Our Best S’mores Brownies

4.50 from 22 votes

These chewy brownies are our best s’mores brownies recipe. Layered with Hershey’s chocolate and graham cracker crumbs and topped with toasted marshmallows.

Hey there! Molly here from What Molly Made. I’m the photographer, writer and recipe developer behind the blog, where I share healthy (and sometimes indulgent) desserts and snacks. I met Carrian at the Everything Food Conference a few weeks ago and was immediately amazed by her passion and authenticity. As a huge fan of Oh Sweet Basil myself, I’m so honored to be able to share some of my recipes here with you!

Is there anything better to kick off summer festivities than a s’mores recipe? They’re so symbolic of summer weather and instantly remind me of bonfires with friends and family.

What Are S’mores?

S’mores are a sweet snack consisting of a chocolate bar and toasted marshmallows sandwiched between graham crackers.

The first official recipe for a s’more came out in the 1927 Girl Scout guidebook “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.”

One of my favorite ways to come up with new recipes is to take traditional flavors and put a fun twist on them. I was brainstorming ways to use s’mores in a different way and came up with these s’mores brownies!

I was originally going to use the chocolate in the brownies as the chocolate part of the s’mores trio, but as I was writing the recipe I decided I needed actual Hershey’s chocolate in the recipe to make it truly a s’mores brownie.

Then it dawned on me! Put a Hershey bar in the middle of our best s’mores brownies itself. I layered half of the brownie batter into the pan then layered the chocolate bars right on top of the batter and poured more batter on top of the brownies.

You could totally do this with any candy bar and brownie recipe, actually. I’m envisioning a Reese’s brownie already. Any of your favorite chocolate bar would do! But for these? Definitely a chocolate bar!

Before we move on to the graham cracker crumbs and toasted marshmallows I want to chat about the brownie batter itself. Bear with me as I get real nerdy for a sec so we can chat about the fudginess in these s’mores brownies.

How do You Make Brownies That Are Rich and Fudgy?

The melted butter. Melted butter in any recipe makes it super chewy. When you melt the butter then gently whisk in the sugar it prevents air bubble from forming in the batter. Air bubbles=cakey texture. Which is what we don’t want in this recipe! There isn’t any leaveners (baking soda/powder) so we don’t have to worry about it reacting with the dairy in the butter that could make it cakey too. All fudge all the way here!
Melted chocolate. The combination of mostly melted chocolate and a little bit of cocoa powder adds fudgy texture and a deeper chocolate flavor. The melted chocolate provides moisture for gooeyness.
Brown sugar. The brown sugar is key to making a chewy brownie texture. The majority of the sugar in this recipe is granulated sugar, but the small amount of brown is key. The granulated sugar is reacts in the baking process and rises to the top of the brownies and creates the crackles so famous in brownie recipes. But that touch of brown sugar is key!
Lastly, the eggs! The eggs are the sole leavener in these fudgy s’mores brownies. There’s 3 whole eggs in this recipe to make them perfectly fudgy.

Why Do Brownies Come Out Cakey?

With all of these simple ingredients, it’s also super simple to whip them up. Because we don’t want to add air to the batter or it will cause a cakey texture, we whisk the ingredients instead. That means no stand mixer or beaters to clean!

Once the brownies are baked with the graham cracker crumbs, we’re going to top them with marshmallows! This is the best part, you guys! Once baked, cover the entire pan of brownies and pop them back in the oven.

Bake them for around 3 minutes until they start to puff up. Once that happens, turn on the broiler and let the tops get golden brown. I recommend watching them really closely during this step because the marshmallows can get too brown in seconds.

Mine were in for approximately one and a half minutes to achieve perfect color and texture.

Allow them to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before you cut into them! If you let them cool completely the chocolate bar in the middle will cool and set again and you’ll be able to see the chocolate bar when you cut into them!

For clean cut s’mores brownies, use a warm paper towel to wipe off the knife between each cut.

Happy (almost) summer ya’ll!