Indoor S'mores - Hold the Fire...

A few weeks ago, while grocery shopping, I totally caved to an impulse buy and bought all the fixin's to make s'mores.  I came out with marshmallows (NOT the jumbo s'more ones since we have found those to be WAY too big), graham crackers, chocolate bars, and even sticks to roast the marshmallows and Reese's Cups to make peanutbutter s'mores. 

I had visions of rockin' the fire pit in the back yard and enjoying a cool summer evening with friends and s'mores.  And the weather that week was PERFECT for a fire!  Each night was in the 60s, but we kept putting off the s'more making thinking the weather would stay about the same...

...BOY WERE WE WRONG!  This week we have been enduring the WORST HEAT WAVE EVER!  I had absolutely know intention of having a bonfire on an 80 degree, muggy, humid night.  But still the desire for s'mores remained in my mind... in fact, since I'm pregnant, we could probably call it a "craving."  We tried doing a microwave s'more, but it just doesn't have the same smokey, roasted flavor. 

And then I happened upon a recipe for indoor s'mores.  Now before I share it, I must give a few disclaimers.  First, the recipe I made is based upon this Food Network recipe.  I simply tweaked it to be more what I wanted.  Second, my version is totally a "semi-homemade" version.  So for any traditional foodies out their, you may not like it... but I find that in the real world, it's significantly easier to use boxed mixes for some things.

So here you go... try it out... and ENJOY!  They are seriously delicious!

Indoor S'more Brownies

Crust:
1 sleeve of graham crackers, very finely crushed
7 TBS salted butter (it was all I had)
2 TBS sugar

Brownie Layer:
1 boxed mix (I used a Betty Crocker Supreme Fudge)

Top Layer:
15 large marshmallows, cut in half long ways

Preheat the oven to 325.  Mix the butter, sugar, and graham crackers.  Press into a greased 9x13 baking pan (I lined mine with tin foil and sprayed with baking spray).  Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven's power.

Mix the brownie mix as directed on the box.  Once crust has baked, pour the prepared mix over it and bake for the time alotted on the box. 

When the brownies are done baking, press the marshmallows into them side by side making 5 rows of 3.  Leave space in between each pair of marshmallows so that you can cut between them. 

Set the oven to broil (I used low broil).  Place the pan back in the oven for approximately 1-2 minutes.  The marshmallows will start to puff and brown.  WATCH THEM CAREFULLY so they don't burn (mine only took a little over a minute to brown). 

Allow the brownies to cool IN THE PAN because I found the crust to be too crumbly when they were hot.  They fell apart on me!  I cut them before they were fully cooled, but if you're marhsmallows don't run into each other, you should have no problem cutting them. 

...Now, in the future I may not cut my marshmallows, and just place one uncut marshmallow in for each square, but I thought they might puff too much so that is why I cut them in half.  What I loved about these was that you really got a true s'more taste, and the crust had a really good salty/sweet thing going on.  Todd absolutely LOVED THEM.  I ended up giving some to our neighbors, so I had to promise to make him another batch.  His words were, "Mmmm...these are good.  I mean, really good."  And I couldn't agree more...

Have a SUPER SWEET SUNDAY and stay cool! :)