Or – Indoor (kitchen) S’mores – No campfire necessary:

• graham crackers, broken into squares
• 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 bag of mini-marshmallows

To assemble:

1. Pre-heat oven to broil (high heat) with baking rack 5 inches down from the top of the oven.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
3. Take one (1) large graham cracker and break it in half (one for top cracker and one for bottom cracker).  Notice graham crackers are scored across the middle, creating two sub-crackers.  Break apart at this part.
4. Repeat with additional graham crackers.
5. Place graham crackers side by side in rows without any gaps on prepared cookie sheet.
6. Spread mini-marshmallows evenly across the graham crackers that will be used for the bottoms.
7. Top each one with chocolate chips.
8. Place the cookie sheet in the oven with the door slightly cracked.
9. Broil for approximately 5 to 10 minutes, carefully watching them so they don’t burn.
10. When the marshmallows have turned a golden brown on the edges, remove the cookie sheet from the oven.
11. Place the remaining graham crackers on top of the broiled s’mores.
12. Press each one down gently.
13. Allow them to cool for a few minutes and serve.

S’Mores – in the Microwave

Caution!  The s’more will be hot. Nothing burns like melted sugar!  Adult supervision is required.

Ingredients:

• 1 graham cracker, broken in half (2 squares)
• 1/2 of 1.55-oz. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar
• 1 large marshmallow

Directions:

1. Place 1 graham square on microwaveable plate
2. Top with chocolate and marshmallow.
3. Microwave  on high 10 sec. or until marshmallow has puffed to double in size.
4. Cover with remaining graham square.
5. Squeeze down until the marshmallow begins to puff out of the sides of the s’more
6. Let stand 1 min. to allow chocolate to soften before serving.
7. Eat and enjoy!

Serves:  Makes 1 s’more, but one is never enough!

Source: childhood

S’Mores Dip – Two Ways

“The Best S’Mores Dip Recipe – rich and gooey chocolate marshmallow dip! Thanks to using milk chocolate bar, the dip doesn’t scorch or harden but stays gooey and soft.  Sometimes you just can’t wait for a campfire to have s’mores.”

S’mores Dip – Milk Chocolate and Half and Half

Ingredients:

• 7 oz milk chocolate bar , broken into pieces
• 2 Tab half and half (or half cream, half milk, or milk)
• 1 pkg large marshmallows

Directions:

1. Place chocolate and half and half into a large mixing bowl that’s microwave safe. (or, if you are going to use a pie plate, melt it in that – just be careful mixing it with the half and half)
2. Microwave the mixture in 12 seconds intervals until melty.
3. Stir until smooth. The mixture will be thick.
4. Spread the chocolate mixture on the bottom of greased  10″ cast iron skillet or 9″ round pie plate or any other heat-safe dish.
5. Top with marshmallows.
6. Broil in 415 ° oven for 2 to 3 minutes or until the marshmallows are golden brown on top.
7. Remove from the oven and set on a heat-safe cutting board. Let cool.
8. Serve with graham crackers.

Variations:

1. Add about 3 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter to the chocolate mixture before melting it in the microwave. Peanut butter chocolate lovers will swoon over this idea!
2. Sprinkle sea salt over the melted chocolate layer before topping with marshmallows.
3. Drizzle the baked dip with caramel for added richness and pizzazz.

Serves: 6 people
Sourcea;  Anna@CrunchyCreamySweet

S’mores Dip with Chocolate Chips and Condensed Milk

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• ½ cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cup mini marshmallows – divided use
• graham crackers

Directions:

1. In a medium sized sauce pan, melt the chocolate chips with the sweetened condensed milk.
2. Stir in 1 cup marshmallows until fully incorporated.
3. Spread the chocolate mixture in a small oven proof dish
4. Top with the remaining marshmallows.
5. Place under the broiler until the marshmallows puff up and become golden brown, about 1 minute.
6. Serve with Graham crackers for dipping.

Source:  fridaycakenight.com

The History of Marshmallows – Did They Really Come From the Swamp???

It’s not a campfire without s’mores, but where did that funny name come from?

AUGUST 14, 2015 The Gooey Story of S’mores
by Rebecca Rupp

Though nobody quite agrees on where s’mores came from (or who gave them their silly name), it’s clear to me that the things could only have been invented by a kid. Nobody over ten years-old would ever think of squishing together a chocolate bar, a toasted marshmallow, and a pair of graham crackers, and calling it food.

That said, the s’more’s long yet vague history, dates back at least to 1927 when a recipe for the more formally designated “some mores” appeared in Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts, a helpful tome which also includes instructions for building 12 different kinds of campfires. Other sources attribute the original recipe to the Campfire Girls; and there’s also an argument that the gooey treat has its origins in the Victorian era, when popular picks for desserts were “sandwich cookies” and sponge cakes, variously filled with jam, cream, or lemon curd.

Alternatively, if the jump from elegant tea cake to sticky campfire snack seems a little much, other inspirational possibilities include the Mallomar—a graham cracker cookie topped with a blob of marshmallow and coated with chocolate, manufactured by Nabisco and first sold in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1913; or the MoonPie—a pair of graham cracker cookies with a marshmallow filling, dipped in chocolate – that first went on the market in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1917.

Well, maybe. But my bet is still on a bunch of messily-experimental little girls.

By the time the Scouts were first scarfing down their s’mores, the marshmallow was no longer the healthful all-natural preparation it had been in ancient times. According to Tim Richardson’s Sweets: A History of Candy, the original marsh mallow (Althaea officinalis) was a swamp plant somewhat resembling a hollyhock, native to Europe and West Asia. Its roots produce a sticky white sap used medicinally for centuries as a sore-throat cure. In the Middle Ages, chunks of the marsh mallow root were candied to make “suckets,” the medieval version of cough drops.

In the mid-1800s, the culinarily adept French came up with the idea of turning marsh mallow sap into something that was simply good to eat, whipping it into a meringue-like froth with egg whites and sugar and pouring it into molds to form fat, squashy confections that Richardson describes as “halfway between air and toffee.” Producing these primal marshmallows was time-consuming and labor-intensive. They were accordingly expensive and only the upper classes got them.

By the late 1800s, however, the mallow plant extract was replaced by the more readily available gelatin, which is what keeps modern marshmallows so light and fluffy. The average marshmallow is over half just plain air. (Don’t believe it? Check out this experiment.) The gelatin – a breakdown product of collagen—provides the skeleton that holds the air bubbles securely in place. Cheap gelatin combined with faster production processes meant that marshmallows were now affordable, and—no longer an elite treat—they were soon increasingly ubiquitous.

By the 1890s, according to period newspaper reports, marshmallow roasts were the latest in summer fads. “The simplicity of this form of amusement is particularly charming,” reads a description of 1892. “One buys two or three pounds of marshmallows, invites half a dozen friends, and that is all the preparation required.” The proper means of consuming marshmallows, the author adds, is to nibble them directly off the end of the stick—or off the end of your neighbor’s stick, which may be why the author also touts the marshmallow roast as “an excellent medium for flirtation.”

The roasted marshmallow—and by extrapolation, the s’more—traditionally requires a campfire. (Unless, like New Zealand climber Simon Turner, you’re brave enough to roast your marshmallows over an active volcano.) Most of us, after a couple of incendiary experiments, come to terms with the best way to brown a marshmallow, though for those who don’t, the National Marshmallow Roasters Institute (which has branches in Sacramento, Columbus, and Paris) provides helpful tips.

Once you’ve mastered the marshmallow, the s’more is simply a matter of assembly. The original 1827 recipe (for 8) calls for eight sticks, 16 graham crackers, 8 bars of plain chocolate (each broken in half), and 16 marshmallows.

“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.”

Nowadays alternative fillings for s’mores include everything from raspberry jam to peanut butter, hazelnut butter, Nutella, caramel, and lemon curd; substitutes for graham crackers include chocolate chip cookies and wheat crackers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, cautioning that the traditional s’more is hardly a healthy snack, proposes substituting low-fat vanilla yogurt and strawberries for the chocolate and marshmallow. The graham crackers, says the government, are still OK.

Or s’mores eaters can simply exercise restraint.

“Though it tastes like ‘some more,’” the 1827 directions conclude dampingly, “one is really enough.”

Source:  theplate.nationalgeographic.com