Easy S'mores bars are the perfect quick dessert recipe. They have a buttery graham cracker crust, a chocolate ganache filling and toasted marshmallow topping.
Table of contents
Small Batch S'mores Bars
Hi! Just popping in to share these small batch s'mores bars with you! These bars are a re-make of the S'mores tart which is on my site and super popular. Someone asked if it would be possible to make them into a bar, and so here we are! No Campfire needed to recreate this classic treat. I love making S'mores dessert recipes - the combination of toasty marshmallow, chocolate, and graham cracker is just too good. My S'mores Macarons are another favourite, along with this S'mores ice cream!
I love a good homemade bar recipe and these smores bars tick all the boxes - easy graham cracker crust, chocolate ganache filling, and a toasty marshmallow topping. This recipe can also be easily made into a gluten free smores recipe by using a gluten free graham cracker.
Small Batch Desserts - made in a loaf pan!
There are so many things to love about these smores bars, not only are they super delicious, but they are a small batch recipe, so can be made directly in a loaf pan. They are fairly rich, so even though it only makes a small amount, they definitely go a long way.
I cut them into long thin bars for the styling and photos, but you can absolutely cut them in half again to give you 12 smaller s'mores bars.
Components of S'mores Bars
- Brown Butter Graham Cracker Base - This is my favourite base to use for things - simply ground up graham crackers, a little sugar, salt, and then some melted butter to bind. This time I browned the butter which gives it an amazing toasty finish. I gave the base a quick spin in the oven just to help it set. It cools and then the filling is added.
- Chocolate Ganache Filling - This silky, rich, dark chocolate filling is super easy to make. Chopped chocolate and unsalted butter are placed into a bowl and hot cream is poured over, then it is whisked into a super smooth filling and poured over the base
- Toasted Marshmallow Layer - It's not S'mores without marshmallow! I spread a layer of marshmallow over the chocolate filling then torched it to finish.
Can I make these in a different sized pan?
You sure can! The quantities for making these in a 9" pan would be:
- Crust - 400g graham cracker crumbs, 3 Tbsp sugar, ¼ tsp kosher salt, 150g brown butter
- Filling - 660g dark chocolate, 105g unsalted butter, 435g heavy cream
- Marshmallow Topping - 3 packets (21g) gelatine, 112g water, 155g honey or corn syrup, 112g water, 400g sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract or paste.
What is the best substitute for Graham Crackers?
Digestive biscuits would work well here, or probably another kind of plain cookies made into crumbs. However, You may need to adjust the quantity of butter slightly as different biscuits are more or less absorbent. You want it to look like wet sand and pack in nice and tightly.
FAQ for S'mores Bars
Can Smores bars be made ahead?
Yes! The graham cracker crust and filling can be done before, and then add the marshmallow topping on the day of serving.
What if I don't want a super thick marshmallow layer?
If you don't want a super thick layer of marshmallow, set some off to the side in a pan. Just grease a loaf pan or something similar, then add the extra marshmallow in and spread it out with a greased spatula. Dust with equal parts corn starch and powdered sugar then leave to set.
What is the best way to cut smores bars cleanly?
Cutting these is easiest with a sharp knife. I like to either heat mine up with a blow torch, or by dipping it in boiling water and then wiping off. Make sure you do this between cuts to give you a nice clean cut.
What is a good substitute for homemade marshmallow?
If you don't want to make marshmallow, you can top these with a layer of toasted meringue instead! You could also top them with mini marshmallows or a layer of marshmallow creme or marshmallow fluff.
I don't have a kitchen torch - can I broil these?
I wouldn't. The ganache layer will melt and it will be a nightmare. I just got a propane torch from the hardware store - they are much better in my opinion than a culinary torch!
What pan did you use?
I used this loaf pan to make these! A different sized loaf pan will work too but you might get slightly different dimensions.
Why are there two different quantities of butter in the recipe?
I call for 125g butter in the recipe and then 95g to be added to the graham cracker mix. The difference in these two quantities is accounting for the loss that occurs when browning butter. Add 95g brown butter to the graham cracker mix. You may be left with a teeny bit leftover.
How do you store s'mores bars?
Store the smores bars in an airtight container or lightly covered in the fridge.
What can I use in the place of corn syrup?
Glucose, or liquid honey is a good corn syrup substitute.
For more S'mores themed recipes, check out:
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Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
S'mores Bars
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes plus cooling and curing time
- Yield: 6 large or 12 small bars 1x
Description
Easy S'mores bars are the perfect simple dessert recipe. They have a buttery graham cracker crust, a chocolate ganache filling and toasted marshmallow topping.
Ingredients
Brown Butter Graham Cracker Crust
- 180g graham crackers (or digestive biscuits), processed into crumbs
- 20g granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 125g unsalted butter, cold from the fridge is fine
Chocolate Ganache Filling
- 265g good quality dark chocolate, at least 60% cocoa solids, finely chopped
- 45g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- pinch of kosher salt
- 175g heavy cream
Toasted Marshmallow Topping
- 2 packets (14g) gelatine
- 80g cold water
- 100g light corn syrup or glucose
- 80g water
- 265g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Instructions
GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST
- Preheat the oven to 350˚f / 180˚c. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, extending it over the sides slightly to form a sling to use to remove the bars once they are ready.
- Place the graham crackers crumbs, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.
- In a medium sized saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Once it has melted, continue to cook, stirring occasionally and watching very carefully, until it turns golden brown in colour, and begins to smell toasty.
- Measure out 95g (see Notes section below) of the brown butter into the graham cracker mixture, and mix well to combine. It should have the consistency of wet sand.
- Press the crust mixture into the bottom of the loaf pan, tamping down evenly.
- Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes, or until beginning to brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
CHOCOLATE GANACHE FILLING
- Place the chocolate, butter, and salt into a large heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a small saucepan, and warm over low heat until just shy of a simmer - you should see movement around the edges of the cream. Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate and butter, and cover the bowl with a lid or plate.
- Leave to sit for 5-6 minutes, then whisk vigorously to combine the chocolate and the cream. The mixture will look like it has split to begin with but keep whisking - it will come together and go glossy eventually!
- Pour the chocolate filling onto the cooled crust, shaking the pan slightly to flatten off, and using an offset spatula if needed. Place in the fridge for 1 ½ to 2 hours, or until the filling has set completely.
MARSHMALLOW TOPPING
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the first measure of cold water and gelatine. Mix well with a fork, and leave to bloom while you prepare the sugar syrup.
- In a medium pot, combine the water, corn syrup, sugar and vanilla. Heat over medium to high heat, stirring occasionally. Heat until the syrup reaches 240˚f / 120˚c, then remove from the heat and leave to cool to 210˚f / 100˚c.
- Turn the mixer on to medium, and mix for a few seconds to help break up the bloomed gelatin. With the mixer running, VERY carefully pour the hot sugar syrup into the mixer. Turn the speed up to high, and whip for 5-7 minutes, until the marshmallow has doubled in volume, has turned white, and holds somewhat of a peak when you stop the mixer and lift out the whisk.
- Pour the marshmallow over the surface of the ganache, spreading down with an offset spatula. Leave to cure in the fridge for at least 45 minutes until the marshmallow has firmed up.
- Remove the bars from the loaf pan using the parchment handles. Remove the parchment paper, and torch the top and sides of the bars if desired.
- Cut into slices using a knife that has been run under hot water or warmed with the blow torch, wiping well between each cut.
- Store leftovers in the fridge.
Notes
You need the base to be like wet sand. Different brands of graham crackers or if you are using digestive biscuits etc will have different levels of absorbency, so you may have to add in just a wee bit more butter to make sure that you can get it to the right consistency.
If you are worried about the quantity of marshmallow being too much (it may come out thicker if you use a smaller pan than I have), you can transfer some into a small greased pan and leave it to set up at room temperature. Dust it with equal parts corn starch and powdered sugar and then cut into pieces. Store in an airtight container.
I call for 125g butter in the recipe and then 95g to be added to the graham cracker mix. The difference in these two quantities is accounting for the loss that occurs when browning butter (read more about that in my FAQ). Add 95g brown butter to the graham cracker mix. You may be left with a teeny bit leftover.
If using the 2x or 3x button to scale the recipe please note that it does not scale the quantities in the method so you will have to manually scale those yourself.
Keywords: s'mores, smores, graham cracker, small batch, marshmallow, dark chocolate, ganache, toasted marshmallow
Comments
This looks great. I’d love to have all the amounts converted to US measurements. Is there an easy way to do that?
Hi! I'm in the US too 🙂 There's not really sorry, google is probably your best bet but I test in grams so it does not make sense to then provide a less accurate version of the recipe. There's not really any other way to measure the quantity of brown butter or the amount of graham cracker crumbs though. I go into this a bit more on my 'faq' page if you are interested, and I am happy to recommend a scale if you are in the market for one! They are an absolute game changer for baking 🙂
Excellent recipe!
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Hi, this looks great! Where would one find vanilla bean paste? Would regular vanilla extract do in a pinch?
Hi Ani,
Thank you so much! I use heilala vanilla bean paste (you can use the code CLOUDY20 on their site for a discount if you wanted to get some, it's so, so good!), but vanilla extract will also work perfectly here too 🙂 sorry for not clarifying that!
I made this today and I think there might be an amount issue with the marshmallow. I had almost twice as much as I needed. My kids didn't mind though as I put it in another pan to make marshmallows.
Hi! Thank you so much for letting me know! It does make quite a lot and depending on your pan size it can get pretty thick. I'll update the post with notes for that, thank you thank you! x
I also find Heilala vanilla paste on Thrive Market.
My base was impossibly crumbly, and the marshmallow kept separating from the ganache layer during eating! Any advice?
The flavor of the crust was divine and I added a touch of unsweetened chocolate to the ganache to offset the sweet mallow. Thanks for this recipe!!
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Hiii! I am so sorry the base was crumbly! Sometimes if you're using a different brand of graham crackers then they can be a wee bit more / less absorbent and you will need to adjust the butter quantity just by a tiny bit to get that wet sand consistency. I've updated the recipe notes to mention that, I am so sorry for not putting it in before! The marshmallow does tend to do that a wee bit as there's not really any way to stick it down. If you wanted you could pick up each individual piece and blow torch the bottom too to make it sticky, otherwise they are just a bit messy to eat, a bit like a s'more!
In the conversion to a 9" pan, for the crust, you list 150g butter...Is that before browning so then it would be 115g browned butter added to the crust? I can't wait to make this! Thank you!
Hi! I think I list 170g, so it would be 130g browned that goes in 🙂 I hope this helps!
Hi! How do you store these and for how long?
Hi! In the fridge for a few days 🙂
Recipe worked perfectly- as always 🙂
Thanks so much!!!!
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Looks amazing and the smaller size is perfect!!!
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Thank you!
Can we use Agar Agar for the recipe Instead of gelatin?
I haven't tried it sorry! You'd have to look up the conversions etc 🙂
Hiya! The marshmallow in the recipe uses gelatine sheets-is there a way to make it using vege-gel or powdered gelatine?
Hi! The recipe doesn't use gelatine sheets - it uses powdered gelatine. I hope that helps! I haven't tried making it with vege gel so I don't know if that will work sorry!
Hi Erin, I’m in S Africa and we don’t have Graham crackers - could you elaborate on their flavour or suggest an alternative? Thanks x
Hi! I suggested it in the ingredients list - you can use digestives 🙂
Thanks Erin 👍
Such a good recipe. Random story, but a while ago (last year) I made these and brought them into work to share. My friend happened to come by with her brother (whom I didn't really know) so I gave them each a slice and they went on their way. I ran into my friend and her brother the other day and one of the first things he did was rave about the s'mores bar he had! It honestly made my night. Needless to say, I'll be making these over and over again.
★★★★★
Hahahha I love this so much!
Absolutely delicious! I ended up with a bit of extra marshmallow and followed the directions for what to do with marshmallow excess. This was my first time making marshmallows and it turned out so well! I like that this recipe required minimal baking and could be done in stages. Thanks for the recipe!
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Hi! Love you recipes!! I have so many of them saved for later! For this one you use corn syrup/glucose, but I've never seen it in a store where i live, do you perhaps have a suggestion for a replacement?
Hi! You can use honey 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, Erin! These babies are pretty when all together and it is nice to only have to bake briefly at the beginning of the process. It is a process by the way, so plan ahead if you want to make these. I incorporated the small bit of browned butter leftover from the crumb mixture into the ganache, but now I know it would have been best to throw it all in with the grahams to keep them a little less crumbly. Still yummy though. Once I cut a piece, all three layers eventually separated from each other in a very neat fashion. Any suggestions for helping the layers adhere to each other, Erin? I was thinking maybe adding the marshmallow while the ganache is still a little tacky might help?
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Happy you loved! It's marshmallow, so it's going to slide around unfortunately! There's not really much you can do about it, I tried a few things but it's just the nature of the beast! The ganache shouldn't have separated from the filling though, I haven't seen that happen before! I would make sure that it is fully mixed so that the fat doesn't separate out which could cause sliding? I think you also made it in a slightly thinner pan right, so it could have just been due to the thickness?
Hi,
I would love to make this recipe, however I won't be able to get my hands on corn syrup. I read you could use honey instead, however I would like to know what the quantity would be if I did use honey? Just not sure if it would be the same amount.
Thank you in advance.
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Hi! Honey will work - it is a 1:1 sub 🙂
Erin - I love how "clean cut" the slices look! Does the chocolate ganache need to stay cold to stay sliceable? Can this sit at room temp for a couple hours and still look clean cut or will they start slumping?
★★★★★
Hi! I havnet tested it a long time at room temperature sorry - it might hold but it might also get a little melty. The best chance for a clean cut is for it to be cold!
Got it! Keep it cold to slice! Thank you!
Why do you use unsalted butter, then go ahead and add salt again? Why don't you just use ordinary butter? Unsalted butter is hard to buy here and I don't want to get it for a recipe to then have to go ahead and add salt again, seems counter-intuitive.
Hi! I have no issue finding unsalted butter at the supermarket in nz. I use it in my recipes bc butter around the world has different salt contents, so by using unsalted, I can specify the amount of salt in a recipe - often the salt in salted butter is too salty for some things. You are welcome to use salted if you like and adjust the salt content in the recipe, both work, but I have readers from all around the world, so by doing it this way, they have the most accurate outcomes.
If the only “complaint” you have with a recipe is that the quantity was a lot more generous than expected, then it’s pretty good. I used a square cake tin. Next time I think I’ll do a half batch with the loaf tin instead. It’s very rich so a little goes a long way - especially when there is only two of you in the house! I used golden syrup instead of corn syrup for the marshmallow and it tasted and looked fine. To toast it I used the oven grill - but I took the precaution of sticking it in the freezer for 30 min before hand and watched it carefully and thankfully this worked fine. The toasted top definitely elevates the S’more flavours.
★★★★
Great dessert for chocolate lovers. I really like that I can make some of it ahead of time. All the components are super easy to do. I made these for an event at my husband's job and they all loved them. I doubled the recipe and used a rectangular dish. It worked great.
★★★★★
I made this for a gathering and it was an ABSOLUTE HIT! I had found the idea of homemade marshmallow intimidating but this came together so well. I owe it to the great recipe making, notes and the use of grams. Baking is chemistry, exact measurements equals success. Thank you, they were delicious!
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