S’mores Brownies

I’ve bookmarked this recipe for a long time, but never had a chance to make it. One of the reasons was the melting of the chocolate. I’ve had bad luck with melting chocolate before because I was doing it all wrong. It would seize up on me, and I would have lots of wasted chocolate. Since then, whenever anything calls for melting chocolate, I tend to skip over the recipe.

I’m glad I had a chance to try out this recipe because this brownie is so dense and fudgy, and just too good to pass up. I baked these up for a work fundraising bake sale for Go Red for Women. However, a nasty snow storm resulted in our office being closed this past Friday, so the bake sale didn’t happen.

Since a few of my coworkers and I ended up working on Sunday, I brought these in with the option to donate to the charity. Even though the bake sale didn’t happen, I was glad I was still able to get a nice donation.

Since I also wanted to make this dairy free so most people can enjoy it, I used Earth Balance butter instead of butter. Some other alterations was using light brown sugar instead of dark, using honey graham crackers, and using 15 marshmallows vs. 12 since I cut the brownies into 15 pieces. Although it didn’t taste too much like a s’more, this is definitely a decadent treat to try.

S’mores Brownies
adapted from: Joy the Baker, originally from Bon Appétit, October 1991

printable recipe

ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Earth Balance buttery spread
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
5 large eggs
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup graham cracker, roughly crushed with your hands
15 big marshmallows

directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or spray with baking spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with 2-inch-high sides. In a small bowl; combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan bring about 1-2 inches of water to a boil, making sure it doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl you’ll be using. Reduce heat to low, and allow water to simmer. Stir butter and chocolate in a medium sized glass bowl over the simmering water.  Stir chocolate and butter in this double boiler until melted and smooth.

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Stir in warm chocolate mixture, then dry ingredients. Fold in graham crackers.  Pour batter into prepared pan. Dot with large marshmallows, maintaining even spacing between each one.  Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 30- 40 minutes minutes.

Marshmallows will be browned and puffy but will deflate as the brownies cool.  Cool for at least 20 minutes than slice with a sharp knife, cleaning the knife with hot water if it gets too messy and sticky.

I wrapped these up individually in plastic wrap and handed it off to coworkers.