You won’t believe how easy and delicious these Gluten Free S’mores Brownie Bites are. Who needs a campfire when you have a plate of these?!
ME BEFORE THE RECIPE…
Well, we just finished spring break and let me say, it was quite the doozie! Tell me, what do you imagine when you think of spring break??? I imagine something along the lines of white sand beaches, clear blue swimming pools, or heck, even snow covered ski slopes!
What if I told you my spring break consisted of 11 kids nine and under cooking in my kitchen for nearly three hours a day? Okay, not necessarily every day. But three out of the five days of “vacation”, I hosted a beginners kids cooking club out of my very own kitchen.
Crazy, I know. I’m still recovering nearly six days later. It literally took me about two hours of prep and two hours of cleaning for each class. For some reason I thought each group could easily prepare a simple appetizer, a full lunch spread, and a complete dessert in roughly two and a half hours.
Who am I kidding?!
As insanely crazy as the cooking classes were, I enjoyed nearly every minute of them…except maybe the two minutes that the kiddos started sword fighting with the knives. That was a little sketchy. Don’t worry, they were plastic kid knives. No harm done.
Within the three day span of cooking, the kids learned how to make fresh veggie and fruit dips, caprese skewers, seven layer bean dip, grilled chicken tacos, cheeseburger sliders, pasta with meatballs, strawberry cream puffs, banana bread sundaes, and some rock star gluten free s’mores brownie bites.
That’s quite the mouthful, right?! And stuff their mouths they did! I was so surprised at the variety of foods each kid tried…as well as the foods they wouldn’t touch. Seriously, what kid doesn’t want to eat meatballs??? Apparently half the kids in my class, that’s who. Oh well, more meatballs for me please!
My own kids were literally as excited to plan the cooking classes as they would have been to go to Disneyland. Every day Emry was asking me what was on the menu. They both wanted to participate in every single aspect of every single day. Although, if the menu was up to Emry, she would have included bacon in the ingredient list for every appetizer, lunch, and perhaps even dessert.
Braelyn, on the other hand, was miss socialite. That’s really all she cared about…a house full of kids that she could recruit to be part of her own personal posse. As far as food prep goes, I really think she expects meals to appear at the snap of a finger. I don’t know if that is a compliment to me as a home cook, or if I need to give her more responsibility in the kitchen. Either way, it was a real eye opener for her to experience how much “work” goes into meal planning and preparation.
As a whole, it was a wonderful experience for all the kids to participate in making and creating their own meals from start to finish. I truly believe that the more involved children are in the kitchen, the more willing they will be to try new and different foods. Here’s to encouraging our children to be healthy and adventurous eaters!
HERE COMES THE RECIPE…
Now I know there is nothing “healthy” about these Gluten Free S’more Brownie Bites. But here’s the thing; food is also meant to be enjoyed. Sweets, for children as well as adults, are A-okay in my book as long as they’re consumed in limited quantities. And the best way to portion control is to bake mini desserts! Hence these mini brownie bites.
These gluten free s’mores brownie bites are the perfect size to satisfy a sweet tooth without over indulging and feeling sick. One brownie bite is all you need for some marshmallow-y chocolaty bliss. Soon you’ll be making all your desserts mini.
So the essence of these gluten free brownie bites is basically cheesecake meets brownie meets s’mores; an obvious combo for dessert perfection, right? But really, I took some of my favorite elements of each of these desserts to compose these tasty little bite sized brownies.
To start, you cover the mini muffin wells with a gluten free graham cracker crumb mixture that tastes just like a cheesecake crust. Then you fill the muffin wells with a fudgy gooey brownie batter. Bake them up into mini cupcakes and then top them with toasted marshmallows, which is obviously the tastiest part of a s’more. And then just for kicks and giggles, drizzle those bad boys with some melted chocolate, caramel sauce (if you have some lurking in the fridge), and an extra sprinkle of crushed up gluten free graham crackers.
PERFECTION!!!
These gluten free s’mores brownie bites are served best slightly warm with a tall glass of ice cold milk. Actually, now that I think about it, this is the only way to serve these brownies. A quick nuke in the microwave is all you need to heat up leftovers…if you even have any leftovers. They disappear mysteriously fast for some reason. Hmmm…
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY…
- Gluten Free Better than Box Mix Brownies
- Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
- Gluten Free Triple Chocolate M&M Brownies
- Gluten Free Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
- Gluten Free S’mores Parfaits
Gluten Free S’mores Brownie Bites
Ingredients
For the graham cracker crust:
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs divided (gluten free if needed)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
For the brownies:
- 12 tablespoons butter 1 ½ sticks
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 2 eggs large
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup all-purpose gluten free flour with xanthan gum
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup mini marshmallows or 16 jumbo marshmallows cut in half
For the chocolate drizzle:
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini muffin tins with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Begin making graham cracker crust. Reserve ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs for topping. Mix remaining graham cracker crumbs with sugar and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Add melted butter and stir to combine.
- Add heaping teaspoon graham cracker mixture to muffin wells. Press down so that bottom of wells are covered.
- Begin making brownie batter. Melt butter and sugar together in saucepan until sugar is dissolved. You may also melt in microwave for 1 ½ minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from microwave and stir until sugar is dissolved. Heat for 30 seconds more. Pour mixture into medium sized mixing bowl.
- Stir in cocoa powder until smooth. Add vanilla and stir. Let cool for 5 minutes. Add eggs and whisk until combined.
- Add flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir until smooth. Gently fold in chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Do not over stir or all the chocolate will melt.
- Scoop heaping tablespoons of batter on top of graham cracker crust. Do not overflow muffin tins. Batter should be just shy of the top of muffin tin.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes until edges are set and tops are crackled.
- Remove from oven and let cool on cooling racks. Once completely cooled, turn brownies out of oven tin. Transfer to baking sheet.
- Set oven to broil. Place 5-6 mini marshmallows on top of brownies. Broil brownie bites for 1-2 minutes until marshmallows are golden brown. Watch closely to avoid burning. Remove from oven and set aside.
- In a microwave safe dish, heat chocolate chips for 45 seconds. Stir for at least 1 minute until smooth. Return to microwave for 15 second intervals if needed, stirring for 1 minute in between. Transfer to a Ziploc bag. Snip the very end of the bag and drizzle chocolate over brownie bites.
- Sprinkle brownie bites with reserved graham cracker crumbs. Serve while marshmallows and chocolate are still warm.
Notes
Wowza, even though I’m not strictly GF – I definitely want to try this. Also – this is so helpful for my husband to have on hand over the summer months at the cabin!
Thank you so much! These were a real hit with my hubby and kids. They love anything chocolate!