Sourdough S’mores Brownies
We have a good friend who is currently in vet school, and we just traveled to Cumberland Gap National Park to camp near her school and visit her. My favorite part of the entire trip was our nightly campfires with s’mores, sitting around the fire and playing our ukuleles and banjos. When we came home with tons of leftover s’mores supplies, I just had to do something with them. Lately, I haven’t felt like baking from scratch this season. So I decided to come up with a packaged mix with sourdough starter and fun toppings. The result: delicious sourdough s’mores brownies.
Using brown butter in brownies
I’m a big fan of using brown butter in any chocolatey baking product. Brown butter adds a beautiful, complex, nutty flavor that pairs exceptionally well with sourdough starter and chocolate. The thing to note is that brownies usually require oil that is liquid at room temperature (avocado, olive oil, etc.). So when we bake with a boxed mix, we cannot evenly replace the oil with butter, otherwise the brownies will be too dry. For this recipe we use a combination of brown butter and some oil. This combination allows for the butter replacement and the addition of sourdough starter.
Toasting the S’mores Brownies Topping
Once the sourdough brownies are fully baked, remove the brownies from the oven and set the oven to broil. I recommend adjusting your oven rack if necessary. You don’t want the brownies too close to the top heating element; middle of the oven is best.
Sprinkle your s’mores topping over the brownies and toast them only about two minutes maximum! You need to pay close attention to the brownies while toasting so that you don’t burn the marshmallows or chocolate.
Tips to ensure your s’mores brownies are moist
Here are three important tips to keep your brownies moist. Because we add sourdough to them, they are slightly more cake-like. However, if you follow these tips you can keep the brownies from drying out (I would know because my first recipe test for this was super dry and lessons learned!)
- Use enough fat: Usually boxed brownies call for liquid oil. But I love butter, especially brown butter, with chocolate baked goods. However, you cannot uniformly replace brown butter with oil! So make sure you use the necessary butter And the oil in my recipe card below.
- Don’t use super thick sourdough starter: Your starter should be hydrated and slightly runny. Some people like very thick starters, with a higher flour content. Thicker starters can dry out the brownies.
- Do not overmix the brownie batter: mix only until just evenly combined. Sourdough starter contains some gluten, and over-mixing the batter can promote the further development of gluten, which can dry out the brownies.
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Preparation:
20 minutes -
Cook:
35 minutes -
Total time:
55 minutes
- Brown the butter in a small pan until it is bubbly and dark golden to light brown. Stir it constantly and make sure it doesn’t burn. Remove from heat and let the butter cool to room temperature, but still liquid.
- Gather the other ingredients and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease a 20 x 20 cm baking dish with a little cold butter, or line it with baking paper.
- Crumble enough graham crackers to coat the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Leave the rest for the topping.
- Stir the brown butter, oil, egg, water and sourdough starter in a medium bowl until well combined.
- Add the brownie mixture and stir until combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes.
- While the brownies are baking, make the topping. Break the graham crackers into small pieces and place them in a bowl. Add marshmallows and chopped chocolate and mix to combine.
- Once they are fully baked, remove the brownies from the oven and set the oven to broil. (adjust your oven rack if necessary; you don’t want the brownies too close to the top heating element; the center of the oven is best.)
- Sprinkle the topping ingredients over the brownies.
- Place the brownies with the toppings back in the oven and toast for 2 minutes until the marshmallows are just toasted. Do not roast for too long, otherwise the chocolate will burn!
- Let cool for about 5 minutes, then cut into 12 squares and enjoy.
Comments
- This recipe should work with most packaged brownie mixes, but tThe package should be approximately 14 ounces. The packet I used was Birch Benders Organic Ultimate Fudge Brownie Mix (13.4 ounces).
- Vegan marshmallows are really great for baking (I use the Dandies brand). Because they do not contain gelatin, they stay in place well. However, any marshmallow should work here as they are quickly toasted via roasting.
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