I wanted to share something I made for our 4th of July cook-out that was very well-received. Food boards are still a 'thing.' There's something very appealing about their display that truly makes the sum greater than the parts.
Last week, I mentioned s'mores in my menu plan for the holiday. I had graham crackers and two large chocolate bars (one milk, one dark) on hand. I also had my personal s'mores favorite, a bar of unsweetened baking chocolate in the baking cupboard. While grocery shopping last week I picked up the bag of marshmallows that I still needed. The more I thought about offering s'mores, the more I thought it would be fun to add more to the mix. The result was a fun twist on the classic cook-out treat, elevating a simple dessert to one that felt like luxury: a Homestyle S'mores Board. And yet, I didn't spend anything extra beyond the marshmallows.
I gathered our ingredients and arranged them on a wooden tray, charcuterie-style. The overall effect of a food board should be one of abundance and variety, allowing the beauty of actual foods, unwrapped, to serve as artistic elements.
To fill out my board, I raided the pantry and fridge for all of the extras. Here's what I included:
- The Basics: Classic graham crackers and fluffy marshmallows.
- The Chocolates: Three different varieties of chocolate bars broken into easy-to-grab squares.
- The Refrigerator and Pantry Rescues: Slices of fresh banana, a jar of chocolate-hazelnut spread (donated to the cause by one daughter), a cup of natural peanut butter, and a jar of our homemade rhubarb-vanilla jam (which added a spectacular tart, gourmet contrast to the sweetness of the marshmallows and chocolate).
- The Festive Sparkle: Small vials of red and blue sugar sprinkles and multi-colored cake decors for sprinkling onto the toasty marshmallow edges as they oozed out from the graham cracker sandwich.
Cost-wise, the s'mores board was a massive victory, gaining its extravagance from the extras I already had on hand. A comparable dessert with great visual appeal would have either cost a pretty penny at the bakery or involved an hour or two of my time baking. Instead, what I put together used foods from my kitchen and took 10 minutes to assemble.
This 4th of July's cook-out s'mores board served as a delicious reminder that creating a special holiday memory doesn't require a large share of the grocery budget, special talent, or a lot of time. It just takes a little creativity, a bit of presentation, and the simple joy of gathering around the fire on a summer evening.
What's your favorite way to make a s'more? Are you a traditionalist, or do you like to mix things up? Part of our fun was comparing all of our s'mores. Some of us liked the fruity twist. Others went for the peanut butter and banana taste sensation. And one of us sampled it all on a single s'more. What would you add to a s'mores board? Share in the comments.
Looks like a fun and attractive variety for your s'mores board! Personally, I'm pretty much a traditionalist, enjoying standard milk chocolate, plain marshmallows, and graham crackers. The gluten-free graham crackers taste very different than regular ones to me, adding their own twist. Over the years, though, we've played with variations, some of which my kids enjoy, such as flavored marshmallows or using peanut butter cups or Rolos for the chocolatey portion. I have read about, but not personally tried, using different cookies (think generic thin mint cookies or fudge striped shortbread) in place of the graham crackers.
ReplyDeleteOn other fun twist some of my backpacking/camping friends love is to do savory s'mores, where you "toast" the cheese over the fire, then put it on a cracker with some salami or other meat. Kind of a charcuterie meets s'mores idea.
Can't sign in today, but this is Cat.
Smores from my childhood seemed to be better than as an adult. We have a fire pit outside way in the back of our property but it is used for burning fallen branches, limbs and trees that have fallen down on our property and our neighbor's. It is a work fire pit so the draw to have a campfire for hotdogs or smores just isn't there. Nothing casual and enjoyable is defined by the fire pit unfortunately. We can't have open burns but it has to be in a confined pit for the tons of cleanup we need to do every year. We used to do pizza pies and cherry pies over the fire when we were kids and though we still have the forms, we just don't use them. We're boring over here but at least I can laugh at ourselves for not finding fun when it's right in front of us!
ReplyDeleteI should add that hubby is doing better although this is going to be a long process to get fully cured. July 3 was his birthday and so we got him a new grill and made grilled roasted chicken leg quarters with potato salad and 7 layer salad for four of us. We ended up having the variety of lasagnas on Monday instead and enjoyed that separate from the grilled chicken. Thanks everyone for your well wishes, prayers and wonderful advice!
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