By Joell Folger
Hi Everyone,
Happy Fall, which in the mountains means it’s time for snow! And snow it has! The ski area opens on Friday. I’ve barely shifted gears from spending the summer at a campground on Cape Cod.
Since winter is upon us, let’s talk about bringing a summer favorite into the winter for our cozy campfires. Yes, it’s always a perfect time for s’mores.
Over the summer the s’mores experiments were delicious, burnt edges and all. Elevating the entire experience were three J-1 students joining us for the summer. This was their first experience with toasting marshmallows. They loved the s’mores and came to as many campfires as possible. What fun to share a first time s’mores tasting, 3 times over.
The s’mores started with the classic combination, although it didn’t take long to get peanut butter cups involved. Just about a week. The new thin version is perfect sandwiched between the oozy melty marshmallow and solid graham crackers. From there, the s'mores rose to new heights.
Among some of the more successful and popular smores experiments were s’mores cones; s’mores nachos; walking s’mores; rice krispie treats and of course pumpkin spice.
For the s’mores cones, we used mini marshmallows and filled waffle cones with all sorts of goodies like chocolate chips, caramel pieces, coconut, gummy bears or peanut butter chips. This one required patience to melt the inside treats while not burning your cone.
Walking s’mores might have been my favorite. It’s the dessert version of the walking taco. For this, you just dump your toasty marshmallow into a mini bag of cookies, add chips if using graham or animal crackers. Mini oreos were the most popular with the way the heat of the marshmallow warmed up the cream filling of the oreo. Oh my, sugar rush goals.
We toasted rice krispie treats, made chocolate barks and even pumpkin spice s’mores. The pumpkin spice was interesting as the original plan involved pumpkin spice cookies. Oops, the delivery did not happen. Thankfully, there were some ingredients on hand such as buttercream icing and a pumpkin pie spice blend. These two came together perfectly, about a tablespoon of pumpkin spice into approximately a cup of buttercream icing. You can adjust the amount of pumpkin spice to your taste.The graham crackers got a good layer of icing, sometimes even a slab of chocolate bark, before the toasted marshmallow. Oh my, chocolate and pumpkin spice, wow! What a firework of flavor.
There is always a time and place for s’mores. The flavor combinations are such fun to explore and the season doesn’t matter. As we transition to winter campfires bundled in blankets, go ahead - top that mug of hot chocolate with a freshly toasted warm marshmallow. S’mores in a mug! What is your s’more story? Time to get toasting...
