The Ice Cream Cone Hack For Mess-Free S'mores

S'mores are delicious, but we've come to accept that they're messy. Melted marshmallows and melted chocolate cannot be contained by two simple graham crackers, and they begin oozing out the sides the moment you bite down and press those two crackers closer together. It turns out that ice cream cones are way better at keeping all that sugary, gooey filling inside so that it all ends up in your mouth instead of the ground.

How does it work? This version doesn't involve kebabing marshmallows to roast them over open flames, but the results taste the same. You stuff marshmallows and chocolate bar pieces or chocolate chips into a waffle cone (wafer cones are less sturdy), wrap the cone tightly in aluminum foil, and then cook it on campfire coals or a grill. Even though the ice cream cone is technically replacing the graham cracker, you can still easily sprinkle in crushed graham cracker into the mixture alongside the marshmallows and chocolate, which adds an extra crunch.

While there's nothing wrong with keeping a s'more cone down to the basic ingredients, a cone gives you the freedom to add other toppings that would never stay in place while eating a regular s'more. You can also experiment with tossing in M&Ms, Oreo cookies, or banana slices now that there's no chance of them slipping out between the crackers, and it makes the s'more taste a little closer to a hot sundae. Caramel is another choice that would make a normal s'more even stickier but can be drizzled straight into the cone here.

If you really want to get fancy, there are stronger flavors you can add to amp up your s'mores cone. Peppermint bark is a chocolate alternative that adds a peppermint flavor to the sweet taste of the s'more, or you could go with crushed candy canes or peppermints instead because the chocolate is already there. Lastly, if you enjoy the taste of coffee, which blends great with sweet dessert flavors, you could sprinkle espresso powder into the cone to create a mocha taste.

If you're not into the ice cream cone idea, you have other options to enjoy s'mores without making a giant mess. For something quicker that you can easily make indoors, you can make a s'mores trail mix of sorts using a Teddy Grahams bag. Simply cut open the top of the bag with scissors, add the marshmallow fluff, mini marshmallows, and chocolate chips in with the bear-shaped graham crackers, and then drizzle hot melted chocolate over it all. The result can be eaten with a spoon in your living room.

For another tidy s'mores variant, you can fill a pan with a layer of graham crackers, then layer melted chocolate over that and sprinkle on mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then you bake it, and the result is a s'mores pie you can cut into pieces. You can add a top layer of graham crackers to make a sandwich if you want, but the marshmallows and chips will stay stuck in place because of the chocolate with no gooey mess.