S'mores Brownies

 In my last post, I kinda bashed on summer and that's not totally fair.  It is true that I hate extreme heat and I especially hate humidity, but I don't think anyone loves those things (if you do you're so strange I don't know if you're human-you should probably get that checked).  But summer is full of great things as well.  For school aged kids there's the wonderful feeling of freedom that comes at the end of school year.  The wide expanses of summer fun stretch before you like an endless wonderland.  The possibilities seem endless.  I think every kid has special memories of summer, even if it's just the feeling that it brings.


For me those memories involved camping.  When the temperatures started to climb, our house became a personal broiler.  My parents refused to invest in air-conditioning; instead we relied on a swamp cooler (does anyone even know what these are anymore?) precariously placed in the dining room window.  I vividly remember filling the thing with the garden hose and fighting with my brother for a seat in front of the only cool air in the world.

But when the temperatures rose to out of control levels my parents would pack us into our sometimes working blue beast of a truck and haul us into the Big Horn Mountains for weekends of camping seclusion.  My dad didn’t believe in RVs or trailers so we ‘roughed’ it in tents and sleeping bags.  We learned to fish with bait and flies, picked strange wild flowers, and floated in slow moving creek beds.  But we always ended the nights with a campfire and s’mores.  Those gooey treasures are a definite comfort food for me: they remind me of those camping trips which, I in my rebellious adolescences; I professed to hate but actually loved.  So here, I present s’mores in delicious brownie form. I hope you too can reconnect with your summer memories.

Ingredients

3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup coarsely crushed graham crackers

1 cup mini marshmallows

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and line an 8x8 baking dish with tin foil and lightly grease.  Heat the butter and chopped chocolate in a small sauce pan on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until smooth, remove from heat and let cool.

2.  Add the sugar to the chocolate mixture, stir until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a medium sized bowl.  Mix in the egg and vanilla, scrapping the sides down as needed.  Sprinkle the flour over top and mix until just combined.  Add the graham cracker hunks and part of the marshmallows, reserving some for the top; mix until combined.

3. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.  Make sure the batter is spread evenly and top with the remaining marshmallows (they will be toasty when the brownies come out of the oven, while those inside will have more of a gooey texture).  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.  Remove to a wire rack to cool before attempting to cut them (it is tempting, but they will be too mushy at this point).

Brownie recipe adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, inspiration from Joy the Baker.