Tag Archives: s’mores

August 24, 2012 · 12:22 pm

A New Take on Gluten-Free S’mores

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Gluten-free s’mores with chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows and peanut butter cups.

A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids camping for the first time. Everything went surprisingly well, especially sleeping together like four sardines tucked into a tiny tent. The highlight, of course, was campfire cooking. We enjoyed hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and baked beans. (Camping has a healthy image, but really, is all that unrefrigerated, smoky, burnt food good for you?) No surprise, but the campfire desserts were our favorites, especially our chocolate-chip-studded banana boats and warm, chocolaty gluten-free s’mores.

Kinnikinnick’s S’moreables are good gluten-free graham cracker substitutes (for tips on making s’mores in your kitchen, rather than the campfire, see my Please, Sir, I Want S’mores post). But, honestly, the S’moreables are a little small and fragile when sandwiched around a jumbo marshmallow.

Inspired by a Time Out Chicago Kids article on alternate s’mores, my older daughter came up with some creative new ideas for gluten-free s’mores. My favorite, pictured above, was a circular s’mores sandwich, with a flame-kissed kosher marshmallow and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup sandwiched between two Enjoy Life Gluten-Free Crunchy Chocolate Chip cookies. It was the perfect combo of oozy marshmallow, melty peanut butter and chocolate, and substantial chocolate chip cookies. (I have to say, I’m not a fan of the small, soft-baked Enjoy Life cookies that go stale quickly, but I like their new, big crunchy gluten-free cookies.)

And about those banana boats … based on a suggestion from our Girl Scouts leader, we made a vertical slit in a banana and its peel, stuffed some chocolate chips and marshmallows into the slit, and put it on the grate above the campfire to cook. (Or wrap the stuffed banana in tin foil and put in the coals.)

Now that’s what I call a successful camping trip.

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April 9, 2010 · 1:06 pm

Please, sir, I want s’mores

gluten-free s'mores1

gluten-free s'mores2

It was cold and rainy in Chicago the other day, on our bumpy path toward spring. When my kids came home from school, they asked for hot chocolate and gluten-free s’mores. I was happy to oblige, because I had a couple packets of hot chocolate mix that I wanted to use up and I had gluten-free graham crackers in the cabinet.

Gluten-free graham crackers are hard to find. I’ve yet to discover one that comes close to the sweet, nutty taste of whole wheat graham flour with a tender texture that crumbles in my mouth.

S'moreables

In the past, I’ve bought Jo-Sef’s Square Cinnamon Cookies, which are chunky, cinnamon-flavored gluten-free graham crackers, and Health Valley Rice Bran Crackers, which are thin cookie/crackers with a graham taste. Recently, I bought Kinnikinnick’s S’moreables, which have a honey-molasses flavor and are sturdy enough to stand up to s’mores (though there were quite a few non-sturdy broken crackers in the box).

While all of these store-bought cookies are good for snacks or s’mores, I wouldn’t use them in a graham cracker pie crust. They’re too expensive and too sugary. For a graham cracker crust, you’re better off with crushed gluten-free gingersnaps or crushed gluten-free animal crackers. Or bake your own gluten-free grahams with a recipe from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef.

S’mores — toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers — are campfire favorites that are so good that you beg for “some more.”

One of the best things about camping is skewering a giant marshmallow on a long stick, holding it over the campfire and watching the marshmallow puff up and turn golden brown (or thrusting it into the flames and watching it catch fire, with flames leaping into the night sky and charring the marshmallow charcoal black).

It’s much tamer to watch the marshmallows turn a pleasant tan in the toaster oven, but you’ve got to take what you can get.

Marshmallows are generally gluten free, but check the ingredients to make sure. When we made our s’mores this week, I had only mini marshmallows on hand, but the bigger ones ooze more (and oozing is good). Hershey’s chocolate bars, the classic chocolate for s’mores, are gluten-free. But I had only dark chocolate chips at home, so I used those, though chocolate chips don’t melt as well.

Click for Gluten-Free S’Mores recipe

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