What comes to mind when you think of summer? Quick, take a few seconds to think of a few images. The beach, hot nights, cold drinks, barbeques on the back patio,… s’mores?

I can’t get through summer without a few rounds of these delightful little marshmallow-chocolate-cracker sandwiches, and this summer I have had the pleasure to introduce my toddler to her first s’mores as well. S’mores are one of life’s most delicious treats.

But this summer I wanted to see how far I could push the limits of the traditional s’more. It started with an innocuous swap of Hershey’s Special Dark for the standard milk chocolate, because my husband has a minor addiction to the fruit of the cacao seed… and I can’t say I’m not addicted either. But for now we’ll blame it on him.

And then we decided to take it a step further. I rallied my testing troops (which included two young boys with discerning palates) on a hot summer night last week. We put together a s’morgasbord of indulgent treats to smash with graham crackers and toasted marshmallows. One variation was the traditional graham and marshmallow, but with a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup in place of the Hershey’s. The second was the traditional chocolate and marshmallow, but with two ‘Nilla wafers as the sandwich.

The results?

Traditional S’Mores: Always the winner. Among other reasons, because the chocolate fits perfectly on the graham cracker, and the marshmallow ratio is perfect. One of the kids proclaimed, “Regular is my favorite!”

Peanut Butter Cup S’Mores: “Very, very good! Really liked the peanut butter cup filling more than the plain chocolate.” Overall, people loved the flavor of the peanut butter cup and most would choose this as a close second. One of the kids thought it tasted like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and another thought it resembled a chocolate chip cookie. One taster complained that the peanut butter cup didn’t adequately cover the graham cracker; another more inventive taster solved the problem of the candy-to-cookie ratio by breaking the graham cracker in half (“I’ll have half a sandwich, please.”).

‘Nilla Wafer S’Mores: Most tasters found the marshmallow-to-cookie ratio too high, but loved the crunchiness of the cookie. The kids found it to be a perfect size for holding. ”Also very good; I like the crunchiness and flavor of the ‘Nilla wafer, but overall I think I would choose graham cracker.” “Surprisingly good! The firm ‘Nilla wafer is a nice change; it is very marshmallow heavy.”

More S’Mores recipes on Plummelo

Have you ever tinkered with the traditional s’mores recipe? Give it a try and let us know what you think.