S'mores Bars

The taste of s’mores in a soft and gooey cookie bar? I’m not sure it can get much better than these s’mores bars! The base of this bar is a really simple cookie dough with some crushed graham crackers mixed in for additional flavor, plus Hershey bars, mini marshmallows, and more graham crackers. To really nail down the campfire s’mores vibe, I including a layer of Marshmallow Fluff to mimic a perfectly roasted marshmallow. Some of the Fluff even peeks through the top and gets slightly golden and toasted. Think of these as the perfect shareable s’more without any campfire needed. These would be really fun to pack up for a picnic or serve at a BBQ. Eating outdoors is highly recommended, but not required.

How To Make S’mores Bars

INGREDIENTS

• All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose is a happy medium in the flour world. It gives a delicate crumb to baked goods like cookies and cakes without making them too tough.
• Kosher Salt: Salt is important in baking just the same as cooking. Adding just a bit of salt to your bars won’t make them taste salty at all, but it will help bring out the natural flavor of all of your other ingredients. The bars would taste less exciting without it.
• Baking Soda: Baking soda will help with browning in these bars and give them a little rise so that they aren’t too dense.
• Unsalted Butter: I like to use unsalted in baking recipes so I can control the amount of salt being used. Salted butters are less controlled than unsalted, so different brands will have drastically different amounts of salt. We don’t want salty sweets, so use unsalted just to be safe.
• Granulated & Brown Sugar: Equal amounts of each sugar yields a soft and tender cookie base, while the molasses in the brown sugar adds an extra depth of flavor and comfort.
• Large Egg: Large eggs are the most common in American baking, and they’re what I like to stick with too. They’re an easy size to find across all grocery stores, and are what we always test our recipes with.
• Pure Vanilla Extract: Vanilla helps give more flavor to baked goods and pairs great with chocolate, but a little goes a long way, so be sure to measure yours out away from your mixing bowl.
• Graham Crackers: This recipe calls for both crushed and chopped graham crackers. I use crushed for extra flavor in the dough and chopped so that you get pieces in each bar. Plus, it wouldn’t be a s’mores bar without graham cracker.
• Mini Marshmallows & Hershey’s Bars: Both sweets are mandatory for s’mores and can’t be missed! You can add chocolate chips in place of the Hershey bars for ease, or cut up regular marshmallows if you don’t have mini.
• Marshmallow Fluff: This really gives the bars their melty s’more feel. Plus, it makes the bars really beautiful.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

The first step is to line a 9" x 9" baking dish with parchment and grease with cooking spray. Leave some overhang with the parchment on the sides so you can easily lift the bars out when they are done baking. This will make cutting them so much easier. Next, combine all of the dry ingredients, including the crushed graham crackers. This helps make sure everything gets distributed evenly throughout the dough and you don’t end up with a clump of salt in one spot.

In another bowl, beat the softened butter and both sugars until creamy. You can use a handheld mixer or stand mixer for this. The most important thing is that the mixture should be lighter and creamier with all of the sugar incorporated into the butter. Then add the egg and vanilla and beat the batter again until the egg is fully incorporated into the butter mixture.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl to make sure everything is getting mixed together, and mix again if necessary. You can now add the dry ingredients into the bowl. Beat this until the mixture is mostly combined, but there are still some dry streaks throughout.

You don’t want to overmix it because we still need to include all of our mix-ins. Add the chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows. You can mix this with your mixer or with a rubber spatula. I like to use a rubber spatula only if I think I mixed the flour for too long beforehand. A rubber spatula will help you from overworking the dough by allowing you to fold the ingredients in more gently.

Next, add about two-thirds of the dough to the prepared baking pan. It doesn’t need to be exact. As long as you have most of the dough in the pan and in an even layer, it will be fine. Spread the Marshmallow Fluff over the top of your dough. It also doesn’t need to be perfect because it will melt and spread to fill the whole top, though if you're having a hard time spreading it, you can spray your spoon or spatula with just a little bit of cooking spray and it should spread much more easily.

Top with the rest of the cookie dough. Scoop out heaping tablespoons of the dough and flatten slightly with your hands and then place on top of the fluff. No need to perfectly cover the fluff, you want some to be showing through the dough.

Now it needs to freeze before baking. If you bake straight away, all of the marshmallow will melt and disappear while baking. Freezing will help it melt slower and you’ll still see it after it’s done baking. Transfer the dish to the freezer and let it sit for at least 45 minutes and up to overnight. Finally, bake the bars in a 350° oven until they’re golden all over and the edges feel firm, but the center is still slightly soft. Let these cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing.

The full list of ingredients and instructions can be found in the recipe below.

Recipe Tips

• Don’t skip freezing these: The marshmallow will melt too quickly and disappear if you don’t freeze them first. Even better is to also freeze the mini marshmallows before adding to the dough.
• Make sure to not overbake your bars, or they will turn out dry: The edges will feel set but the center should still feel just slightly soft when gently pressed. As they cool, the centers will firm up a bit more, so they should be a little bit soft straight out of the oven.

Storage

These can be stored in the freezer unbaked for up to 2 weeks. If kept frozen for longer than 12 hours, they might need an extra few minutes on the bake time to fully bake through. Any baked leftovers can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.