With the summer heat the thought of building a campfire is completely out of the question! Luckily, we have a cool and creative way to utilize that heat for a tasty camp-style treat!
Last year my daughter learned how to create a 'solar oven' for making hot dogs and s'mores while attending Girl Scout camp. We thought this would be a fun project to do with the kids and take advantage of the scorching hot temps we are dealing with these days.
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Here's what you will need:
- A cardboard box such as a pizza box or cereal box
- Aluminum foil
- Black construction paper
- Plastic cling wrap
- Glue or tape
- Scissors (or a box cutter)
- A stick or skewer to hold up the lid
- S'more ingredients (Graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate bars)
A box such as a pizza box is ideal for your solar oven but not a necessity. We used an empty cereal box that worked perfectly. With your cardboard box flat, use a sharpie and a ruler to outline a square on the top. I find using a box cutter is much easier, but must be done by an adult or use scissors to cut out the square to create a 'window', leaving about a half inch of an edge around. As a tip- I only cut 3 of the sides out leaving the backside intact so that I could just fold the cardboard flap up.
Use tinfoil to wrap the inner part of the cardboard lid and line the inside of your box completely with the foil. Secure the edges with tape as needed. Glue or tape a sheet of black construction paper to the bottom inside of your box. You may need to cut one of the sides of the construction paper to fit inside the bottom depending on the size of the box you chose. The black sheet will absorb the sun's rays and convert it into heat.
Assemble your smores! Place graham cracker squares on the black sheet of paper in your oven, add the pieces of chocolate bar and finally the marshmallows!
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Carefully place plastic wrap on top to cover the window opening of the box and tape in place. This will hold in the heat and also helps keep off the flies and other pesky insects that might be attracted to your sweet treats while they're cooking.
Place your skewer or stick through the plastic wrap in the left bottom corner of the box and hot glue or tape the top of the skewer to the top left corner of the foil wrapped cardboard 'lid' to prop it in place.
Carefully place your DIY solar oven in the sun, making sure it is angled directly towards the sunlight for approximately 60 minutes or until the chocolate and marshmallows melt.
Once they're melted to your preference you can remove the plastic wrap, top your s'more with another graham cracker square to sandwich them together or enjoy them as is.
We used mini marshmallows and chocolate discs because I felt like they'd melt quicker and easier than the larger marshmallows (and we didn't have Hershey's chocolate).
