Ditch The S'mores And Roast Glazed Donuts At Your Next Campfire

Sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows and hot dogs is a core memory for most of us to look back on and smile. However, marshmallows and hot dogs are two of countless other types of foods that you can pierce with a skewer and roast over an open fire. For a sweet alternative to s'mores, try roasting glazed donuts over your next campfire.

Just as a hot fire will caramelize the sugars and create a bubbly, crunchy, scorched crust on marshmallows, the fire will have similar transformative powers on sugary donut glaze. The heat will effectively brûlée the glaze, causing it to harden and incur tiny scorched bubbles depending on how long you hold it over the fire. The one dimensionally sweet flavor of a plain glazed donut will take on richer caramelized and burnt sugar notes too.

You can put packaged mini glazed donuts on your grocery shopping list along with other camping meal supplies or pick up an assortment of full-sized glazed donuts from your local donut shop. Even if they're stale or cold, the fire will breathe new life into them, crisping their glazed crusts and warming their doughy, fluffy crumb. The protocol for roasting donuts is the same as any campfire-roasted food item: Simply skewer a donut, place it over the fire, and rotate every so often until you've reached the desired level of char or brûlée.

Roasting glazed donuts will offer the perfect textural contrast and flavor upgrade that you can enjoy on its own or as a decadent vessel for plenty of other skewered treats. You can go the traditional route by using donuts as a tasty replacement for graham crackers for s'mores. You can even kill two birds with one stone by placing a marshmallow in the hole of your glazed donut before skewering and roasting them over the fire. The sugar from the marshmallow and donut glaze will cement the marshmallow into place, creating a gooey center. Drizzle the marshmallow-stuffed donut with your favorite brand of chocolate sauce or spread a thick layer of Nutella over the top for the ultimate twist on s'mores.

Another tasty twist on a classic dessert would be to create a campfire pineapple upside-down cake. You can skewer canned or fresh pineapple rings under a whole or halved glazed donut, topping your freshly roasted pineapple donut with a maraschino cherry for good measure. Donut holes would be the perfect bite-sized treat for roasting kebab-style, placing slice of banana between each donut hole and finishing with a drizzle of maple syrup or chocolate sauce. Of course, you can also adorn a simple roasted donut with an array of dipping sauces, like a salted caramel sauce, peanut butter and honey, or fruit jam.