This recipe has been on my list for quite a while. On one of our grocery store outings I grabbed some marshmallows. Tick tock and time drags on. Well I forgot all about them when making tarts. I really should have checked them before I started this whole thing but I didn’t. Lesson learned: check all of your ingredients before you start baking. When I opened them, to add some of them to the mix, they were bad. Thankfully they weren’t crucial to bringing the brownies together, but that does mean that some of them didn’t make it into the batter. I was hoping to have pieces of graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallows inside the brownies. Next time I guess. Long story short I braved our new world and grabbed the last bag of tiny marshmallows from the store when getting a few other things. So far no zombies or civil unrest, but the protests have started. I’ll ignore that for now. I couldn’t let the marshmallows go. I had to get them. Essential? Not really, not to sustain life, but for this recipe, yes, yes they are. Try it. Make them and leave the marshmallows off and then add them. Tell me there’s no difference. You’d risk it too.

I made the brownies and without any marshmallows they still smelled great. They tasted great but something was missing. It was sad. I mean what is a s’more without the marshmallow? There was a saving grace in the short term. As part of my plan I lined the pan with graham crackers. That really helped with that portion of the s’mores experience and flavor.

We got a Social Distanced visit from relatives and I gave them a large chunk of the brownies to take home. They’re gladly my Guinea Pigs for all of these recipes.

Once I’d make my trip to the store and thankfully found some marshmallows I decided to take the half of the brownies we kept and finish this thing up. Pay attention here and learn a life lesson from my stupidity. I put the brownies on some parchment and back in their pan. I moved the oven rack to the top position and turned on the broiler. I gave it a few to heat up. While that was happening I added the mini marshmallows to the top. I bunched them in good. I like toasted and even burnt marshmallows. I popped the pan into the oven and turned to answer a question from the witch. BAD IDEA. What I should have done is really not turned my attention away, which was my original intention. Instead I turned and the parchment was on fire, yes real flames, and the marshmallows were charred. As I said I like a good charred marshmallow but it really kills the sweetness and look of the brownies. I pulled them out of the oven and blew out the flames. At this point I’m beside myself that I had ruined them. As she does, the witch came and saved the day. We scraped off the top charred portion of the marshmallows best we could. What we ended up with is a great campfire toasted marshmallow flavor. I highly recommend putting the oven rack a few positions down from the top and watching your marshmallows while under the broiler. The charred bits really ties in and the marshmallows are perfectly gooey this way. Keep any eye on things.

In the end they were so much better than I imaged and I didn’t really destroy them. I only enhanced the flavor by attempting to burn my house down. I wish I could have had a few marshmallows inside the brownies for aesthetics but these were amazing brownies. They keep very well. We ate the last one today and it was still moist

Ingredients

Brownies:

1 Cup Unsalted Butter (1 stick)
2 3.2oz bars of dark chocolate 65-77%
1 Cup dark brown sugar
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/4 Cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1 Cup of All Purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cup of mini marshmallows
10 graham cracker sheets
1/2 - 3/4 Cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Brownies:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper letting the excess hang over the sides. Line the parchment with the graham cracker sheets saving the rest for adding to the mix
Over a double boiler, or in a microwave safe bowl melt the butter and cocoa powder and mix
Break up the 3.2oz bars of chocolate and stir into the butter mixture until melted. (microwave as needed) - set aside to cool
Combine the granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, eggs, coconut extract, and vanilla in the bowl of your stand mixer using the whisk attachment
Add in the melted chocolate mixture and whisk to combine
Remove the bowl from the mixer and, with a spatula, fold in the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Fold in the left over graham crackers after you lightly crush them. Also add in 1/4 cup of the marshmallows and chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into the prepared 9x13 baking pan. Don’t forget about the graham crackers. You should be pouring it on top of them. Smooth and even out with a spatula
Bake 35-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle. It’s better to under bake these
Let the brownies cool briefly in the pan
Turn on the broiler
Pile on 1 cup of the marshmallows on top of the brownies
Pop them into the oven under the broiler and KEEP AN EYE ON THEM.
remove and let cool. Using excess parchment remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Cut and ENJOY