Our experience of trying S’mores the British Way
During our camping adventure at Abbotstone Wood in Hampshire we were able to have an open campfire. This was great fun to build and meant only one thing was on our menu come tea time. S’mores!
We had heard about this tasty American campfire classic for years through television, movies and social media and really wanted to give them a go,
In fact, the dish is so popular in America they have a national S’mores day on the 10th of August each year.
Our only challenge in our plan to enjoy campfire s’mores was that the ingredients can be hard to come by.
So, we applied Travelbetter Principle number 6 – Be Flexible – and swapped a few ingredients around to make s’mores with a British twist.
We also applied Principle number 3 – Be Prepared – to ensure we had everything we needed for this trip to help it go as smoothly as possible.
Read on to discover how we made s’mores, the ingredients we chose, and the tips we learned along the way.
What are s’mores
Before you get into our s’mores adventure here is a quick description of what a s’more is.
S’mores are a deliciously gooey North American favourite made with a combination of fire toasted marshmallow, chocolate and Graham crackers squished together to make a sandwich with a difference.
For more information on s’mores check out this companion post.
Step 1 to make British S’mores: Buy your ingredients
The ingredients for S’mores are pretty simple and the first two, Marshmallows and Chocolate, are really easy to find British versions.
We opted for a bag of large pink and white marshmallows, and giant Cadbury Chocolate buttons (the best chocolate in the world).
However, the third ingredient in s’mores is something called a Graham Cracker. We wondered what on earth this was and doubted it would be on the supermarket shelves in the UK and we were right.
While you can get Graham crackers from Amazon and some specialist retailers, we didn’t like the cost or want to wait for delivery.
So, we needed an alternative and turned to a British classic—the digestive biscuit. It’s a bit thicker than a Graham cracker but just as tasty, and it pairs much better with a cup of tea in the morning which is an added benefit when camping.
Therefore, the ingredients we used for our British S’mores were:
- Large marshmallows
- Giant Cadbury chocolate Buttons
- McVitie’s digestive biscuits
Step 2 to make S’mores: Cook the marshmallows
This part is easy I thought. I was wrong.
We quickly discovered it is very easy to get the marshmallow cooking process wrong and send your marshmallow from toasted perfection to burnt to a crisp in seconds.
You have to keep turning them over and watch them carefully.
The perfect toasted marshmallow has just begun to colour and bubble on the outside. The colour you are looking for is similar to brown sugar and is caused as the outside of the marshmallow begins to caramelise.
At this point the inside of your marshmallow is guaranteed to be gooey and delicious but the outside won’t taste bitter.
Once we learned how to cook the perfect marshmallow (after several tries) it was time to bring it together with the other ingredients to make a s’more.
- Travelbetter Tip = Bring at least 2 bags of marshmallows so you can practice cooking them.
Step 3 to make S’mores: Squish it all together and take a bite
We discovered the final step in the process was a lot simpler than the previous step.
All we needed to do was place a few of chocolate buttons on a digestive, scrap the gooey marshmallow onto another digestive and then just push the two together to create a s’more.
We also learnt that it was best to give your s’more 10-15 seconds to allow the chocolate to melt.
Once ready, we got to everyone’s favourite part of making s’mores. Eating them.
Be warned, eating them is messy so come prepared with lots of kitchen roll to clean up messy hands and faces.
- Travelbetter Tip – Bring wipes or additional kitchen roll as s’mores are super messy.
3 Steps to make S’mores: Overall
Overall, making s’mores was great fun and they were really tasty.
Plus, the British alternative ingredients worked really well.
Why don’t you give it a go the next time you are camping or having a fire pit at home.
If you would like to learn more about the Travelbetter principles and how to apply them to your own travel adventures then start here.
Affiliate Disclaimer
This guide to making s’mores in the UK contains links to Amazon UK. If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. This commission goes towards the running of Travelbetter and helps keep us an independent travel website.