Happy National S’mores Day! August 10th marks the date to not only celebrate this simple treat – but to eat it (yum!). The first official s’mores recipe was published in the Girl Scout Handbook in 1927. It is a simple recipe: two pieces of graham cracker with chocolate and roasted marshmallow in between.
In The Coachella Valley, the one part of the recipe that becomes difficult is the “roasting” of the marshmallow – as the 100+ degree temperatures outside really are not ideal for an old fashioned camp fire. We decided to ditch the fire altogether, and use the roasting heat provided by the desert sun to make “Desert S’mores”.
Step 1: Grab the Ingredients
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[/media-credit]We did a little shopping and grabbed a Hershey bar, graham crackers, a pie tin, paper plate, and (I guess ironically) “Campfire” marshmallows. We put together the smore’s – and opted to put one on a paper plate and one on the aluminum pie tin to see if that would help the “roasting” process.
Step 2: Leave the Ingredients in the sun
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[/media-credit]From there it was time to leave the s’mores in the 104 degree sun hoping that:
- they would heat up enough to be delicious
- insects would not enjoy them before us
- the smell of melting chocolate would not make us so hungry that we would end up eating the entire bag of leftover marshmallows while we waited
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Step 3: Eat!
An hour has passed, we have successfully resisted filling up on marshmallows and it appears the insects have stayed away from our desert (at least that we know of).
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[/media-credit]One hour in 104 degree sunlight has left the chocolate nice and soft, the marshmallow has softened a bit too. Our hunch was right as the s’more in the pie tin feels warmer to the touch and has what feels like an even softer marshmallow.
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[/media-credit]And while there is the missing element of campfire smokiness, these s’mores are filled with all the melted chocolate and marshmallow gooeyness that you want in a s’more. It is not your traditional s’more – but in The Coachella Valley, you have to improvise sometimes.
Happy S’mores Day!
