Traditionally, s’mores are made while sitting around a campfire with your Girl Scout troop, and the recipe couldn’t be simpler: a piece of Hershey’s milk chocolate topped with toasted marshmallow and sandwiched between two graham crackers.

S’mores are a fun dessert that my kids love making all year ’round, not just in the summer. The problem has always been finding a way to toast the marshmallows just right, without burning your fingers or scorching the marshmallows. We’ve made them over the burners on our gas stove, and inevitably, the marshmallows either catch fire or take FOREVER to toast up, and it’s really tough to brown them evenly.  We’ve tried toasting them over a fire in our fireplace, but you need to sit close in order to get a nice brown on the marshmallows, and when you do that, the heat coming off the hearth gets uncomfortable quickly. 

Fortunately, I finally found a method for browning the marshmallows that works really well, using the toaster oven.  You start with the usual: a graham cracker with chocolate candy bar pieces on top.

Then, lightly spray an aluminum foil-lined tray with non-stick cooking spray, and arrange mini-marshmallows in little groups on top.  Set the toaster oven to Bake at 400 degrees Farenheit and place the tray in the oven. 

VERY IMPORTANT: you must hover over these marshmallows and watch them really carefully. They take just a few minutes to start browning, but once they do, it takes less than 30 seconds to get dark brown. You need to watch them constantly, and as soon as they start to fatten and plump, grab a potholder and get ready. Open the oven to take a peek (it can be hard to see them browning at first) and then check them every 10 seconds until they’re nice and toasty brown.

The tray will be HOT, but it’s best if you work quickly at this point.  Holding the corner of the tray with one hand, use a spatula to scrape off a group of marshmallows and place them on top of the chocolate and first graham cracker. Then top with the other cracker and press lightly.  The heat from the marshmallows will melt the chocolate just right, and you’ll end up with a perfectly ooey, gooey snack.