No Bake S'Mores Bars

A month or so ago, I had a great idea - S'Mores Trail Mix. As I saw it, it would take all the flavours of classic s’mores, and assemble them in a handy, roadtrip friendly snack.

After all, my S'Mores Board is great, but that campfire treat is not really a grab-and-go snack for drive days!

Anyway, as I was designing this recipe, I had a related idea- taking the same kind of ingredients and putting them together into gooey s’mores bars!

So, I designed these easy s’mores bars at the same time. Basically a variation of Rice Krispie Treats, but instead of Rice Krispies, it was graham cracker cereal that was being held together by gooey marshmallows.

I thought these were both genius ideas... and then a quick google told me that BOTH ideas already existed, albeit a bit different than I was picturing. Boo!

I was surprised to see that Starbuck’s has their own version of s mores bars - more like s’mores cookie bars, with a graham crumb crust, layer of rich chocolate, then toasted marshmallow on top.

Not being a Starbuck’s person (Second Cup, all the way!), I had no idea.

Anyway, I went a bit of a different direction with this delicious dessert. Beyond the basic combination of marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, I went an extra step further - they’re based on my brown butter rice krispies.

Browning the butter before adding the marshmallows brings a bit of a nutty, almost toasty flavour to those favorite summer treats - and it’s my way of emulating a bit of the toasty flavour you’d usually get from the camp fire.

It’s a delicious recipe, and the perfect sweet treat to make ahead of camping trips, to sell at bake sales, or just as a quick afternoon treat.

All the traditional s’mores, in a more portable format!

Anyway, let’s take a look at what you’ll need for this recipe...

Ingredients

This is a really simple recipe - you shouldn’t have any trouble finding everything you need in pretty much any larger grocery store.

Some ingredient notes for you:

Golden Grahams Cereal

Two things:

1. 7 cups is almost exactly a 331 gram / 11.7 oz box of cereal. I don’t bother measuring at this point, I just use the full box.

2. If you need your bars to be gluten-free, Cascadian Farm Honey Vanilla Crunch cereal is a wildly popular subsitution in the gluten-free community.

Milk Chocolate Chips

Obviously a S’Mores Bar recipe is going to need some type of chocolate. I call for milk chocolate chips, but there’s a lot of room to play, here.

If you want bigger chunks of chocolate, Milk Chocolate Chunks is an easy option.

If you’re a s’mores purist, you can break up Hershey Bars into small pieces. Well, any milk chocolate candy bars would work (I’m not a fan of Hershey chocolate bars in general!).

Mini Marshmallows

You can use the same weight of regular size marshmallows if need be, just be extra careful to keep stirring, so they don’t burn as they melt all the way.

As for the reserved set of marshmallows, just cut large marshmallows into quarters, if that’s what you have to use.

Salted Butter

If you’re using unsalted butter, add ¼ teaspoon salt just before you add the mini marshmallows.

How to Make No Bake S’Mores Bars

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walk through:

Set aside 1 cup of Mini Marshmallows. Spray a 9x13" pan with nonstick cooking spray, and/or line it with parchment paper, set aside.

Melt butter in a large pot over medium-low heat. Continue cooking - stirring constantly - until the butter starts to brown and becomes aromatic.

Once the melted butter is browned, remove the pot from the heat, stir in the 7 cups of mini marshmallows. Continue stirring until the marshmallows are completely melted.

If the pot and butter aren’t hot enough to do this with remaining heat, you can return the pot to the element and continue heating over medium low heat until the marshmallows are melted.

Gently stir in the Golden Grahams cereal, until well coated with mini marshmallows.

Quickly fold in the remaining marshmallows and the chocolate pieces, stirring just enough to disperse them.

Spread the mixture into the prepared baking pan, lightly pressing to slightly compact the mixture into an even layer. If desired, top with extra marshmallows, and/or chocolate chips.

If you’d like, broil the pan for a minute or two, or use a kitchen torch to toast the marshmallows on top, for even more of a “S’mores” vibe!

Allow s’mores bars to fully cool to room temperature before cutting into squares with a sharp knife.

Store in an airtight container for about a week.

More Camping Snack Recipes

Looking for great ideas to cook on a campfire, bring on a road trip, enjoy while RVing? Here's a few simple recipes to start with!

Apple Fritter Bread Pudding
Basic Ground Beef Jerky
Campfire Walking Tacos
Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread
Fire Roasted Spiced Nuts
Homemade Mushroom Jerky
Hot Chocolate Mix [Protein Powder Mix]
Jalapeno Cheddar Bannock
Jalapeno Chicken Jerky
Maple Cinnamon Apple Chips
Maple Snow Taffy
Pepperoni Jerky
Roast Chestnuts on an Open Fire
Rosemary & Blueberry Beef Jerky
S'Mores Board
S'Mores Trail Mix
Tofu Jerky, 2 Ways
Traditional Bannock

... But wait, there's more! We've been having so much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!