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Smores Brownies bring the campfire indoors, a buttery cinnamon graham cracker crust under fudgy from scratch brownies, crowned with gooey toasted marshmallows and graham pieces, and the pan I baked on a rainy summer Saturday got demolished before the marshmallows finished cooling. They are the brownie cousin of our smores whoopie pies, and just as dangerous.
Three layers, one pan, and every square eats like a perfectly toasted campfire smore.
Smores Brownies Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 30 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 25 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 55 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 15 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 354kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Fudgy chocolate, toasty marshmallow, and buttery cinnamon graham crunch
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, the same one bowl energy as our chocolate chip cookie bars
Quick Answer
Press a mixture of crushed graham crackers, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter into a parchment lined 9×13 dish. Whisk sugar, butter, and brown sugar until smooth, mix in vegetable oil, melted chocolate chips, eggs, an extra yolk, and vanilla, then fold in flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Spread the batter over the crust, cover the top with mini marshmallows and graham cracker pieces, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.
Jump to:
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- The crust is a real smore cracker. Brown sugar and cinnamon in the graham base toast in the oven, so the bottom layer tastes like the crisp cracker of a proper smore.
- Melted chocolate plus cocoa is double chocolate insurance. Melted chips bring fudge and moisture while cocoa powder deepens the flavor, the combination bakes dense and rich, never cakey.
- The extra egg yolk keeps it fudgy. More fat, less water, that is the yolk math that gives these their truffle like middle.
- Marshmallows go on before baking. They toast and swell in the oven heat, landing that golden campfire top with zero torching skills required.
- Graham pieces on top complete the sandwich. Scattered shards bake into the marshmallow layer, so every square gets crunch on top and bottom like a true smore.
- Cooling completely is what makes them sliceable. The marshmallow layer sets as it cools, cut warm and you get delicious chaos, cut cool and you get bakery squares.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- All three smore layers, cracker, chocolate, and toasted marshmallow, in one sliceable bar.
- The brownie layer is from scratch and seriously fudgy, no box mix shortcuts here.
- No campfire, no skewers, no bug spray, just a 9×13 pan and the same gooey payoff as our brown butter rice krispie treats.
- It delivers that same everyone asks for seconds energy as our s’mores cookies.
- It earns a spot in the rotation right next to our chocolate covered pretzel rods.
Key Ingredients
Everything a smore needs plus a proper scratch brownie pantry.
- Graham crackers: Crushed for the cinnamon kissed crust and broken into shards for the top, one box covers both jobs.
- Mini marshmallows: Two full cups toast into that golden, gooey campfire top. Minis melt evenly where big ones slide off.
- Melted chocolate chips and cocoa powder: The double chocolate backbone of the fudgy brownie middle.
- Butter and vegetable oil: Butter for flavor in both crust and batter, a little oil for that moist bakery brownie chew.
- Eggs plus an extra yolk: Structure from the eggs, extra fudginess from the yolk, do not skip it.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
The smore is a format, riff away.
- Press a layer of chocolate bar squares onto the hot brownies before the marshmallows for a molten chocolate stripe.
- Swap the graham topping shards for chopped peanut butter cups for a peanut butter smore.
- Add a pinch of flaky sea salt over the marshmallows after baking, sweet and salty magic.
- Torch the cooled marshmallow top with a kitchen torch for extra char if you like them campfire dark.
- Want the same layers in sandwich form? Our smores whoopie pies have you covered.
- If you want to switch things up, our s’mores cake plays on similar flavors in a whole new way.
- In the mood for something different? Our caramel stuffed rice krispie treats scratches a similar itch.
How to Make Smores Brownies
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×13 inch baking dish with parchment paper sprayed with baking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon, then add the melted butter and mix until it looks like wet crumbs.
- Transfer the crumb mixture to the prepared baking dish and press it down firmly into an even layer.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, room temperature butter, and brown sugar until smooth, then mix in the vegetable oil.
- Mix in the melted chocolate chips, eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla until incorporated, then add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined.
- Pour the brownie batter over the prepared crust and spread it out evenly to the edges.
- Cover the brownie layer with the mini marshmallows and scatter graham cracker pieces throughout. Bake on the center rack for 25 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack before cutting and serving.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Crush the grahams fine for the crust. A food processor or a zip bag and rolling pin both work, fine crumbs pack into a crust that will not crumble.
- Press the crust with a flat bottomed cup. Firm, even pressure is what keeps the bottom layer in one piece when you slice.
- Cool the melted chocolate slightly. Piping hot chocolate can start cooking the eggs, lukewarm blends in silky.
- Stop mixing when the flour disappears. Overworked batter turns dense and tough instead of fudgy.
- Check at 25 minutes, do not wander. The marshmallows should be puffed and golden, a few more minutes takes them from toasted to torched.
- Slice with a greased knife. A little cooking spray on the blade glides through the sticky marshmallow layer for clean squares.
- Plan the whole menu. This pairs effortlessly with our baileys brownies when company is coming.
- Make it a full spread. Our German chocolate brownies rounds out the table.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, with parchment between layers so the marshmallow does not glue the squares together. They freeze up to 2 months, thaw at room temperature and the marshmallow layer softens right back up.
Smores Brownies FAQs
They are a three layer bar that rebuilds a campfire smore in a 9×13 pan, a buttery cinnamon graham cracker crust on the bottom, a fudgy from scratch double chocolate brownie in the middle, and toasted mini marshmallows with graham pieces on top. All the smore flavor, none of the campfire logistics.
Bake at 350 degrees on the center rack and pull the pan at 25 minutes when the marshmallows are puffed and golden. If your oven runs hot or the tops color early, tent a sheet of foil loosely over the pan for the last few minutes, it stops the browning without stopping the bake.
The crust is the cracker half of the smore. Mixing the crumbs with brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter and pressing them under the batter gives every bite that toasty graham crunch, without it you just have marshmallow brownies, delicious but not a smore.
Cool the pan completely so the marshmallow layer sets, lift the whole slab out by the parchment, and slice with a long knife sprayed lightly with cooking spray, wiping between cuts. For extra clean bakery edges, chill the slab 30 minutes first.
Yes, they actually slice better the day after baking once the layers fully set. Store them airtight at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze squares up to 2 months with parchment between layers. Warm individual squares 10 seconds in the microwave to bring back the gooey factor.
You can substitute a family size boxed mix for the middle layer in a pinch, keep the homemade crust and marshmallow topping and bake per the box timing plus a few minutes for the crust. That said, the from scratch double chocolate batter here is what makes them THE smores brownies, it is worth the extra 10 minutes.
Made these Smores Brownies? Leave a comment and a star rating below, and tell me if they beat the campfire version!
Still filling out the menu? Readers love pairing this one with our cheesecake brownies, toffee bars, snickerdoodle blondies, and golden grahams smores bars.
And when you are planning next week’s dinners, our raspberry brownies and lemon brownies keep the same easy comfort going.
Smores Brownies
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 1 & 3/4 cup crushed graham crackers
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons salted butter melted
For the Brownies:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup salted butter room temperature
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar packed
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup melted semi sweet chocolate chips
- 3 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the Topping:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13” baking dish with parchment paper and spray with baking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine graham crackers, brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon.1 & 3/4 cup crushed graham crackers, 3 tablespoons light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Add in the melted butter and mix until the texture is a wet crumb.1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons salted butter
- Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and press down evenly.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, butter, and brown sugar until smooth.1 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup salted butter, 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- Add in the vegetable oil and mix to combine.3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Add in the melted chocolate chips and eggs and mix to incorporate. Mix in the vanilla.1/4 cup melted semi sweet chocolate chips, 3 large eggs, 1 large egg yolk, 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Next, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix until just combined.1 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Pour the brownie mixture on top of the prepared crust and spread it out .
- Cover the brownie layer with miniature marshmallows and then place graham crackers pieces throughout.2 cups mini marshmallows, Graham cracker pieces
- Place into the preheated oven on the center rack and bake for 25 minutes.
- Once baked, remove from the oven and place onto a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before cutting and serving.
Notes
- Use Parchment Paper: Lining your baking pan with parchment paper makes removal and clean-up a breeze.
- Don’t Overbake: To keep them fudgy, bake just until the center is set but still soft.
- Cool Before Cutting: Let them cool completely in the pan for clean cuts.
- Customize Your Toppings: Feel free to get creative with the toppings based on what you love.
- Double the Recipe: These go fast! Consider making a double batch for larger gatherings.
Nutrition
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