Gluten-Free Graham Crackers and Chocolate for S'Mores

S'mores—those graham cracker-marshmallow-chocolate sandwiches—mark the perfect ending to a summer barbecue, cookout or campfire... but where can you find gluten-free graham crackers to make them?

Not to worry: If you're following the gluten-free diet because you have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, you can still enjoy s'mores. Fortunately, it is possible to find gluten-free graham crackers, along with gluten-free chocolate and marshmallows. Here's what you need to know to create safe s'mores.

Finding Gluten-Free Graham Crackers

Conventional graham crackers contain gluten in the form of wheat flour. However, over the past few years, several manufacturers have stepped up to offer gluten-free graham crackers:

• Enjoy Life makes vanilla honey graham crunchy cookies. These definitely aren't traditional graham crackers, but they may work for your s'mores. They include a rice, buckwheat, and millet flour blend, plus cane sugar, and honey. Enjoy Life products are certified gluten-free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization, which requires gluten-free products to test at lower than 20 parts per million of gluten. All Enjoy Life products are free of all common allergens.
• Kinnikinnick Foods Inc. makes S'moreables graham-style crackers. These crackers are based on pea starch, potato starch, brown rice flour, brown sugar, and blackstrap molasses. They carry a "may contain eggs" allergen warning. Kinnikinnick works to keep its products below 5 parts per million (ppm) gluten.
• Pamela's Products makes the widest variety of gluten-free graham crackers — the company offers honey grahams, chocolate grahams, and cinnamon grahams, all in regular and "mini" sizes. The graham crackers include a rice flour blend, tapioca starch, and sorghum flour. Note that they also include gluten-free oat bran. Pamela's Products is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization.
• Schar offers Honeygram gluten-free graham crackers, which include corn starch and corn flour, brown sugar, soy flour, soy bran, and honey. Be aware they also may contain lupin, which is a potential allergen closely related to peanuts. Schar tests its products to ensure they meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's legal gluten standard of less than 20 parts per million of gluten.

Gluten-Free Chocolate and Marshmallows

Now that you've got your gluten-free graham crackers, you'll also need gluten-free chocolate and marshmallows:

• Gluten-free chocolate. There are actually tons of chocolates you can use for your s'mores — take a look at my gluten-free chocolate bars article to get some ideas. If you want a s'more that tastes just the way yours did at sleepaway camp back in the day, you might want to opt for a sweeter chocolate like Hershey's (tested to 20ppm of gluten). If, on the other hand, you're looking for a more exotic s'more taste, try something like Endangered Species' dark chocolate raspberry (gluten-free certified).
• Gluten-free marshmallows. Most of the marshmallows produced in the United States are considered gluten-free. To learn your various options, check out a list of gluten-free marshmallows.

Making Gluten-Free S'Mores

Okay, you've assembled the ingredients for some excellent gluten-free s'mores. How do you actually make the s'mores?

It's easy: toast your marshmallows until they're crisp and melted on the inside, then assemble the "sandwich" with graham crackers as the (gluten-free) bread and the marshmallow and chocolate in the middle. The goal of the perfect s'more is to get the marshmallow hot enough to melt the chocolate.

Just one note of caution: when toasting marshmallows, make sure to use a safe brand of charcoal. Yes, believe it or not, some charcoal contains gluten, and you conceivably could cross-contaminate your s'mores accidentally if you use the wrong type of charcoal. Also, don't forget to keep your gluten-free ingredients away from any gluten-containing graham crackers your family and friends might be eating.

Last step: Enjoy your s'mores!