I used to love buying graham crackers for s’mores by the fire pit, but once I got into reading ingredients lists, I stopped buying the standard ones. Even Honey Maid, for example, advertises no high fructose corn syrup on the front of the box but still packs ingredients you would never use if you were baking at home… enriched flour (which is flour that has been processed and then fortified again), soybean oil (a highly processed industrial seed oil), soy lecithin (an unnecessary emulsifier for texture), artificial flavor (undisclosed chemical mixtures).
Sidenote on the enriched flour: I also usually avoid buying products that use enriched flour in general. I used to think enriched flour was a good thing (it certainly sounds healthy), but when flour is enriched, it means the natural nutrients were removed during processing and then synthetic versions were added back in. The bran and germ portions, which contain fiber, protein, B-vitamins and minerals, are stripped away during processing. Other vitamins and minerals are lost including zinc, magnesium, selenium and vitamin E, but only iron and B-vitamins are added back and this changes the way the body breaks it down. When grains are stripped of their fiber, they become mostly starch and are rapidly digested and absorbed, creating a more rapid rise in insulin levels. I would rather bake with ingredients in their natural form so everything tastes better and supports steady energy levels.
The homemade versions below use ingredients I recognize and are very easy to make. You can make a batch ahead if you know you will be making s’mores over the weekend, and they keep well in an airtight container. I looove doing s’mores with the kids. It is one of those simple traditions that feels special every single time, and we love doing them around the fireplace or you can also toast them in the oven. When you pair homemade graham crackers with my homemade vanilla marshmallow recipe, you get that same nostalgic and familiar taste but with an ingredient list you can feel good about. I included two recipes below: one that is refined sugar free using muscovado sugar instead (the benefits of muscovado in this post here), and a classic honey graham cracker recipe that uses organic cane sugar. Both will give you the cleanest s’mores that I think taste way better than store-bought and something you will feel great about your kids enjoying!
This is the chocolate we use for our s’mores: it’s organic and packed with antioxidants and magnesium from the high cacao content. You’ll find tips at the end of the post on how to store everything and how to make multiple s’mores at once in the oven.
