Psssst, hey, you! You need to make these. Like, now.
I almost never say that, but seriously: You do.
Stop what you’re doing, put on your fat pants, and get yourself into the kitchen. You can thank me later.
These s’mores bars are so good, they should be illegal. Think I’m kidding?
I made these and took them to a party this past weekend, and I got two marriage proposals—neither of which came from my husband.
They’re dense and chewy and have all of that good chocolate-marshmallowy-graham crackery taste that you know and love.
I put them in the fridge for a while once they cooled to room temp, which firmed them up a little and made them really easy to slice.
How to make s’mores bars
You’ve gotta love a recipe that includes 4 oversized chocolate bars and a pound of marshmallow fluff. It’s ridiculous and so happy-making at the same time.
For this recipe, you make a graham-cracker laced cookie dough. Pack half of it in a layer into a baking pan. Cover the dough with whole chocolate bars (yep, you heard me right).
Slather the chocolate with marshmallow fluff (not regular marshmallows).
Then top it with another layer of the dough.
Bake for about 30 minutes, and let them cool completely (the waiting is the hard part) before slicing.
The dough is a little tricky to work with, but I figured out a good way to handle it. Read on for the details.
Where did this recipe come from?
I found this recipe in a roundabout way. It was featured in one of Saveur’s e-mail newsletters, which led me to Risa’s blog Baked Perfection, who credited Nicole over at Baking Bites for the original recipe.
Thanks to you all! This recipe is definitely a keeper. I’m just doing my part in spreading the dessert love around the interwebs.
The only change that I made to the recipe was to increase it to fill a 9 x 13 pan. If you’re thinking: That’s way too many s’mores bars. I’ll never finish them off.
Wrong.
Invite a few friends over. See how many are left. I’m willing to bet you’ll be fighting over the last crumbs just around midnight.
Ingredients for s’mores bars
Use marshmallow fluff, or your favorite brand of marshmallow cream—not regular marshmallows. The other bakers noted that they wouldn’t melt as well. The bars were delicious, so I’m inclined to believe them.
For the graham cracker crumbs, you can smash up graham crackers (use about 7 for an 8×8 pan, or 14 for my 9×13 pan recipe below), or you can be really lazy and buy them ready made. Most grocery stores sell boxes of graham cracker crumbs in the baking aisle.
I opted for lazy, this time. (I blame Penelope.)
For the chocolate bars, use your favorite kind. I opted for the big size of the traditional Hershey’s milk chocolate bar and got rave reviews.
The gal over at Baked Perfection used dark chocolate bars, which sounds really good, too. It’s totally up to you. Basically, you need enough chocolate bars to cover the surface of a 9 x 13 pan in a single layer that’s about a quarter-inch thick. You do the chocolate math.
I used 4 (4.4 oz.) chocolate bars.
These are a ton of fun to make. Let’s get to it!
S’mores Bars
Adapted from Baked Perfection and Baking Bites
16 Tbls. butter (that’s 2 sticks), softened to room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsps. vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 14 full graham crackers)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large (4.4 oz.) chocolate bars
3 cups marshmallow fluff (that’s roughly one 16-oz. tub of marshmallow fluff)
Yields a 9-inch x 13-inch pan of bars
Serves one. (Or more, if you feel like sharing.)
Preheat your oven & prep your pan
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a 9-inch x 13-inch glass baking pan and line it with parchment paper, so the paper hangs over the sides a little. (The parchment will make it really easy to air lift the bars out of the pan if you want to.) Set it aside.
Make the cookie dough
Put the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of your mixer (or a large bowl if mixing by hand).
Cream them together until uniform.
Toss in the eggs and vanilla. Beat until the mixture thickens a little and fluffs up.
In a separate bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt until uniform.
Toss the dry mixture into the butter / sugar mixture.
Beat to incorporate, just until all the ingredients come together.
The dough will be soft, kind of loose, and a little mealy feeling from the graham cracker crumbs. That’s just fine.
Assemble the s’mores bars
Gather the dough into a ball. Whack it in half with a bencher or sharp knife.
Take one half, plop it in your prepared pan, and smoosh it down so that it covers the bottom of the pan completely in an even layer.
Then, unwrap all your chocolate bars. Cover the dough with a single layer of chocolate, cutting the bars as needed to fit your pan.
Don’t forget about those pesky edges. They need chocolate, too.
It doesn’t have to be a perfect fit (after all, it’s going to melt). Just do the best you can.
Next, cover the chocolate in an even layer of marshmallow fluff. (What’d I tell you? Sticky, ridiculous fun!)
Finally, you need to add the top crust. This is the trickiest part. Sort of. Grab the other half of the dough.
Smoosh it flat on a board (flour the board lightly, if you want, to make it easier to get the dough off).
Make it roughly the same size and shape as your pan, so you know it’ll be big enough to cover the whole top.
Then, slice it into strips. (The gal over at Baked Perfection recommends rolling it out in a zip-top bag, then slicing the bag off and laying it on in a single layer. You could try that, too.)
Scoop the piece up.
And lay it on top of the fluff.
Now, this is really messy looking, I know. (So messy, in fact, that I wondered at this point if the finished bars would look awful.) It’s OK. Really, it is. The dough has enough butter in it that it really kind of melts together a little in the oven as it bakes. Plus, it’s a s’mores bar. It’s kind of supposed to be rustic and messy looking.
Repeat with the rest of the dough. Your goal is to cover the fluff completely with it, leaving as few gaps as you can.
As it bakes, the fluff will bubble up a little (not a lot) through any gaps you leave.
Bake the s’mores bars!
Pop the pan into your preheated oven. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
Yank the pan out of the oven. Let it cool completely on a rack. If you like (this is what I did), pop them in the fridge when they hit room temperature. It will make them waaaay easier to slice, and you can always nuke ’em in the microwave for a few seconds to get them nice and gooey again.
Kitchen dog update!
As for Penelope, our new baby Keeshond, she’s doing really well.
She loves to sit and watch me cook in the kitchen—and get her nose into just about anything I’ll let her. Her favorite so far, seems to be fresh basil. She loves how it smells.
And, as you can see, she’s getting along famously with Dexter.
Cheers!
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
The Hungry Mouse
Yields One 9" x 13" pan
These bars are dense and chewy and have all of that good chocolate-marshmallowy-graham crackery taste that you know and love.
Save RecipeIngredients
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly grease a 9-inch x 13-inch glass baking pan and line it with parchment paper, so the paper hangs over the sides a little. Set it aside.
- Put the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of your mixer (or a large bowl if mixing by hand). Cream them together until uniform.
- Toss in the eggs and vanilla. Beat until the mixture thickens a little and fluffs up.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt until uniform.
- Toss the dry mixture into the butter / sugar mixture. Beat to incorporate, just until all the ingredients come together.
- Gather the dough into a ball. Whack it in half with a bencher or sharp knife.
- Take one half, plop it in your prepared pan, and smoosh it down so that it covers the bottom of the pan completely in an even layer.
- Unwrap all your chocolate bars. Cover the dough with a single layer of chocolate, cutting the bars as needed to fit your pan. It doesn't have to be a perfect fit (after all, it's going to melt). Just do the best you can.
- Next, cover the chocolate in an even layer of marshmallow fluff.
- Add the top crust: Grab the other half of the dough. Smoosh it flat on a lightly floured board. Make it roughly the same size and shape as your pan, so you know it'll be big enough to cover the whole top. Slice it into strips. Lay each piece on top of the fluff until you've covered the whole pan (see photos in original post).
- Pop the pan into your preheated oven. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
- Yank the pan out of the oven. Let it cool completely on a rack.
- When cool, slice into fat wedges and share with your favorite people. Enjoy!
