Gourmet S'mores

First off, you should know the unofficial family motto of Barton family gatherings: "It's all about the food." I tell you this to at least partially explain why I felt compelled to check out the book S'mores: Gourmet Treats For Every Occasion in preparation for a looming summer reunion.

There are some pretty extreme variations of the old campfire treat to be found in this book. The author has a pretty loose definition of what a s'more is—her lone requirement being a roasted marshmallow squished between, well, pretty much anything. To get an idea of what I mean, check out the cover image of a marshmallow and a scoop of cookie dough sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies. I guess I am more of a traditionalist, because I still think a graham cracker needs to be what holds a s'more together.

As a trial run for the "big show" in a few weeks, I volunteered to test out some s'mores variations at the cabin last weekend. I picked out a few ideas from the book that sounded especially promising, and purchased a variety of ingredients to assemble a mini s'mores buffet. Here are some combinations we tried:

White Chocolate Raspberry
• Graham Cracker
• Hershey's Cookies 'n' Cream Bar
• Raspberries
• Marshmallow

Caramel Apple
• Cinnamon Graham Cracker
• Caramel Squares
• Thin Slice of Granny Smith Apple
• Marshmallow

Mint Chocolate
• Graham Cracker
• Andes Mints
• Marshmallow

The white chocolate raspberry was the consensus favorite. Since we didn't have a campfire, we used the barbecue grill instead. We preheated it to medium low, set our s'mores on the warming rack (so as not to scorch the graham cracker), and closed the lid for a few minutes. This method didn't result in a crispy, golden brown marshmallow, but in the plus column the chocolate was always sufficiently melted. NOTE: it's best to hold off on adding any fruit until after your s'more comes off the grill.