S’more Science

The presents are unwrapped, the cookies are devoured, and the kids are still talking about Santa.  It is time for us parents to pat ourselves on the back and celebrate a job well done! Last night Matt and I decided to treat ourselves with a glass of wine and s’mores!  I had marshmallows left over from an experiment I did with Allie on Christmas Eve.

I was inspired by the ivory soap in the microwave experiment and thought, “What else could I nuke and not cause a huge mess?”  Then it hit me – marshmallows!  They would expand in a microwave, like the soap, and best of all we could eat them afterward!

Allie and I put a marshmallow on a plate and put it in the microwave for 45 seconds.

The video of our experiment cracks me up.  I was relatively calm but Allie was worried about a fire hazard.  (Next time I’ll only microwave for 30 seconds.)

What happened? Marshmallows are made of moisture, trapped air, and sugar. The microwave makes the trapped air hot and the air expands. The air expanding causes the marshmallow to blow up! This is Charles’ Law – heating air makes it expand.

After our experiment, we took it out of the microwave and scooped up the yummy goo with apple slices.  It was amazing.

So what do you do with leftover marshmallows?  Make s’mores.  Last night the kids crashed early, so I found a great recipe to make s’mores in a jar here. All you need are small jars and s’mores ingredients.  I didn’t have regular chocolate so I used peppermint patties from Santa Claus!

First, put a few graham cracker crumbs and chopped up peppermint patty in the bottom of the jar.

 

Then add a few marshmallows and top with the rest of the peppermint patty.

Place the jar in the microwave and nuke the jar for 10-15 seconds. Thanks to Charles’ Law the marshmallows will blow up, so make sure they don’t ooze out of the jar!  The first one I did made a little mess!

Remove from the microwave, add a few more graham crackers on top, and use a spoon to enjoy!

S’mores and science.  What a great way to end 2014!