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bake sale week: magic s’mores bars
These are the classic magic bars my mom used to make with a recipe she got from a can of condensed milk (I think it was Borden’s brand). With the graham crackers and chocolate, it always seemed obvious to vary the recipe to be like s’mores by replacing the coconut with mini marshmallows. But I’ll warn you — they’re very sweet. I usually make half the pan with 1 cup of marshmallows (which the kids prefer), and the other half of the pan with 1 cup of coconut (for the grown-ups).
magic s’mores bars
10 ounces (300g) graham crackers (18 whole crackers, or two cellophane wrapped stacks)
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1 pinch of kosher salt
1 14 ounce can (400g) sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups (250g) semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups (I have no idea how much they weigh—just throw a couple of handfuls on!) mini marshmallows
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (180 degrees Celsius). In a large resealable bag (or in a food processor), smash graham crackers until finely ground. Stir in melted butter and salt. Press into a 13×9″ pan. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven.
2. Sprinkle on chocolate chips. Drizzle can of condensed milk over graham crackers; follow with marshmallows.
3. Bake for 20 minutes more, until marshmallows are lightly browned. Let cool completely. I usually put mine in the freezer to make it go faster.
54 Responses to “bake sale week: magic s’mores bars”
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Kim: just select and copy the text of the recipe then paste it into Word and then print. Alternately, when you select “Print…” you can indicate that you want to print only Page 1, and hopefully that page will capture the recipe (if not, then try again and tell it to print only page 2).
I’m baking these as we speak, but with 300 ml (~10.5 oz) of sweetened condensed milk. That’s the standard size can of SCM up here in Canada. I hope they turn out okay as I’m baking them for a friend. They certainly smell nice.
Okay, so the bars are cooled now and I’ve put them in the freezer to firm up a bit so that I can cut them. They are VERY soft and sticky. One concern is the undercooked (and hence un-caramelized) sweetened condensed milk underneath the marshmallows. The marshmallows themselves got lovely golden-brown and toasted. I’ve checked the magic cookie bar recipe I have used in the past and the cooking time is listed at 30 minutes. If I were to make these again (and I just might as the flavour is delish and graham cracker crusts are my fave) I would bake the crust+chocolate chips+sweetened condensed milk for about 10 minutes before adding the marshmallows, and then return it to the oven for 20 minutes. I suspect that this extra baking time would improve the gooey-mushy results that some of us have experienced.
@Judy You could definitely try putting them in longer, though I don’t know if the condensed milk is ever going to get much more done without scorching the marshmallows. They are supposed to be gooey though. And since there are no eggs, you are free to make them as cooked/uncooked as you want them!
Hi Jaime,
You’re right – I actually froze the bars and then put them back in the oven for almost 20 more minutes but the sweetened condensed milk didn’t caramelize a whole lot more – it remained mostly white, but set. The marshmallows didn’t burn (my oven rack is set fairly low). After freezing again in order to cut them (boy are they sticky!) I ended up with nice, chewy bars. I think these are actually better eaten frozen, as the cold takes some of the edge off the sweetness.
Although most raw eggs used in desserts undergo a kind of chemical cooking when they’re mixed with sugar (it’s kind of like curing) and pretty much all commercial eggs are pasteurized so there’s very little risk, this egg-less recipe would be an ideal sweet treat for someone with an egg allergy.