I made mention to a friend recently (we were talking about what we were looking forward to this summer), that enjoying s’mores around the fire bowl or campfire is a fun experience, but I find them kind of boring—the graham cracker being sort of lackluster. And her surprised reply was, “Who says s’mores can only be made with graham crackers?”

“Yeah, where’s THAT written?” I thought to myself. It’d never occurred to me to think outside the box on this. The creative juices started flowing…

Hmmm, there’s the baked potato bar, the taco salad bar, the build-your-own-sandwich bar, the ice cream Sunday bar, the hot cocoa bar, and so on. Then why not a “S’Mores Bar!?”

Soooo, how about a melted marshmallow and Hershey’s® square between chocolate chip cookies, or between peanut butter cookies, or between sugar cookies, or between Saltine Crackers®, for that matter? And why not make a batch of Rice Krispy® bars extra thin and then use those as the melted marshmallow and chocolate holders?

OR, OR, why not substitute a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup® for the Hershey’s® square? Or a Rollo®? Or a Peppermint Patty®? The possibilities were becoming endless, and I was sold. We’re definitely having a S’Mores Bar event around our fire bowl this summer.

You know how one thing leads to another, and from creativity with s’mores, thoughts went to ice cream sandwiches (usually Fat Boys® at our house). Why not use chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies for this purpose, too? Or those thinner Rice Krispy® squares as well? Or how about ice cream between a brownie split in half! Or if you want to get real simple, how about a dollop of vanilla ice cream between a couple Oreo’s®? Return all these options to the freezer, freeze solid, and serve up a potpourri of ice cream sandwiches later on.

The above-mention of an ice cream Sunday bar brought back a great memory, and I’ll close with it. Aunt Annie would serve an ice cream dessert that was to our thinking, incredible. She’d make a double batch of lemon sugar cookies—enough to save for eating as cookies, and plenty to crunch up and use for her dessert.

She’d line a 9x13 baking pan with these crunched cookies. It was a thick layer that covered the pan so well you couldn’t see any of the pan bottom showing through. She’d then scoop vanilla ice cream out and smash it over the cookie crunches, completely covering them. Then she’d top that with more crunched lemon cookies (again, a very thick layer). She’d cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze until the ice cream was once again solid.

To this day I still remember the blend of flavors, the mouthfeel of the ice cream and crunched cookies, and the delightful coolness this treat provided on a hot summer’s night. What a scrumptious memory! Really, you should try this.

I’ll close with Aunt Annie’s lemon sugar cookie recipe (lest you don’t already have a favorite), in case this concoction sounds good to you, too. Meanwhile, start thinking outside the box, too. You just may create a memory-maker yourself!




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    Alice Osborne
    DVO Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com