s’mores

S’mores are fun, but let’s face it. They’re messy!

Here’s a simpler version that won’t get quite as many stains on the shirts and goo in the hair.

Ingredients:

Cookies with a hole in the middle and chocolate on at least one side. From here on out they will be referred to as “striped dainties,” because that’s what we called them when we were small and couldn’t read the boring name on the package.
Jet-Puffed marshmallows. This is not the time to be skimpy and buy the cheaper varieties. They are not as good! We’re talking s’mores here, people! Step up to the plate!
A stick or poker that will fit through the cookie hole. The double mallow roasters won’t work here, nor will the self-rotating triple or quadruple mallow contraptions.

Directions:

1. Select the cookie that calls your name and “thread” the stick through the center hole with the chocolate-covered side facing away from you. This cookie is covered in chocolate on both sides, so use your imagination.

2. Run the cookie down toward the handle of your roasting stick.

3. Find just the right marshmallow…not too sticky, not too firm.

Oops.

Find just the right marshmallow again and spear it with the stick.

4. Roast that marshmallow to perfection.

5. Now it’s time for the removal and sandwiching. I like to combine this step into one smooth move, while my husband prefers to defy gravity with his impeccable balance skills.

If I were doing this, I would at this point place my second striped dainty on the stick with the chocolate side facing the mallow, and then proceed as my man indicates.

Move the striped dainty from the bottom of the stick toward the marshmallow, and slowly push it and the mallow off the end of the stick. Ignore the dog in the background saying, “Drop it, drop it, drop it.”

Perfect!

6. If you haven’t already, sandwich that baby!

Done…almost.

There’s this one last step:

7. Eat it!

You can also eat them open-faced.

Take s’mores to another level with other chocolate-covered cookies instead of grahams. Obviously, cookies without holes can’t be threaded onto the stick, so there’s more hand/mallow contact. I’m thinking that if you cared about hand/mallow contact, you probably wouldn’t be eating s’mores.

Open up an Oreo and pop a mallow inside—licking the cream out first is optional. Or try mint cookies—it’s like a trip to the moon without the G-force.

Why is this “better” than traditional s’mores?

Scientifically, when compressed by the top element, the mallow has someplace to go besides oozing out the sides of the cracker sandwich. Some of it pushes up through the hole while some pushes toward the edges. This way, you have less sideways mallow displacement and better overall mallow coverage for a proper mallow/cookie/chocolate ratio in each bite.
You have to buy and deal with one less ingredient.
The chocolate melts every time.
The chocolate does not drip out all over your daughter’s pale yellow shirt and stain it forever because you’re out of stain remover and the shirt somehow gets stuffed into the bottom of the sleeping bag and lost for three months.
It’s a cookie. Cookies are good.
They’re less messy…although admittedly not mess-free.
It isn’t as intensely rich as a traditional s’more, believe it or not, so you can eat more. That might not be a good thing.
Circles are fun.
You can obtain complete cookie coverage with one mallow.
Your s’mores world opens up to dozens if not hundreds of variations.
It’s fun…more fun than a box of graham crackers.