S’Mores Brownie Fudge

My cousins introduced me to S’mores when I was a kid. They were in the Girl Scouts and we used to meet them on the Jersey Shore every summer to have a dual family vacation. To this day the Jersey Shore is one of my favorite places in the world (F$#k the TV show). To this day I still remember the smell of the salt air, riding the waves, playing miniature golf and my mom and aunt cooking for a giant group of people.

One year my cousins introduced my brother and I to the concept of S’mores, and I have been absolutely hooked ever since. Fortunately, I’m not the only one – a couple years ago two very good friends of mine got married in Pennsylvania and between dinner and the wedding cake they had the S’mores course. The reception was in the evening and outside there were fire pits with big glass jars around them – one filled with marshmallows, one with chocolate bars, one with graham crackers and a fourth with long wooden sticks. Needless to say…I never quite made it to the final dessert course.

S’mores are tough to make at home unless you have an outdoor grill or fire pit area. But these are definitely a nice substitute that you can make right in your kitchen.

I call these brownie fudge because they’re not quite brownies…they’re way too rich, but they’re not quite fudge, either…they don’t have the density that fudge has. But, they are super chocolatey and kind of half way in between the two so, hence, “brownie fudge”. Feel free to share with me your take on it after you’ve made them!

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

2 cups, crushed graham crackers
6 T butter, melted
2 cups, semisweet chocolate chips
8 T butter, softened to room temperature
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
4 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 cup flour
1 t salt
3 cups mini marshmallows (or more if you like your S’mores extremely marshmallow-y)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (additional to the 2 cups above)

Directions

First, take a 9” x 12” pan (or something similar in size) and line it completely with aluminum foil, so that the foil hangs over the edges. This is going to make it easy for you to get the brownies out of the pan, and significantly simplify cleanup. Next, pulverize your graham crackers until they are a fine meal, then stir in the 6T of melted butter. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the lined pan and put this aside for later.

To make the batter, melt the first 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips and the 8T butter together over low heat. Make sure the heat is low because you don’t want the chocolate to seize, which means it takes on this weird, gross chunky texture and you won’t be able to use it. It’s gross – don’t do that. Melt the chips and butter together, stirring a lot, until the chips are almost, but not quite, completely melted. Take the pot off the heat and continue stirring until the chips are completely melted.

Stir in the brown sugar and regular sugar until they are well mixed. Then, whisk in the four eggs and the vanilla. Whisk pretty vigorously until you’re sure that everything is well combined. Finally, add in the flour and salt and whisk some more until, again, everything is well combined.

Pour this mixture into the prepared pan (over the graham cracker base). Bake at 325 for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, take the brownies out of the oven and sprinkle the marshmallows and the last cup of chips over the top, making sure they’re spread out fairly uniformly. Put the brownies back into the oven for another 15 minutes. Make sure to watch these! You want the marshmallows to get golden brown…not black and not burst into flames.

After the 15 minutes take them out of the oven and do the toothpick test in the center – if it comes out fairly clean and not covered with liquid chocolate, you’re good.