S’mores alternatives to try camping and at home

When most people think of camping food nowadays, s’mores are top of mind. Back when I was a child, bananas cooked in foil with chocolate was the bees knees when it came to camp outs. But times change, and it’s all about the s’mores for most people. And it doesn’t just have to be the standard s’mores recipe, you can also try some s’mores alternatives in flavours and ingredients.

What are s’mores

Traditionally s’mores are made with Graham Crackers sandwiched around a toasted marshmallow and a bit of chocolate. In the UK we don’t have Graham crackers, so we tend to use digestive biscuits (and for the lazy amongst us, chocolate digestives with the chocolate on the inside to melt, rather than adding separate chocolate). I find digestives quite heavy to have the 2, but you could use rich tea or another type instead.

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While we all love the traditional ingredients in s’mores, why not get more adventurous and try a different s’mores recipe.

For me the marshmallow has to stay, as that’s what makes it s’mores, just like a toasted sandwich really needs to retain the cheese! But you can try lots of other ingredients instead.

Recipe ideas for s’mores alternatives

• Peanut butter with chocolate
• Peanut butter and jelly (no chocolate needed)
• Apple and cinnamon, you could replace the chocolate with a swirl of caramel sauce for a toffee apple flavour. Use either a bit of apple pie filling, or just thin slices of apple to mix up the textures.
• Cherry and chocolate – for a hint of black forest flavour, splodge on some cherry pie filling
• Banana and nutella – couple of slices of banana and nutella rather than a piece of chocolate
• Pineapple and toasted coconut – you might want to change the chocolate to white chocolate for this
• Strawberries – skewer and toast them a bit too along with the marshmallow, add chocolate
• Honeycomb – cut up a Crunchie
• Caramelised bacon, with dark chocolate
• Salted caramel – add a swirl of dulce con leche with a sprinkling of salt. Salty and sweet always goes well together
• Pretzel and chocolate – again a good salty and sweet mix
• Toffee and chocolate – add a rolo or two to the marshmallow
• Double chocolate – sandwich the chocolate and marshmallow with double chocolate chip cookies
• Chocolate peppermint – use an After Eight chocolate for a minty taste
• Chocolate and nuts – sprinkle chopped nuts over the melting marshmallow before combining with the chocolate
• Lemon curd – with or without the chocolate
• Brie, grape and chocolate – one to make under the grill, adding the brie to one half of the crackers, and the marshmallow to the other half. Top with halved grapes and chocolate before sandwiching together.

Equipment for making s’mores

However you toast the marshmallows, at home in front of an open fire, over a camp fire, or over bbq coals, skewers of some kind are needed. For camping we tend to just use wooden skewers to save on washing up. But you could use metal ones – just make sure they’ve got a handle suitable for children to hold safely.

• Wooden skewers
• Metal skewers

Making s’mores in the oven

At home, you can toast marshmallows in front of an open fire or toast them on a firepit. But if you’re making in bulk, an oven works just as well (and more safely). To make s’mores in the oven, you need the grill – on a medium heat.

Line up your Graham crackers or digestives on a baking sheet.

On one half put chocolate, on the opposite half put a marshmallow.

Then grill for a few minutes until the marshmallows are soft and chocolate starting to melt. Check them regularly as you don’t want the marshmallows to burn.

Remove from the heat and sandwich together the opposite halves.

Air fryer smores

If you’re an air fryer faithful you can also make them in there. For air fryer smores:

Put your crackers or biscuits in a single layer in the basket with a marshmallow on top.

Air fry at 180C for 3 minutes (may need longer depending on your airfryer) until the marshmallow is a bit squishy.

Remove carefully from the basket and top with a bit of chocolate (or 3-4 chocolate buttons depending on size). If using a chunky square of chocolate you might want to include that on top of your marshmallow in the air fryer.

Sandwich with another biscuit and eat.

Making a sharing s’mores dip

As an alternative method you can always replicate the flavours of the treat at home by making a s’mores dip which is great for a sharing dish.

Use a disposable foil tray*, and lay out marshmallows with chocolate pieces on top.

Pop it in a preheated oven until the marshmallows and chocolate have melted.

You can then provide Graham crackers, digestive biscuits, or cookies to dip into the marshmallow and chocolate dip.

It’s a marshmallowy version of a fondue. Instead of biscuits, you could also provide fruit to dip – why not create mini skewers of fruit with cocktail sticks to dunk in.

What different s’mores recipes would you like to try?

Like this post, try these other tips for nearby days out.