S’mores bring back three vivid memories for me. Not surprisingly, they all involve family.

Camping at the beach growing up and making s’mores while trying to keep the seagulls away from the graham crackers, and the sand out of the marshmallows. Gotta love a gritty marshmallow and sleeping in the back of a station wagon!
Camping in the Texas Hill Country. Every summer we’d go to the same place and always saved one night to roast marshmallows (after catching fireflies, of course) and make s’mores. We’d all do the happy dance around the campfire because they were so yummy!
As an adult, camping with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop in the north Georgia mountains. S’mores were on the menu at least once every trip. Someone inevitably dropped their marshmallow, burned it to a crisp, stepped in it or got it stuck in their hair. Luckily, marshmallows come in big bags!

S’mores are pretty much the perfect treat. The only thing it lacks is a verified history.

In general, it is widely accepted that S’mores were ‘invented’ by the Girl Scouts in the early 1900’s and regularly enjoyed at Campouts. The first recipe for s’mores was published in 1927 in the Girl Scout Handbook and the event marked the official introduction of the s’more into popular culture. The name “Some Mores” can be found in publications up until 1971, but at some point was shortened to its contracted form, s’mores.

The publication of the s’more recipe was not the first time the trio of chocolate, marshmallow and cookies was combined. In 1913, the Mallomar cookie was introduced to market, followed in 1917 by its Southern cousin, the Moon Pie. Both products have a graham cracker-like base – a sandwich, in the case of the Moon Pie – and are topped with marshmallow and a layer of chocolate.

I guess we’ll never know. But I’m eternally grateful to whoever created this little piece of nostalgia-laden heaven!

Get ready! National S’Mores Day is August 10!

We’re planning to celebrate by making some traditional s’mores (the Girl Scout way!) and throwing in a couple of twists.

S’moreos

First, a decadent upgrade to the original – s’mores made with Oreo cookies instead of graham crackers…S’moreos!

Same basic ingredients:

Then, you have a choice to make. Twist open an Oreo to use as the top and bottom of your snack – or – use one whole Oreo for the top and another whole cookie for the bottom. Well, I wanted the two-cookie version, but soon learned that the Oreo flavor overwhelms the other stuff. That actually doesn’t suck at all, but for our purposes today, an homage to the s’more, we’ll stick with the one cookie version for this S’moreo.

Add two squares of chocolate (one square if you’re using a fancy pants chocolate that only comes in eight larger pieces.)

Toast your marshmallows on any variety of fire you happen to be near. I used our stovetop, but you may be lucky enough to have a fire pit, fireplace or an actual campfire. We’ve roasted them on the grill, too. I suppose you could even use a lighter or a really long fireplace match (how badly do you want a s’moreo?!)

Proceed as with a regular s’more and create a sandwich with the cookies, chocolate and marshmallow.

Bonus: Microwave S’moreos

The super quick and dirty version of this is to build your s’moreo, but leave the top off. Microwave for 10-15 seconds (the marshmallow will puff up a lot!) then top with the other cookie. This method will always do in a pinch or on a commercial break or whenever you have an extra 15 seconds to spare and want a s’moreo!

Oven S’mores

The next variety of s’mores on our National S’mores Day menu, is Oven S’mores. Little mini s’more pies that take about a minute and a half to put together.

Again, same ingredients, but the graham cracker takes the form of a graham cracker mini pie crust like this.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the little tins on a baking sheet and add three squares of chocolate to the bottom. I used the Hershey bars squares for this, and you might need to adjust this if you use something like Ghiradelli chocolate bars – since their squares are bigger.

Plop three big marshmallows on top of the chocolate. Mini-marshmallows would be cute, too. Just toss a little handful into the crusts.

Pop these into the over for 4-6 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and look fabulous. Keep an eye on them.

Break another chocolate bar into pieces into a small bowl and melt it in the microwave. When the Oven S’mores come out of the over, use a fork to drizzle the chocolate on top of them (little flags are optional.)

Serve while warm. You can serve these as is or remove them from their tins (before drizzling with chocolate) and transfer them to cupcake liners or straight onto a dessert plate. Heck, you could just eat them right out of hand! They’re adorable and delicious!

Finally, as a bonus, the grownup ending to the National S’mores Day Extravaganza! Though technically not a s’more, these sure taste amazing. Three steps:

Roast a marshmallow using an appropriate source of fire and let it cool just slightly.
This is how I like mine!
Step away from the fire (this is important!)
Dip the marshmallow into some Bailey’s Irish Crème and eat.