All the flavors of s’mores, paired with a classic brown butter chocolate chip cookie, for an incredibly moreish soft and chewy cookie!
I can’t tell you how much I love chocolate chip cookies! Well I can, but words won’t do justice. A go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe is one of the small pleasures in life in my opinion, and I’m sure everyone has their favorite recipe. For me, that would be my double chocolate chip cookie recipe. A cookie packed with cocoa and dark chocolate chips. It gets rave reviews every single time I make it. But my classic brown butter chocolate chip cookie is also a very close second. Without the cocoa powder, this cookie enhances the flavor of brown butter, which makes for a rich and flavorful chocolate chip cookie. For a few months now, I’ve been trying to adapt my classic chocolate chip cookie into a classic S’mores cookie. S’mores are a classic summer favorite that I personally love to eat all year round! I used my own homemade marshmallows for this initially, but after a few tries, I realized that store-bought mini marshmallows were a better option for this particular cookie. I’ll explain why below. Once I figured out the right type of marshmallow to use, I wanted to add graham crackers to the dough as well. This cookie not only has graham crackers embedded in the cookie, it also has graham cracker crumbs IN the cookie dough!
Ingredients to make S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies
Do not skip the brown butter! It’s not that hard to do, and it makes ALL the difference in the final flavor profile of these chocolate chip cookies. Brown butter is simply melted butter that is cooked even further, until the result is caramelized milk solids. These caramelized milk solids are suuuuper flavorful! I always use a combination of brown sugar and white sugar for all my chocolate chip cookies. You can use an equal amount of each, but I use slightly more brown sugar. This is because I prefer a softer, fudgier, chewier cookie. More white sugar, on the other hand, results in more crisp cookie edges. Since I add marshmallows to the s’mores cookie dough as well, the melted marshmallows add another crunch element to the edges of the cookies. Seriously, these cookies really are a riot of flavor! I add a combination of vanilla, bourbon, and salt to the cookie dough for flavor. Vanilla and salt balance the sweetness of the cookie, while vanilla also adds a lovely sweet flavor. Bourbon is used to replace the water that evaporates during the making of brown butter. You can use water or milk instead of bourbon, but I do love the subtle flavor of bourbon. I use 2 large eggs for this recipe. I haven’t tried using egg replacements in this recipe, but you could try flax seeds or chia seeds. This is because eggs act as a binder in these cookies, and flax and chia seed eggs also help with binding the dough. I use all purpose flour. You can use bread flour or whole wheat flour as well, but these options may dry out the cookie a little, so use less of them. Graham crackers are used in multiple ways in this recipe. I use graham cracker crumbs to replace some of the flour, so that the cookie dough has a subtle nutty flavor from the graham crackers. I also add pieces of graham crackers to the dough and place them on top of the cookie as well. This greatly elevates the s’mores flavor of the chocolate chip cookies! For leavening, I use baking soda. If you want a thicker, cake-like cookie, then you can substitute the baking soda with baking powder. But I prefer a cookie that spreads a little, and is chewier, so baking soda is the right chemical leavening agent for that. Use your favorite chocolate for these chocolate chip cookies. I don’t like Hershey’s chocolate, not even when making s’mores. So I use my favorite combination of semisweet chocolate and bittersweet chocolate in these s’mores cookies instead. The semisweet chocolate bars are the same ones that I use to make s’mores. And the bittersweet chocolate wafers are my favorite chocolates that I always use for my chocolate chip cookies. I saved some of the semisweet chocolate bar to add on top of the cookies, so that they create pools of chocolate as the cookies bake. Mini marshmallows are the perfect way to add marshmallows to these cookies. They don’t have as much moisture, and are smaller. They mix into the dough better, and distribute more evenly as well. However, because marshmallows are mostly sugar, they do impact the dough when they melt. The melted marshmallows make it hard for the baked cookie to hold a neat, round shape. But there’s a fix for that. I also add some marshmallows halfway through the baking process. These marshmallows that are added later toast beautifully on the surface of the cookie. A s’mores chocolate chip cookie just isn’t a genuine s’mores cookie without a toasted marshmallow!
How to make S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown the butter
The first step is to brown the butter. Allow the brown butter to cool down, and use it while it’s still liquid and warm, but not too hot. You can also make the brown butter the day before, and re-heat it a little before using.
Make the cookie dough
Prep and measure all the ingredients. Have them ready to go, so that there is no confusion during the recipe. Mix the butter, bourbon (or alternative), salt, and sugars in a mixing bowl. The mixture may not look emulsified, but that’s OK. You don’t want to incorporate air and make the butter-sugar mixture fluffy. Add the eggs. The eggs will emulsify the mixture and create a smooth, runny base. You can also add the vanilla to this mixture. Mix all the dry ingredients together and add it into the butter-egg mix. Mix on the lowest speed. When the dry ingredients are halfway mixed, add the chocolate and mini marshmallows. Make sure you have extra chocolate and marshmallows to top the cookies later. Only mix the s’mores cookie dough until the flour is just mixed through, to prevent gluten formation (otherwise you’ll end up with rubbery or tough cookies). Use a spatula to fold the dough, and make sure the cookie dough is uniformly mixed. Cover and let the dough rest for at least 15 minutes.
Portioning and resting the dough
Using a 3 tbsp cookie scoop, scoop portions of the dough and place them on a parchment paper-lined baking tray, OR a different container. After they’ve been portioned/scooped, place extra chocolate pieces, graham cookies, and mini marshmallows on top of each dough portion. Here’s the hard part – I leave the cookie dough in the fridge (at least) overnight, or up to 24 hours. This resting time greatly helps with the texture of the final baked s’mores cookies. It prevents the cookies from spreading too much, and makes the flavors smooth and more blended. If you want to store the cookies for longer, place the chilled cookie portions in a freezer bag (or ziploc bag), and freeze for later.
Baking the cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C, and bake 6 cookies at a time on a parchment paper-lined half sheet tray. The cookies spread as they bake, so you don’t want to overcrowd the tray. Halfway through baking, place a couple more pieces of mini marshmallows on top of each cookie. Once baked, you may find that the cookies are shaped a little weirdly. This is because the marshmallows tend to distort the cookie shape. Some might still be OK, but others may have weird shapes. But not to worry, this can easily be fixed (see below)! Once you’ve fixed the cookie shapes, let the cookies cool down for a few minutes on the tray. After they have cooled down slightly, transfer them onto a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will still be very soft when they come out of the oven. So you can fix the shape of the cookies right away, at this point. You’ll need to hold the baking tray with one hand, so make sure to use an oven mitt. You will either need a large cookie cutter (bigger than the diameter of the cookie shape you want), or a small bowl. The small bowl should be easy to hold on to when upside down, and the diameter of the bowl on top should be bigger than the diameter of the cookie shape you want. Place the cookie cutter on the baking tray, over the warm cookie, with the cookie in the middle (or place the bowl upside down over the cookie). Remember, you’re not trying to trim the edges of the cookie with the cookie cutter or bowl. Instead, you simply move the bowl/cookie cutter over the warm cookie in a circle. So that the friction of the cookie edges against the inside of the bowl or cookie cutter will shape the cookies into nice round shapes, with smooth edges. Repeat with all the other cookies while they are still very warm. You can push all the marshmallow run off and misshapen cookies back towards the center to make nice, smooth, round s’mores chocolate chip cookies. Once the cookies have cooled, they are ready to be eaten/served. They are fantastic while warm, or room temperature, or even chilled!
How to store s’mores cookies for later
Baked cookies can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 4 days. But remember that the longer they are stored at room temperature, the more stale they will become. You can also store them in the fridge for about 1 week. If you want to store the cookies long term, wrap them well and store in the freezer for up to 1 – 2 months. I personally prefer to store unbaked dough portions of s’mores cookies in the freezer, so that I can bake them fresh whenever I want! Frozen cookies should be baked for about 1 minute longer for similar results.
Why I love this recipe!
I mean, what’s not to love? These are s’mores chocolate chip cookies! The love child of a delicious chocolate chip cookie and s’mores.
I love keeping a batch of unbaked chocolate chip cookies in the freezer. Ya know, for those cookie emergencies. And these cookies are LOADED with marshmallows and graham crackers. I experimented with this recipe many times to ensure that these are genuine s’mores cookies with everything you love about s’mores and classic chocolate chip cookies in one delightful treat!
The crunchy edges that result from the melted marshmallows, and the chewy edges that you get from the cookie dough are an absolutely irresistible pairing of textures! The big pools of melted chocolate are all types of yum. And then the toasty and nutty brown butter, combined with the bourbon flavor and graham crackers…. ooh la la la! These s’mores chocolate chip cookies are the ultimate summer cookie, and kids’ cookie dreams come true!
