S'Mores Bars

I've been wanting to formulate a cookie with all the stuff in a 'S'More' for a while. After mom brought over a version on Sunday for a family barbecue, I decided 'why not now?'. While hers were good, they reminded me of something I would have eagerly snarfed down in my old days where nothing could be sugary or gooey enough. These were so sweet they would make your back teeth ache, and your pancreas reel in horror. Laden with sweetened condensed milk, marshmallows, candy and chocolate chips, they were actually...yes, this is Kathy saying this...too much.

This is just a first draft, but I think we're getting somewhere. I looked on line and looked in my cookbooks, found none that completely suited me, and came up with this:

12 ounces chocolate: 8 of that Hershey's Milk, the classic s'mores chocolate, 3 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, and 1 ounce unsweetened. I wanted to increase the chocolate intensity without taking away from the basic milk chocolate.

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup whipping cream (I didn't say these weren't going to be rich)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups fine graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 16-ounce package large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 9X13 pan well (these are going to be sticky). Combine chocolates, cream cheese and heavy cream in a large heavy saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat.

This is basically a filling from another favorite bar which I thought would serve well here. It stays soft and pudding-like even after the bars are cooled.

Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt in another large bowl, and carefully add to the butter mixture. Press half of butter mixture in the bottom of pan. Spread chocolate filling over top.

Lay marshmallows like tiles completely over top of chocolate mixture. Turn on oven broiler, and broil until desired shade of brown.





None of the recipes I saw called for browning the marshmallows. Now I didn't look at hundreds of recipes, so maybe some out there did. But to me, this is the heart and soul of the s'more. Probably this isn't done because it creates something that sticks like hell to the pan (and your teeth). That's why we need plenty of non-stick spray.


Remove from oven and sprinkle bits of the remaining graham cracker-butter dough over top of marshmallows. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool pan completely. Grease a knife well with non-stick spray and cut into bars.

These are still rich and sweet, and will have you reaching for coffee, milk, tea, insulin, whatever. But they contain the basic elements of the campfire s'more, including the toasted marshmallow. I think I still might try to find ways to cut back on the sugar. But I liked the firmness and crunchiness of the baked dough, and the crispy-gooey bittersweet roasted marshmallow. And the good-down-to-your-soul chocolate...never give up that.