S'more-gasbord

By now my infatuation with s'mores has been pretty thoroughly explored on this blog. Regular s'mores, Fluffernutter S'mores...if it involves graham crackers and marshmallows, I'll eat it. When Erica of And Baby Makes Four commented that a s'more sampler would be fun, I laughed and told her to go for it...but the idea got stuck in my head.

So this Halloween - since we had nothing better to do than gorge ourselves on sugar - my friend Elise and I decided to whip up our own s'more sampler.

We settled on eight (well, kind of nine - you'll see what I mean) variations, and I'm glad we limited it to that - even at just half a s'more each, we were both pretty nauseated and wired by the end of the afternoon.

But you don't really care about that, do you? What you want to see are the s'mores.

The Nutella Fluffernutter S'more

Elise's Rating: 5
Lisa's Rating: 4.5
Notes: After the unexpected deliciousness of the Fluffernutter S'more, we were pretty excited to try this...and ultimately, totally underwhelmed. It wasn't bad, it was just...Nutella. It completely overwhelmed the rest of the flavors in a way that the regular ole peanut butter didn't - if I did it over again, I'd use only a very small amount of the spread.

The Put A Lime In The Coconut...Well, Maybe Scratch The Lime And JUST Use Coconut S'more

Elise's Rating: 7
Lisa's Rating: 8
Notes: Difficult to make - you basically have to mash the marshmallows to get the coconut to stick - but totally worth it as this was delicious! You could probably make this a little easier by using a Mounds bar (that's a Bounty to all you Aussies) that you've squashed flat.

The Some Like It Hot S'more

Elise's Rating: 6.5
Lisa's Rating: 2
Notes: Elise thought the Lindt Chili Bar had a bit of a burn, but I couldn't taste it at all - guess it depends on how spicy you like your food normally. It really just tasted like not-so-great dark chocolate on your s'more. Meh.

The Everything Is Better With Bacon S'more

Elise's Rating: 8
Lisa's Rating: 9
Notes: Oh come on - you know I had to! We both made an icky face at the first bite, since "meaty" isn't what you expect from a s'more, but after a couple of chews we agreed that it was actually very delicious - the crunchy bacon gave it a nice saltiness and contrast against the sweetness of the marshmallow and chocolate. I'd make this again in a heartbeat!

The Flaming Captain Morgan S'more

Elise's Rating: 8.5
Lisa's Rating: 8.5
Notes: Oh yeah - we went there! Swished the marshmallows around in some rum and then flambeed the bastards (not expected: the strangely mottled surface of the marshmallow that you can see in the photo). The end result was pretty tasty, although not very "rummy" - we agreed that it actually tasted more like raisins. Still pretty good though.

The Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana S'more

Elise's Rating: 1
Lisa's Rating: 0.5
Notes: By itself, the Lindt Intense Orange chocolate isn't bad. Not my favorite, but not bad. Put it on a s'more though, and it becomes inedible. Actually inedible. This was the only s'more we couldn't bring ourselves to finish - it was that bad (Elise gave it a 1 only because "it IS chocolate, after all"). We had a hard time pinpointing exactly why it didn't work...somehow the bits of orange seemed incredibly bitter once they were combined with the marshmallow. Give it a miss.

The Black Forest S'more (in two parts)

 

Before I get to the ratings, an explanation: I had the idea for a Black Forest s'more (à la the cake), but it involved chocolate cookies instead of graham crackers, and although I felt that sandwiching a toasted marshmallow between them still captured the essence of a s'more, I thought we'd better do a more traditional version as well. The first is made of graham cracker, marshmallow, chocolate and cherry preserves - the cookie version skips the chocolate layer as I worried it would be flavor overload.

Elise's Rating: 8  /  5
Lisa's Rating: 4  /  3
Notes: I'll be honest...I'm having trouble reading my notes at this point. I was pretty wired up on sugar (why yes, I AM five years old) and all the flavors were blurring together (with the exception of the hideous Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana S'more which, by the way, tastes just as bad in a burp as it does when you originally eat it). Anyway, I believe what I wrote was this: the first, more traditional s'more, was very sweet - the cherries weren't bad, but the overall impression was just OMGIT'SSOSWEEEEET! The version with the chocolate cookies was, surprisingly, less tasty - I had expected it to be my favorite of the two, but it failed to impress. I think it could be improved with a different chocolate cookie...maybe something like a chocolate shortbread instead of a chocolate chip?

The I Scream You Scream S'more

Elise's Rating: 9
Lisa's Rating: 9
Notes: And last but not least, a s'more-ice cream sandwich hybrid. And it was goooood. Really, really good. This one completely hinges on the flavor of ice cream you select, and although I deliberated for a while in the store, I'm glad that in the end I went with a coffee ice cream (Sara Lee Moccona Cappuccino Indulgence if you really want to know, although I doubt it's that critical). A sweeter ice cream would have been too cloying, but the coffee flavor toned down the overall sugary-ness and was a fabulous finish to our sampler.

Did we miss anything? Can you think of any scintillating combinations that we skipped? (I'd still like to try Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in place of the chocolate, but - unsurprisingly - I couldn't find them in my town.)