The One Ingredient That's Been Missing From Your S'mores

S'mores are more than just a dessert, they're practically synonymous with summertime camping trips and beach bonfires. All you need are graham crackers (although you might be a little dubious about these after reading this bizarre origin story), marshmallows, chocolate bars, a fire, and sticks. If you're dirt-averse and/or a pyrophobe, however, you can always skip the last two ingredients and cook your s'mores the quick and easy way — indoors, in the microwave. This latter method also has the benefit of not being so season-dependent, since really, who's to stop you from nuking up a plate of s'mores in mid-winter if you so choose? 

There is, however, one ingredient that's missing from your s'mores that, when added, will really lift them to a higher level no matter how (or when) you prefer to cook them. This recipe from Radius simply swaps out the traditional chocolate candy bar for a peanut butter cup and voilà! — you have a whole new flavor profile, as peanut butter adds a little salty to all that sweetness. It's absolutely delicious, slightly nutritious (or so we'd like to think — peanut butter is practically health food, no?), and it really couldn't be any simpler, could it? Unless you like to complicate things just a bit, or don't want to waste the plain milk chocolate bar you already bought — in which case you could also just spread a spoonful of peanut butter on one side of a graham cracker and place it, peanut butter side down, on the warm marshmallow when assembling your s'more.

While the peanut might have been known as a friend to all mankind since the days of George Washington Carver (although he did not, in fact, invent peanut butter itself), sadly, this not-so-innocent legume is more of an enemy to many — and in some cases, a dangerous, even homicidal one at that. Should you or one of your crew have a peanut allergy, though, this doesn't mean you can't still try this s'mores ingredient tweak. Instead of a peanut butter cup, you can substitute a candy cup made with an alternative nut or seed butter such as these sunflower seed butter cups from Trader Joe's.

Quick, try this s'mores hack before summertime sneaks away!