S’mores are a favorite for summer picnics, parties, camp outs or just an easy weeknight by the fire pit. Even if you have dietary restrictions, you can find grahams and cookies that fit dairy free or gluten free lifestyles so that everyone can partake in the fun!
To that end, I recently was assigned “a fire pit dessert” for a 4th of July get together. We definitely needed to accommodate some gluten restrictions. But I also wondered if I could come up with other variations and toppings that weren’t just chocolate. I mean, I love chocolate. But not everybody does. I thought maybe S’mores could have more grown up variations, so that S’more making could be a fun, creative family affair?
My mind started racing as I jotted down various flavor combinations. Then my advertising/art director brain kicked in and I started coming up with names followed by designing an infographic poster to inspire guests. My hope was that after a few variations on my poster, guests would get creative and come up with their own creations, and it would be a sugar-bomb-crazy-fun night.
And it was!
We had double chocolate, a PB and C, an Elvis, a pumpkin pie, a lemon meringue pie, a New York cheesecake, an Italian, a minty’more, and a Berry-luscious. All were delish, and with these ingredients you can come up with countless more.
Ha…more. See what I did there?
I have the infographic poster here for you to print out, as well as ingredient cards to help label everything. I left some blank ones for your own ideas, too! I just ask that you keep my watermark on the print out so that (hopefully) more people come and visit here and share the love.
I used baskets and trays to carry everything outside, holding various mason jars with label picks for the ingredients. I tried to pre-break off and plastic wrap chocolate and white chocolate squares so they are easy and fast for guests to grab and assemble their S’mores. Singly wrapped candy I kept as is and just placed in easy to reach, open mason jars.
I tried to have as much store bought ingredients as possible to make assembling this fun dessert buffet easy, but there were a few things I had to make-like pumpkin butter and sweetened vanilla cream cheese. I posted the recipes here, but if you find jarred pumpkin butter at the store I am sure it can work well.
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| lemon curd…mmmmm |
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| the Italian with Nutella and macerated strawberries |
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| Flora’s PB and Chocolate |
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| Pumpkin pie with ginger snaps |
I can’t reinforce enough HOW FUN THIS WAS! My husband thought I was nuts when I brought all this out, but during the drive home he talked about it the whole way, giving me accolades and saying how great and delicious this idea was. Everyone was making and sharing-kids and adults. And yes, the kids started getting really creative with it, which was fun to see.
Hope you are having a great summer so far!
Pumpkin Butter
Ingredients:
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
dash of kosher salt
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan. Heat over medium high heat and bring the mixture to a simmer, Turn heat to low and cover the pan with a lid but perch it on a spoon to allow the steam to escape. The lid prevents the sauce from splattering all over the stove-it gets messy!
Simmer for about 45 minutes, until nice and thick. Cool down then store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Whipped Sweetened Vanilla Cream Cheese
Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
Whip the cream cheese with a hand mixer or a fork, then whip the powdered sugar and the vanilla until combined and creamy. Store in a container for a few days until ready to use for your S’mores!
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