Smores Bars

I come from a fairly large family. Growing up, my cousins and I would see each other nearly every Sunday for dinner at our grandparents. As we’ve gotten older, we clearly don’t have as many opportunities to see each other. So we decided to have a cousin barbecue for those of us that still live in the Philadelphia area.

Whenever I think of outdoor cooking, I naturally think of S’mores for dessert.

Because I was hosting, I wanted to pre-make as much of the food as I could, so I decided to make Smores Bars for us to enjoy!

These are super easy, and absolutely addicting!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 (12 oz) bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
• 60-70 full-size marshmallows (about 1 1/2 10-ounce bags)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a 9×13 inch baking dish with two sheets of parchment paper, leaving some overhang on each side. Spray with cooking spray.

Whisk together the flour, graham crack crumbs, baking soda and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.

Add the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar to a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until fully combined.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.

On low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.

Turn the dough out into your prepared baking dish. Using your hands, press the dough into an even layer along the bottom of the baking dish. This might take a little bit of time. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just relatively uniform.

Add to the oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

When there is about 5 minutes left on the baking time, add your chocolate chips to a microwave safe bowl and pour in the cans of sweetened condensed milk.

Microwave on high for 1 minute. Carefully remove and stir; it will still be pretty chunky.

Add back to the microwave for 30 second increments, stirring in between, until smooth. Mine took 2 minutes in total.

Immediately pour over the graham cracker crust, spreading into an even layer.

Top with the marshmallows, pressing down slightly to push them into the chocolate. I ended up using the very specific number of 66 marshmallows to make mine.

Preheat your broiler to high. Add the baking dish to the oven and broil until the marshmallows brown slightly, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool completed. Slice into 16 bars and serve.

These bars do a pretty awesome job subbing in for s’mores made over a campfire — although nothing quite matches the magic of a fire-roasted marshmallow with chocolate and graham crackers.

They can also be made ahead of time as a great make-ahead dessert.