Over the holidays, my boyfriend and I were invited to his sister’s for a turkey dinner – so naturally I offered to bring a dessert. Because I can’t really make anything else, but at least I do dessert well. I wanted something that was chocolate, gluten-free, and kid friendly.
And I mean – what kid doesn’t love chocolate brownies and marshmallows?
I’m not even going to try and pretend that these aren’t a calorie laden, ooey, gooey, sinful, delicious mess.
Because they are – but you know what?
They’re totally worth it.
They’re also a huge hit with kids: as it turns out, his nieces really loved them – the eldest, who is 5, requested that we “please leave some” so she could have more the next day, and the youngest (who is almost two) apparently has an (adorable) affinity for marshmallows. In fact, her dad told us “We don’t use that word” (in reference to the word “marshmallow”) – we thought he was joking, until we noticed the two-year-old tottering over to the cupboard, which she opened, pulled out a bag of marshmallows, then promptly walked around the room to mom, dad, and her big sister going “Marshmallow?” and trying to get them to open the bag. When that failed, she just put them back.
I died laughing.
Anyway, needless to say – both nieces loved these brownies (insert the kid-stamp-of-approval here). I totally cheated and used my favorite GF Brownie Box Mix (Bob’s Red Mill) when making these – but, since these s’more concoctions are soooo rich, you only need to use half the recipe for a pan. You can really use any recipe or mix you want – just remember to half it.
Caramel S’more Brownies
Makes 9 large brownies (one 9 x 9 pan)
- 1/2 a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Fudge Brownie Mix (+ 6 tbsp water, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 egg, and 6 tbsp margarine)
- 1 bag of mini marshmallows
- Kraft caramel squares
- chocolate chips
Grease a 9 x 9 brownie pan, and preheat your oven according to the directions on your brownie mix (for me, that meant 350°). Prepare 1/2 the mix according to directions (be sure to half the other ingredients, like oil, water, and eggs as well… or make the full mix and make two pans of brownies ;).
Take your Kraft caramels, and slice them up into tiny little pieces – scissors work great for this. I got 4-8 bits from each individual caramel, depending on how lazy I was. Set those bits aside for now.
Bake the brownies until you only have about 5 minutes left, then remove them from the oven and cover the top of your brownies with the marshmallows, and sprinkle the caramels around as well. Pop them back in for the remaining 5 minutes, or until the marshmallows are golden brown on top (be sure to keep an eye on the oven – they burn fast!).
Once done, remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips around. They cut the best once they’re cooled, but not cold – otherwise the marshmallows are either a) too gooey and hot or b) too stiff to cut. I recommend cutting them all and storing them in an airtight container. I also recommend using a REALLY sharp knife to cut them with.
