Scrumptious s’mores
You’ll need
- Ingredients (see recipe)
- Embers of a campfire
- Fire and heat-proof plates
- Wooden skewers, soaked in water
- Wooden handled extendable toasting fork (optional)
- Paper towels
- A bucket of water and/or sand
- Fire blanket
- First aid kit for burns
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers
Planning this activity
- Be aware that melted marshmallow can become extremely hot and burn mouths and skin.
- Marshmallows are not advised for children under 6 as they can be a choking hazard. Take a look at meal safety advice for four and five year olds to prevent choking.
- You could do this activity around National S’mores Day on 10 August.
- It’s important to use water-soaked wooden skewers rather than metal skewers, which could get hot and burn people’s hands.
- You could also use wooden handled extendable toasting fork, ensuring that hands don’t get too close to heat or fire.
- Remember to check your ingredients against any allergy or dietary requirements to ensure everyone can enjoy the recipe. This may mean using alternative ingredients.
Building a fire and preparing to cook on a campfire
- Build and light a fire before starting this activity. Our activities, Campfire admirers or Construct a campfire, can help you to do this. You’ll use the hot embers to cook on, so the fire will need enough time to die down before cooking.
- You could run our fire safety activities, Fuel air ignition and Sitting safely by a campfire, prior to running this session.
Having a safe cooking source
- Make sure that everyone’s fires have been built outdoors in clear, open areas, with plenty of ventilation, and away from any areas where people will be sleeping.
- All the fires need to burn down to hot embers before they can start cooking. This increases the chance of the fuel burning without enough oxygen present, increasing the risk of carbon monoxide exposure. We have more guidance on different cooking methods.
Getting ready to cook
- Gather everyone together in a circle and tell them you’re going to make some s’mores.
- You may want to run a fire safety talk and show people how to use the equipment safely.
- Make sure the wooden skewers have been soaked in water, to prevent them setting on fire.
- It’s important to use wooden skewers rather than metal skewers, which could get hot and burn people’s hands.
- You could also use wooden handled extendable toasting fork, ensuring that hands don’t get too close to heat or fire.
S'mores recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 chocolate digestive biscuits
- 2 marshmallows
You could also use plain biscuits, and add chocolate spread, or pieces of chocolate.
Prep time: 5 minutes - just make sure you’ve soaked your skewers.
Cook time: 5 minutes
Makes: 1
Make your s’mores
- Gather everyone in a circle and tell people that they’re going to make s’mores.
- Ask everyone to wash their hands.
- Everyone should take a skewer and marshmallow. Make sure your wooden skewer has been soaked in water, to help stop it setting on fire.
- Gently push the marshmallow onto the top of the skewer.
- With adult supervision, everyone should toast a marshmallow above the embers of a campfire, until it’s golden and gooey.
- When ready, remove the marshmallow from the fire and take a plate.
- Now, everyone should take two chocolate digestive biscuits, making sure that the chocolate sides are in the middle, and make a marshmallow sandwich using the gooey marshmallow.
- Wait for a few moments for the heat of the marshmallow to melt the chocolate, and for it to cool down a little.
- Enjoy your gooey campfire treat!
- S’mores are a very popular campfire treat in the United States and Canada, but we love them in the UK, too!
- The traditional recipe is a toasted marshmallow and half a chocolate bar, sandwiched between two Graham Crackers (an American sweet cracker).
- In the UK, a S’more usually involves a toasted marshmallow, sandwiched between two chocolate digestive biscuits.
- The snack has been enjoyed for over 100 years. They were originally called a ‘Graham Cracker Sandwich’.
- The name ‘S’more’ is short for ‘some more’. Scouts in 1920s America loved the recipe and shared it with the title ‘Some More’, which later became ‘S’more’
- The tasty treat can be celebrated every year on National S’mores Day, on 10 August.
Reflection
This activity gave everyone the chance to enjoy being outdoors, and learn how to use fire safely. Here are some questions you could use, to help people reflect on the activity. You could use these throughout the session or at the end.
- Why do we use wooden skewers rather than metal skewers to toast marshmallows? Why did we need to soak the skewers?
- When everyone’s finished using fire, what should they do to stay safe?
- What’s it like preparing food and eating outdoors?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Fires and stoves
Make sure anyone using fires and stoves is doing so safely. Check that the equipment and area are suitable and have plenty of ventilation. Follow the gas safety guidance. Have a safe way to extinguish the fire in an emergency.
- Food
Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.
- Flammable items
Always take care when using flammable items, especially if you’re near fire. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions and guidelines.
- Outdoor activities
You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
You could also do this activity indoors, using by microwaving the marshmallows. With adult supervision, place a marshmallow on top of one chocolate biscuit, on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave it for 15-20 seconds. An adult can then remove the plate, place a second biscuit on top to create a s’more and wait for the marshmallow to cool before people start eating it.
You could cook your s’mores in aluminium foil. Assemble your s’more, wrap in foil, and pop it on the hot embers for about 5 minutes. Using heatproof tongs, carefully remove, give it a little squish, let it cool a little, and carefully unwrap.
Make sure you've checked everyone's dietary requirements and allergies then adapted the recipe as appropriate. This may mean using alternative ingredients, for example, vegan marshmallows or gluten free biscuits.
There are lots of different jobs that need doing when planning, making and cooking on a campfire. There’s a role for everyone, so encourage everyone to be involved in a way that works for them.
It’s OK if some people take different roles in this activity – some people will need to collect materials, watch the fire, and start preparing the food. Anyone who finds the physical aspects tricky could help read the recipe and direct everyone else – it’s always useful to have someone keeping an eye on everything to make sure the team’s working together smoothly.
If you don’t have enough space for a campfire or access to an oven, try using disposable barbecues or a portable fire pit, but only if you have a safe place to use them.
If someone’s struggling with the construction section of this activity, they could work with a partner, so they can help each other.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
Try out some more campfire recipes, or come up with your own.
People could choose what they want to use to make their s’mores. Do they want to swap or add any extra ingredients?