Peanut Butter Smores with Strawberry Marshmallows
A campfire s'more rebuilt around a halved peanut butter cup, which melts where a molded chocolate square stays solid, and a strawberry marshmallow that puts the jelly flavor inside the hot part of the sandwich instead of on the cracker.
Ingredients
The Stack
- 6 whole graham cracker sheets snapped in half to give 12 squares
- 6 peanut butter cups standard size, chilled and halved horizontally
- 6 large strawberry marshmallows or plain marshmallows, see below
If You Cannot Find Strawberry Marshmallows
- 6 teaspoons strawberry jam a set jam, not a loose preserve
- 1 pinch flaky sea salt optional, over the peanut filling
Equipment
- Serrated knife
- Long skewers or roasting forks
- Kitchen torch, campfire or broiler
Instructions
Build the Bottoms
- Chill the peanut butter cups for 10 minutes, then halve each one horizontally with a serrated knife, sawing gently rather than pressing. You want 12 thin discs of chocolate backed with peanut filling.
- Snap the graham cracker sheets in half to give 12 squares and lay them out in pairs on a tray. Set one cup half on each bottom square with the filling facing up.
- Only if you are using plain marshmallows: have the jam and a teaspoon ready beside the fire. It goes onto the marshmallow after toasting, never onto the cracker.
Toast, Close and Rest
- Toast the marshmallows over embers or to the side of a flame, turning slowly and continuously, until the surface is evenly bronzed and blistered and the middle has gone to liquid. Two to three minutes over a fire, about 40 seconds under a kitchen torch.
- Slide a marshmallow off the skewer onto a cup half, lay the second cup half on top of it, and close the sandwich with the remaining graham square. Press straight down, gently, so the marshmallow spreads to the edges.
- Rest each one for a full minute before eating. That minute is when the held heat travels through both discs of chocolate, and skipping it is why most s'mores arrive with the chocolate still solid.
Notes
Chill the peanut butter cups for 10 minutes before halving them. Cold chocolate cuts cleanly under a serrated knife; at room temperature it crushes and the filling squeezes out.
Use a whole cup per s'more, halved horizontally, so there is chocolate below the marshmallow and chocolate above it. One half per sandwich gives you a melted face and a dry one.
No strawberry marshmallows: roll plain ones in crushed freeze-dried strawberries before toasting, or spread a teaspoon of set jam onto the marshmallow after toasting. Never spread jam on the graham cracker, which softens within a couple of minutes.
Make-ahead: halve the cups up to a day early and keep them on a parchment-lined tray in the refrigerator. Lay out the cracker bottoms an hour before serving.
Indoors, a kitchen torch takes about 40 seconds a marshmallow, or run them open-faced under a broiler for 90 seconds and watch them constantly.
Rest each finished s'more a full minute before eating.
Nutrition values are an estimate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1s'more | Calories: 205kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 135mg | Potassium: 90mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg