Tabletop S’mores and a Special Graham Cracker Recipe

Preview: These tabletop s’mores ideas will help you make your own tabletop marshmallow roaster using Sterno to set up a beautiful, delicious, and interesting tray with homemade graham crackers. Updated 1/2021.

Invite your friends, kids, or grandkids, to celebrate a special occasion with a tableside s’more party. Let them help you make graham crackers from scratch in your kitchen if you’re brave. (I’ll share my “Ziplock-bag-trick” to make it easier.)

Follow the directions to make a simple DIY marshmallow toaster. Finally, you’ll find ideas for different fillings you can add to your toasty marshmallows to make the whole event memorable.

Making S’mores is a fun dessert and activity for a relaxed, sit-down meal or a party where people linger around the food.

Kids love it too.  Adult supervision is required, of course.

How to make a DIY table-top grill:

You can buy a miniature table-top grill at the store–if you can find one, for 30$ and up. But it’s easy to make them yourself. It’s nice to have more than one if you are serving more than four people.

I first tried using a soup mug and an old apple corer.

If you don’t have the same, you can make a table-top grill with a clay pot,  hardware cloth (available at a hardware store by the inch or foot), and a can of Sterno. 

How to make a table-side s’mores grill or marshmallow roaster:

• Invert pot and trace shape of 4-inch clay pot onto a sturdy piece of hardware cloth.
• Cut hardware cloth with wire snippers and trim if necessary to barely fit inside. You need to be able to remove and replace the wire easily to change the Sterno.
• Use a can of Sterno to provide the heat. (In case you’re wondering, Sterno is a formulation of denatured alcohol, water, and gel. Commercially sold table-side marshmallow roasters use the same.
• Sterno comes in more than one size. Buy one that will sit on the bottom of the pot with at least 1-2 inches of clearance from the top. 

S’more bar ideas to get you started:

Graham crackers:  I like to make my own honey wheat graham crackers (see recipe below), but the store-bought crackers are good, too. I recommend including a variety.  The homemade chocolate crackers are most popular and fabulous with various spreads.

Chocolate: Use your favorite chocolate bar, but milk chocolate is traditional. Gently melt in a microwave oven, Spread it thin (see the picture of the s’more above) on wax paper, and chill. Cut the chocolate in squares about the same size as the crackers. A variety of different chocolate makes the tray interesting.

Marshmallows: If you are a candy maker, trying making your own in different flavors just as maple, coffee, or orange.  I’m not a candy maker, so I can’t recommend a recipe. Store-bought marshmallows work fine, too.

Roasting Sticks:  Wooden or metal k-bob sticks.

Spreads: Sweetened cream cheese and peanut butter are easy. My favorite is cookies and cream frosting.  If your party includes kids, they might enjoy a plain buttercream frosting with colored sprinkles or chocolate chips.

You don’t have to make your own graham crackers but doing so will make your graham cracker bar a more memorable event. Making them yourself means you can experiment with the spices. It also means you can roll them out thinner–more like a wafer.

My Ziplock-bag-trick for rolling out graham crackers for s’mores:

Using zippered plastic bags is much easier than the traditional method of rolling out the dough on a floured cutting board and transferring each cracker to a cookie sheet.

The chocolate wafers are my favorite.  Cinnamon is delicious, too.