A few weeks ago, my husband and I went car camping for the very first time in the beautiful Lake Tahoe. Of course, what camping doesn't have campfire and s'mores?! So I prepared for s'mores with graham crackers, marshmallows and a chocolate bar. Though we enjoyed our camping overall, I left feeling a bit disappointed with my experience in making and eating s'mores. We made the traditional s'mores where the marshmallows get toasted in fire and sandwiched between graham crackers with a piece of square chocolate. There are a few things I didn't like such as that the square chocolate was not melted when I bit it and there was a certain lack of depth in flavors. So I made it a mission to spend an entire day figuring out how to elevate the traditional s'mores recipe.

Read about our car camping trip here!

I made a trip to my local Sprouts supermarket exploring every aisle to find some inspiration! Boy, what a trip that was! I became so inspired with potential flavor combinations! When ideas started pouring, I realized just how versatile s'mores can be as a dessert! It's like a blank canvas with so much space for creativity! To stop myself from spending too much, I've decided to stick to a theme and find various flavor combinations within the ingredients I bought. Aside from the graham crackers and marshmallows, I limited my shopping list to 10 ingredients.

Tips in elevating the traditional s'mores recipes:

1. Pick a theme or two. This helps you stay in budget by being focused on the ingredients to buy. For me, I wanted to make fruits central to my recipes and bought 6 pieces of different kinds. What I like about having fruits in my s'more is the combination of sweet and tart in every bite. Fruits are also moist giving the crackers a softer texture in each bite. And lastly, fruits pairs really well with chocolate!

2. Consider other forms of crackers. Others use chocolate chip cookies, saltines, french bread and other types of crackers. Since the fruits were the central ingredients, I've decided to use coconut cookie crisps as it pairs with various fruits really well. Also, its thinness makes it an easy bite!

3. Read about flavor pairing guides online to help you in planning your flavor palette.

4. Taste the ingredient combinations before assembly. I take a tiny piece of my crackers with the other ingredients to see if they pair well.

5. Melt your chocolate first then spread it on both sides of the crackers. One of the things I didn't like about the traditional s'mores was biting into a big chunk of chocolate. Sometimes the chocolate softens with the charred marshmallows but depending on the bar you pick, it stays solid. If a microwave oven is available, place your chocolate in a bowl and microwave at 30 seconds increment until it softens. If your camping, wrap your chocolate with a foil and grill until the chocolate has melted.

6. Buy your favorite craft chocolate bar! A gourmet s'mores calls for a gourmet chocolate bar! There are tons of options now for bean-to-bar chocolate.

7. You can replace the chocolate spread with other options like Nutella, peanut butter or even a fruit coulis. Aside from chocolate, I also used almond butter and made a raspberry coulis for this project. What I like about using the raspberry coulis is the moisture it gives to the crackers.

8. Mix and match! I bought 10 ingredients and was able to make up to 15 different flavors!

9. Write down potential flavor ideas so you have a guide when you start making your s'mores!

How to assemble s'mores:

1. Prepare 2 pieces of crackers by spreading the melted chocolate on both sides. You can also use other spreads like peanut butter, Nutella, jam and coulis.

2. Add other trimmings on top of the chocolate such as fruits and nuts.

3. Place 1 large marshmallows (or 2 medium marshmallows) on a stick and grill on fire. You can also use a kitchen torch to grill the marshmallows.

4. Once the marshmallows are melted and charred, sandwich them in between the prepared crackers!

5. Garnish the top if desired!

Here is my ingredients list:

1. Graham Crackers

2. Tate's Bakeshop Coconut Crisp Cookies

3. Marshmallows

4. Guittard Chocolate disks

5. Almond Butter

6. Nutella

7. Roasted Salted Almonds

8. Raspberries

9. Banana

10. Sweet Yellow (Manila) Mango

11. Peaches

12. Plums

Raspberry Coulis Recipe

1 cup raspberries + 2 tbsp sugar + dash of lemon juiceHeat all ingredients in a small pot stirring constantly. Cook until the sugar is dissolved and the raspberries have broken down. For this project, I like to have bits of chunks of raspberries. Set aside to cool.

14 Gourmet S'mores Recipes

The Traditional S'mores = graham crackers + melted dark chocolate + marshmallowsTip: spread the melted chocolate on both sides of the graham crackers.

Rocky Road = graham crackers + melted chocolate + roasted salted almonds + marshmallowsTip: drizzle more dark chocolate on top of the grilled marshmallows.

Bananutella = graham crackers + nutella + caramelized bananas + marshmallowsTo caramelized bananas, heat up 1/4 cup sugar with 1 tbs water until amber in color. Then add banana slices and stir for a minute. To garnish, sprinkle sugar on top of a banana slice and torch the sugar to make a caramel.

Almond Lover's S'mores = graham crackers + almond butter + roasted salted almonds + marshmallows Tip: I like using the roasted salted almonds because salt enhances the flavor and breaks the sweetness.

Chocolate Raspberry = graham crackers + melted chocolate + raspberry coulis + marshmallow + 2 pieces of fresh raspberries (optional)

Peaches and Choco Cream = graham crackers + melted chocolate + peaches + marshmallows

Summer Fruits S'mores = graham crackers + raspberry coulis + peaches + plums. Garnish with candied plums by first drying slices of plum with a paper towel then roll it in sugar.

Peach Mango S'mores = graham crackers + melted chocolate + peach + marshmallow + mango. Garnish with a grilled marshmallow and a slice of peach with torched sugar. Tip: I also added slices of peaches and mangoes in between the marshmallows.

Almond Mango Sunrise = coconut crisp + almond butter + mangoes + marshmallow

Choconut Raspberry S'mores = coconut crisp + melted chocolate + marshmallows+ raspberry coulis + fresh raspberries

Banana Cocoberry = coconut crisp + raspberry coulis + marshmallow + banana slices

Tropical Delight = coconut crisp + melted chocolate + mangoes + marshmallows

Raspberry Passion = coconut crisp + raspberry coulis + marshmallow + fresh raspberries

Almond Choconut = coconut crisp + melted chocolate + marshmallows + salted almonds.

There you go! 12 ingredients = 14 gourmet s'mores flavors! There's still more excellent flavors I could've created but I ran out of graham crackers and cookie crisp!

I hope you had fun going through each recipe! And if you ever make any of these, I would love to see them by tagging me @sweetsavorygrace on Instagram and @sweetsavrygrace on Twitter! Cheers!

P.S. don't forget to pin these recipes to come back to later!