What campfire is complete without marshmallow and chocolate nestled between two graham crackers? I dare say — you can’t even call it a campfire without a side of S’mores. This past weekend we experimented in the backyard to bring up our S’mores game to the next level.
#FireThatThinksItsaCampfireButDoesntHaveaSmoreInSight
This all started a whole year ago when I wanted to maplize (it’s a word now) the humble S’more. The first idea was to make home made marshmallows with maple syrup (perhaps we will share this recipe in the near future *wink*). However, it became quite obvious that although they were absolutely delicious, they were much too soft to roast over our campfire and we just couldn’t seem to make them firmer.
Fast forward a year and another month of May in lock down… Sitting around the fire I reminisce about our failed marshmallow trials. Then while on a ZOOM meeting with the team (since everyone is working from home) it all came together… just roll a regular old marshmallow in maple sugar! What a simple idea. But how do you make the sugar stick, after-all the outside of a marshmallow isn’t really that sticky unless its wet? Aaahhhh, that’s it…make the marshmallow wet! What better way to do this than with Maple Syrup. So with our idea mapped out it was back to the fire (because it’s not a campfire till a marshmallow is getting roasted) to try it out.
Here’s the setup: Two small dishes were used, one with maple syrup and the other with a sprinkle of maple sugar. After putting the marshmallow on the stick we rolled it in the maple syrup. Now the trick seemed to be you didn’t want too much maple syrup on the marshmallow or it got kind of soggy. Let some of the maple syrup drip off then roll it in the maple sugar.
Now the roasting part (and where our fire is transformed into a campfire). It doesn’t brown the same way as normal because of the brown colour from the maple sugar so it’s really the texture we’re looking for to know when its ready; you know that harder crust that forms on the outside. For the first half keep it rotating as the water from the maple syrup dries up, don’t let it drip off or you loose all that mapley deliciousness.
As the marshmallow puffs from the intense heat, the maple syrup and sugar comes together to form the crunchy, golden crust of our masterpiece.
For the finale…we used a piece of Hummingbird Maple Chocolate on our graham cracker. The slight bitterness of the 70% cacao pairs so well with the extra sweetness on our marshmallow.
What was the result? For me this was above and beyond what I was expecting. I really didn’t expect there to be all that much maple flavour. After all there is so much flavour from the graham cracker and especially the dark chocolate. Truth be told I actually don’t eat S’mores, I’m just not a fan of getting all sticky around the campfire. But this I will be doing again sooner than I’d like to admit.
Are you super intrigued by this idea? If you’ve got a jug of syrup and a pack of maple sugar at home… you’ve GOT to try this at your next bonfire. Need the fixings? We’ve got you covered! We’d love to see your ooey, gooey mapley creations — tag #maplesmore and @whitemeadowsfarms so we can swoon over your drool-worthy pictures. Thanks for reading, now I’m off to go get the fire going…
