Gooey Browned Butter S’mores Bars

These s’mores bars truly live up to their name. They are ooey, gooey, and decadent! If you have a sweet tooth, then these are perfect for you. These Gooey Browned Butter S’mores Bars barely hold together when they are warm out of the oven. They have the perfect ratio of marshmallows and chocolate.

The original reason I made s’more bars, is because it was World Chocolate Day. I had to whip something up to celebrate the occasion! Since I was behind and didn’t make something in advance, I didn’t want something overly complicated.

Anything s’mores, has to be one of my favorite desserts. I’ve even been known to microwave s’mores when the craving hits. So originally s’mores cookies popped into my head, but I ended up deciding on s’mores bars. I have a go to thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie bar recipe that I’ve made many times.

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I made a few changes to the original cookie bar recipe and I think it was was nearly perfect on the first try! Of course I had to test it again with a few small tweaks, but we didn’t like it as much. It was not as gooey, but if that’s the kind of bar you like then you’d like these. I included the tweaks I made in the notes of the recipe.

Either way, you can’t go wrong with these s’mores bars. Let me know if you give them a try!

Substitution options

I don’t think I can say that these Gooey Browned Butter S’mores Bars are perfect, but they are close to perfect as written in the recipe. I realize that not everyone is a fan of dark chocolate. In my s’mores bars, I used 70% dark chocolate that happened to have nuts in it as that was what I had on hand. We thought the bars had a perfect balance and weren’t overly sweet.

In my second batch, I used a chocolate bar that wasn’t as dark and we could tell the difference. We preferred the chocolate from the first recipe. You can easily substitute the dark chocolate with semi sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, or peanut butter chips. Peanut butter cups is another substitution option but I have not tried that out. Just keep in mind that your bars will turn out sweeter. Let me know if you happen to try any of these other options!

I highly recommend using a mixture of chips and bar chocolate. The chocolate bar allows you to control the size of the chunks. You want some larger chunks so that your s’mores bars will have pockets of melty goodness.

I have been getting into brown butter lately, so I decided to use it in these s’mores bars. If you don’t want to brown your butter, you can just melt it in the microwave and follow the rest of the recipe as directed. That being said, I highly recommend the brown butter and it only takes a little extra effort.

Assembly

Once you have all of your ingredients prepped, the bars are fairly straightforward to assemble. See below for step-by-step assembly.

Looking for something a little less decadent? Try my Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Gooey Browned Butter S’mores Bars

Amy

These s'mores bars are gooey and decadent.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 23 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 23 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 24 bars

Ingredients

  

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsp.) unsalted butter, browned and slightly cooled
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/8 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 6 whole sheets, plus two additional sheets for the top
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped and divided (see notes)
• 20 large marshmallows, split in half

Instructions

 

Brown the butter

• In a medium skillet, melt your butter over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam, but that's normal. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 5-7 minutes until golden brown.. The solids from the butter should be lightly golden brown and it should have a nutty aroma.
• Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the brown butter into a glass or ceramic bowl to cool until it is warm but not hot. While the butter is cooling you can assemble all of your other ingredients.

Making the graham cracker crumbs

• If you have graham cracker crumbs, you can skip this step.
• Place the graham crackers into a mini food processor and process until you have fine crumbs.
• Alternatively, you can place the graham crackers into a large freezer bag and roll with a rolling pin until you have crumbs.

Assembling the bars

• Preheat the oven to 325°F and line a 9”x13” baking pan with parchment paper.
• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt, and baking soda.
• Chop up your chocolate bar into chunks, reserving 1/2 cup for the top.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the browned butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract.
• Add in the flour mixture to your wet ingredients and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until combined.
• Stir in the chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of the chocolate chunks.
• Into the prepared pan, evenly spread out about 1/2 of the dough. There should not be any parchment paper visible on the bottom of the pan, if needed add a little more dough.
• Split your marshmallows in half and place the sticky side down onto the dough. I did 5 rows of 8 going across the long way of the pan. (See the step-by-step images above.)
• Top each marshmallow with a small scoop of dough. There won’t be enough batter to completely cover everything but that’s ok. You want some of the marshmallow to peek out.
• Bake for 10 minutes and then remove your pan from the oven and top with the reserved 1/2 cup of chocolate chunks and two sheets of graham crackers.
• I put the chunks of chocolate on the marshmallows that didn’t have any chunks already. For the graham crackers, just break each sheet into small pieces and stick them standing up between the marshmallows.
• Bake for an additional 13-18 minutes or until your marshmallows are golden brown. Do not over bake as you want your bars to remain gooey.
• These bars slice the easiest when cooled but let them cool at least slightly before slicing.

Notes

1. I used extra dark chocolate bars but any dark chocolate bar will work.  Larger chunks are the best as you will get nice pockets of melty chocolate.  I pick through the chocolate chunks to reserve the larger chunk for topping.
2. If you don’t like dark chocolate, you can substitute milk chocolate, semi sweet chocolate, or peanut butter chips.  I have not tried peanut butter cups but I bet that would be amazing.  Let me know if you try it!
3. These bars are gooey, like if you cut them when they are warm they may fall apart.  If you happen to want firmer bars for some reason, you can add an extra 1/8 cup of flour and an extra sheet of graham crackers to your crumbs.  This will make a rounded cup of graham cracker crumbs in total.
4. These bars freeze well, I wrapped them in parchment paper and then covered in plastic wrap.  If you want to them to last longer in the freezer, you can also place in a freezer bag.  To serve, just let them thaw and you can enjoy as is or you can microwave for 15-30 seconds or until warm.

 

If you make these bars, be sure to tag me on Instagram and use #amysdeliciousmess.  I’d love to see all of your bars!

 

The nutrition facts below are based on the recipe above.  This is only an estimation and intended for informational purposes only.

 

Keyword bars, chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows