I Finally Found the S'mores Answer: S'mores Brownies

If you feel like you've been seeing a lot of posts dealing with the delicious campfire treat, it's because you have. Let me tell you, you get enough S'mores makings for one dessert, you end up with enough for multiple desserts of the like. And with a move coming up (about a month to go!) I have to start cleaning out the pantry. And what better way to clean out the pantry than by baking yummy goodies!?

My journey with S'mores has taken me from an "ok" dessert, "Campfire Cookies", to a complete fail, "S'mores Tart", and finally, I have found the golden ticket: S'mores Brownies. I discovered this twist on the S'mores treat on Pinterest and it comes from "Lovin' The Oven",a blog primarily made up of dessert recipes. I decided to go the S'mores route tonight because: 1. I had all the ingredients in stock (or so I thought, see below) and 2. It was probably the easiest baking recipes I have ever seen involving brownies not from a box. Without any delay, here is the recipe:

Mine. Seriously check that out!

Bloggers. Photo from www.lovintheoven.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (*I used 1 stick (1/2 cup) and a Tablespoon of cream cheese 
• 2 cups sugar (white)
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• ½ teaspoon salt
• about 1 cup graham crackers pieces, broken by hand(I used 4 sheets of graham crackers)
• half a bag of large marshmallows (*I used half a bag of mini- marshmallows) 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9 x 13 pan.
2. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Once melted remove from heat and add sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Blend together.
3. In separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet and mix well. Add broken graham crackers and mix.
4. Pour into greased pan. Place marshmallows over the poured batter, I used about 15 large marshmallows, but you can do more or less depending on your taste. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Seriously can you not taste them from here?

Pros: Sorry I can't type right now, my hands are full of marshmallow, chocolate goodness. Seriously these defy words. They are spectacular. From start to finish the recipe was easy to follow, required little in terms of tools (no hand mixers, stand mixers, whatever involved!), and obviously you know by now it came out to perfection. The brownie was chocolaty without being too rich and the slightly burnt marshmallows on top and the graham crackers baked in really made it taste like a S'more fresh off the campfire. Only better.

Cons: Beware this is an eat with your fork kind of brownie! It is very messy and hard to extract from the pan. I think next time I would grease it with butter instead of just spray because it was surprisingly sticky considering how messy it was. This also might have been on account of the baking time. My husband loves undercooked brownies, so I took them out a couple of minutes early. Just something to keep in mind.

Revisions: As I stated above, I thought I had all the ingredients until half way through stirring everything together I realized I had only used a stick of butter (1/2 cup) and didn't have any more. Oops! Instead of scratching the entire project, I decided to add a Tablespoon of cream cheese to add some more dairy to the recipe. It seemed to work out just fine. Also, I used half a bag of mini marshmallows, not the big ones, and although I may have used too many, I really don't think there is such a thing and the thick layer of marshmallows on top just made it even tastier.

This is most definitely a "Hall of Fame" recipe! Finally a S'mores recipe I would try again in a heartbeat! So next time you feel a little more daring than your standard boxed brownies and are craving something sweet, give these S'mores Brownies a try. You will not be disappointed. 

Had to take a picture of them in front of these gorgeous
flowers that my sister-in-law put together for a
friend's wedding. How pretty are they!?