks or a place in the dirt to stick the other end of the stick and allow the marshmallow to warm slowly, safely away from the real heat of the fire. When either they finally remember the marshmallow, or it appears to be falling off the stick, they will collect it and make their s’more. (Or, they’ll find the marshmallow on the ground and have to restart.)
Because candy canes are such a Christmasy thing, these peppermint s’mores definitely have a holiday vibe going on. But just as we should embrace the year-round s’more, I see no reason why the combo of peppermint and chocolate should remain seasonal. Go ahead—make these at any time of year! Try chocolate mint cookies instead of graham crackers if you want to go the extra minty mile. Makes 12 
Takes 10 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
6 individually wrapped peppermint candies
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
12 regular marshmallows
2 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 On a cutting board, using the side of a knife or a cooking mallet, smash the still-wrapped peppermint candies to shatter them. Remove them from the plastic wrappers and place the peppermint shards in a small bowl.
3 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the prepared baking sheet. Top each square with 2 chocolate pips and 1 teaspoon of peppermint shards. Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each s’more. Broil until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
4 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish and top with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
For this recipe, I figured out the absolute simplest way to approximate cake batter with no raw eggs and just 3 ingredients! If the batter feels too soft in Step 2, add more wafers to the food processor. Any leftover batter will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 days. Makes 12 Takes 20 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
1½ cups vanilla wafer cookies
6 ounces (¾ cup) cream cheese (from a tub, not a brick)
¼ cup rainbow sprinkles
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
2 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
12 regular marshmallows
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 In a food processor, grind the cookies into a powder. Add the cream cheese and process until smooth. Transfer the cake batter to a medium bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons of sprinkles.
3 Place 12 graham cracker squares on a serving dish. Top each square with 2 chocolate pips, 1 heaping tablespoon of cake batter, and some of the rainbow sprinkles from the remaining 2 tablespoons.
4 Place the marshmallows on the prepared baking sheet. Broil them until they’re golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
5 Place 1 toasted marshmallow on each s’more. Top the s’mores with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
Banoffee pie is a British dessert of banana and toffee that has been taking the internet—and the world—by storm. The pie crust is made of crushed digestive cookies, which, when whole, just happen to be the perfect size to replace the graham cracker in a s’more. Makes 12 Takes 15 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
24 digestive cookies, such as McVitie’s
4 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
2 very ripe bananas, each cut into 12 slices
½ cup toffee bits
12 regular marshmallows
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 Place 12 digestive cookies on a large serving dish. Top each cookie with 4 chocolate pips, 2 banana slices, and about 2 teaspoons of toffee pieces.
3 Place the marshmallows on the prepared baking sheet. Broil them until they’re golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
4 Place 1 toasted marshmallow on each s’more. Top the s’mores with the remaining digestive cookies. Serve immediately.
Caramel apples are my least favorite dessert. They are so messy and the ratios are all wrong—so much stickiness from the caramel melting off and a massive amount of apple to get through at the end. Translate those flavors into a s’more, though, and the ratio is perfect—I am all in! Makes 12 Takes 15 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
2 medium apples, each cut into about 18 very thin wedges (use your favorite— I like Honeycrisp.)
¾ cup Salted Caramel Sauce
12 regular marshmallows
1 Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the prepared baking sheet. Top each square with 2 or 3 apple wedges and drizzle 1 tablespoon of caramel sauce over each s’more.
3 Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each s’more. Broil the s’mores until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
4 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish and top with the remaining graham cracker squares. Serve immediately.
Toasted coconut is one of my favorite dessert flavors, but it can be finicky to make. It can go from perfectly toasted to burned in seconds! That shouldn’t stop you from making these, though, because I’m providing a pan-toasting method, and the flavor of the browned coconut goes so well with the marshmallow and chocolate. If you want to take it a step further, add Salted Caramel Sauce and these will taste like the caramel-coconut Girl Scout cookies everyone loves. Just make sure to keep a close eye on the toasting coconut so you don’t end up with burned bits. Makes 12 
Takes 20 minutes
Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 tablespoon coconut oil, at room temperature
12 whole graham crackers, broken in half to form 24 squares
2 bars (1.55 ounces each) milk chocolate, broken into individual pips
12 regular marshmallows
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F, with a rack in the top position. Line one baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and spray the other with cooking spray. Set the sprayed baking sheet aside.
2 Place the coconut on the prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper and add the coconut oil. Mix together so the oil is evenly incorporated. Bake until the coconut is perfectly golden, about 12 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes for even toasting. Check for over-browning as you stir and take the pan out of the oven if the coconut becomes too brown throughout. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack to let it cool.
3 Using oven mitts, place a rack in the upper third of the oven and turn the broiler to its highest setting. Preheat for 5 to 10 minutes.
4 Place 12 graham cracker squares on the sprayed baking sheet. Top each square with 2 chocolate pips, followed by 1 heaping tablespoon of toasted coconut. Squish each marshmallow a bit with your hands and place 1 marshmallow on each s’more. Broil the s’mores until the marshmallows are golden brown on top, about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
5 Transfer the s’mores to a serving dish and top with the remaining graham cracker squares and more toasted coconut, as desired. Serve immediately.
The Graham Diet Plan
Reverend Sylvester Graham, a nineteenth-century New England Presbyterian minister who was obsessed with self-improvement in the most Puritanical of ways, is credited with the invention of the graham cracker. In 1837, Graham published A Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making, a book that was said to have a wide-reaching and influential impact on modern America’s dietary and hygienic habits. It pushed a plant-based diet and regular exercise, and blamed carnal appetites (which Graham claimed led to disease) on meat and alcohol consumption. He labeled bread as particularly “vile” due to the use of white flour, which is devoid of all of wheat’s nutrients, and urged his followers to grow their own wheat and mill their own flour. Much like the whole-grain variety, Graham’s recipe for flour retained the bran and germ, and was unsifted, leading to a much coarser texture. The flour came to be known as Graham flour—it was used to make Graham bread and eventually the Graham cracker.