Air Fryer S'mores
Air Fryer S’mores
S’mores are graham crackers, marshmallow, and milk chocolate, traditionally built at a campfire where the marshmallow toasts on a stick over open flame before being pressed between crackers with a square of chocolate. The air fryer stands in for the fire: its fan and hot air brown and puff the marshmallow in a couple of minutes, no skewer or backyard required.
The trick is doing it in two stages. The marshmallow toasts alone first, until it’s golden-brown and puffed, sitting sticky-side-down on its cracker so the fan can’t blow it around the basket. Only once it’s off the heat does the chocolate go on, pressed straight onto the hot marshmallow and capped with the second cracker — the residual warmth is enough to melt it soft without scorching it. Chocolate left in the air fryer itself turns grainy and bitter, so it always goes in at the end.
The result is a warm, gooey marshmallow center against a barely-melted layer of chocolate and crisp, lightly toasted crackers — the campfire original, built indoors. It works as a quick dessert year-round, no matches or backyard fire pit needed, and a batch of four comes together in well under fifteen minutes.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 4 graham cracker sheets (~60 g), each broken in half
- 4 large or jumbo marshmallows (~28 g total)
- 12 squares milk chocolate (~43 g), 3 per s’more
Directions
Break each graham cracker sheet in half to make 8 squares. Set 4 aside to use as tops later.
Trim about ¼ inch off one end of each marshmallow with a knife or kitchen shears, exposing a sticky, cut face. Pressing this sticky face against the cracker keeps the marshmallow in place once the air fryer’s fan starts blowing — without it, the marshmallows tend to tumble around the basket. If you’d rather not cut them, lay a wire rack over the marshmallows instead to hold them down.
Arrange 4 graham squares in a single layer in the air-fryer basket. Set a marshmallow sticky-side down on each square and press gently to help it stick.
Air-fry at 375–390°F (190–200°C) for 2–4 minutes, until the marshmallows are golden-brown, puffed, and the crackers are lightly toasted. Start checking at around 1½–2 minutes, since air fryers vary quite a bit — a cooler 350°F (177°C) fryer will need longer. Leave the chocolate out of the basket at this stage; it scorches and turns bitter if it goes in with the marshmallow.
As soon as the crackers come out, press 3 chocolate squares onto each hot marshmallow while it’s still soft, then cap with a reserved graham square. The heat left in the marshmallow is enough to melt the chocolate through.
Let the s’mores rest for 1–2 minutes before eating — the marshmallow center is very hot straight out of the fryer, and the short rest lets the chocolate finish melting and everything cool just enough to handle. Serve warm.
Notes
Keep chocolate out of the air fryer itself — it only goes on once the crackers are out, so it melts from residual heat rather than direct heat, which is what keeps it smooth instead of grainy.
Use large or jumbo marshmallows rather than minis, which are small enough to fall through the basket and get blown around by the fan.
Most air-fryer baskets only hold about 4 halves in a single layer, so work in batches for bigger quantities. Once the fryer is already hot, a second batch needs less time — closer to 1–2 minutes.
If you’d rather not trim the marshmallows, a small dab of Nutella underneath works as an alternative way to hold them in place.
These are best eaten right away; they don’t keep or reheat well.
See Also
