Oooey-gooey s’mores. They conjure happy memories of warm summer nights under the stars: toasting a marshmallow to golden perfection, carefully sliding it onto a crisp graham cracker, topping it with a square of chocolate and another cracker, and watching all the melty lusciousness ooze out the sides of the sandwich. Comfort food doesn’t get much better than that!
While I can’t promise that these baked s’mores bars will transport you right to that same happy place, they do have the potential to make even the grumpiest monsters smile. The top and bottom crust (the “graham cracker”) is soft like a blondie. The chocolate is literally some chocolate bars placed on top of the crust. And the marshmallow is — wait for it — fluff!
We found them a bit too sweet overall (I might cut back on the white sugar in the crust), and lacking the caramelized toastiness of a real marshmallow that’s been lovingly rotated over an open flame. Of course everyone likes a different ratio of chocolate to marshmallow, and to my personal taste, I’d cut down on the sticky fluff and up the creamy chocolate next time.
But I’m picking nits. These bars are playful, simple and a fun alternative to brownies or blondies. I’d bet 9 out of 10 kids would be more than thrilled to gobble up a s’mores bar or two after school or for dessert!
Baked S’mores Bars
From Baked Perfection
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- ¼ tsp salt (optional)
- ¾ cup graham cracker crumbs (approximately 5 full graham crackers)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 or 3 super-sized (5 oz.) chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
- 1½ cups marshmallow creme/fluff (or mini marshmallows if you must!)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom of 8″ x 8″ baking pan.
2. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
4. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. Two 5 oz. Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer. Spread marshmallow fluff evenly over the chocolate layer.
5. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff. This is most easily done by putting the second half of the dough in a gallon size freezer bag. Use your palms or rolling pin to flatten it out, and then use scissors to cut down both long sides of the bag, so it will open up book-style. Open it up carefully, and the dough will stick on one side of the bag. Then place the bag, dough side down, on the other three layers. From there peel the bag up and carefully spread the dough where it is uneven.
6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely or almost completely for the melty factor before cutting into bars.
Makes 16 bars