S’mores Maker

One of the benefits to living in the Sunshine State is that you don’t have to wait on the “perfect” day to harness the power of the sun. Pretty much any day will do, especially when it is June! 😎🤩

A solar oven in its simplest form harnesses the heat created when sunlight-to-heat conversion generates heat. This occurs when light waves interact with molecules moving in a substance. Its sounds all technical, right?! But it is so much fun – and simple – to do!

We have made several solar ovens in the last couple years. Last year’s model used a pizza box that we whittled and adjusted to work for the project. This year our solar oven experiment was a bit impromptu and so I didn’t have a pizza box on hand. You know what that means… time to get creative. I started searching through my cupboards and craft closet until I came up with this clear plastic shoe bin. I just knew it could work!†

Materials:

• Box – cardboard or dark colored surface would work even better than our clear box, but we were improvising!
• A reflective surface – we used regular aluminum foil from the kitchen
• A piece of glass or transparent plastic to protect the food – we used plastic wrap from the kitchen again 😉
• Tape – not pictured, but clear packing tape or Scotch tape works great
• Craft sticks or skewers to prop open the lid
• S’Mores ingredients, of course! 😁

Begin by covering the inside of your box with aluminum foil. I used a long sheet to wrap the incase the inside of the box. You want that light from the sun to go into the box and get trapped in there!

Then, cover the inside of the lid of the box with aluminum foil as well.

Next, assemble the ingredients for the s’mores. Again, no judging our chocolate chips 🤪 we’re improvising! Ha!

We are pretty classic in our s’mores toppings but you could easily throw a Reece’s Cup or other fun surprise on your s’more!

Once everyone is thoroughly sticky from assembling the treats – and sneaking a few nibbles of the toppings – cover the box in plastic wrap. You will want to tape the sides of the plastic wrap down to the outside of the box so it has a tight fit. This protects the food from bugs that might want a snack and also allows light to penetrate easily.

After the plastic wrap is secure you will want to prop the lid on top of the box using the craft sticks or skewers. The lid helps to reflect the sunlight onto the food to cook the s’mores.

Now for the hardest part… you have to wait for the food to cook 😂 Wait till you make your own solar oven, you will see, this really is the hardest part!

Our s’mores were melty perfection in about 60 minutes in the hot Florida sunshine ☀️

Look at these chocolate smeared faces! Absolute delight in the final product!

Happy Cooking!