In honor of National S'mores Day, our guide to the sweet-n-gooey camping essential.

In honor of National S’mores Day, our guide to the sweet-n-gooey camping essential.

Tools

The random stick is a classic, of course (I have great memories of hunting down and whittling the perfect roasting stick when I was a kid), but sometimes you just want something with a bit more pizzazz. Something like these extendable Rolla Roasters from REI.

And then there’s the tool for true fanatics: The s’mores basket. Made by Rome Industries, this long, skinny basket lets you warm/toast/melt three fully made s’mores at a time so you can consume as much sugar as humanly possible before you (try to) go to sleep.

Recipes

Kick up your s’mores repetoire a notch with these seven fabulous recipes, from strawberries and dark chocolate to gingersnaps and caramel-filled squares.

The Kitchn has a great guide to hosting a backyard s’mores party, with tips for minimizing sticky fingers (set up a Purell-and-HandiWipe booth!), recipes, and tool tips.

An oldie-but-goodie: Joy the Baker’s decadent s’mores brownies.

S’mores milkshakes from The Hungry Housewife—since it’s Friday, we’d think a few splashes of Kahlua wouldn’t hurt.

Beyond the campfire: three ways to indulge

Campfire s’mores milkshake, Holsteins Shakes and Buns, Las Vegas.

Cheesy name aside, Holsteins Shakes and Buns has a line of Bamboozled Milkshakes that I’d happily hop on a Vegas-bound plane to try. The ‘Campfire S’mores’ is a blend of marshmallow vodka (has anyone tried this?), chocolate, marshmallow and graham crumble.

S’mores cupcake, Sprinkles Cupcakes, several locations

Sprinkles’ s’mores cupcake—available through September 2—starts with a graham cracker base, topped with a dark chocolate cake filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache, and finished with a cloud of toasted marshmallow frosting—a real hand-licker.

S’mores cookie, Hot Cakes, Seattle 

The best part about Hot Cake’s enormous s’mores cookie is that founder, Autumn Martin, smokes her chocolate chips, which makes it tastes like the real deal: smoky, sweet, and crunchy.

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