Marshmallows and caramel are two of my favorite ingredients. And Oreos aren’t too shabby either.
Plus, I have a thing for s’mores and five ingredient recipes.
I was having a craving for something with an Oreo crust, and although I could have made a pie, these bars seemed more fun. They’re what I envision S’mores Bars that took a bath in caramel and that are made with an Oreo-crust rather then a graham cracker crust would taste like. Only five ingredients are used and they’re ready in thirty minutes. My kind of recipe.
I combined 32 ground chocolate sandwich cookies with melted butter. I used 32 because that’s what remained in the package after certain family members discovered my baking stash in the cupboard. I’m sure using 28 or 37 cookies would be just fine if that’s what you have.
I used generic storebrand chocolate sandwich cookies rather than real Oreos because Oreos are ten dollars per package here in Aruba, and the storebrand was two bucks. I’ll roll over in my grave before I pay ten bucks for Oreos that I’m going to pulverize anyway.
Line a baking pan with aluminum foil, and it’s an absolute must to line the pan unless you have lots of elbow grease to spare. Then press the buttery crumbs down firmly with the back of a spatula. A little trick is to use the bottom of a flat-bottomed drinking glass for packing them, facilitating a tight pack-job that’s utterly smooth.
It’s a pet peeve of mine when cookie-crumb-crust desserts don’t hold together, disintegrating and leaving a black crumbly mess all over the floor. This crust holds together very well, thanks to a generous butter-to-crumbs ratio, and some tight packing.
Bake the crust for about ten minutes, or just until set. It’s hard to determine if it’s set or not because the black buttery cookie crumbs look like wet tar, and it’s hard to tell set from not. But ten to twelve minutes should do the trick. Plus, the pan is going back into the oven anyway.
Sprinkle marshmallows over the crust, and then sprinkle quartered caramels over the marshmallows. Make sure to do it in that order; marshmallows first, then caramels because the marshmallows will catch the melting caramels in the crevices and valleys that form as they puff while baking.
The biggest PITA of this recipe is unwrapping fifteen caramels and quartering them. You could likely use Kraft Caramel Bits instead of caramels, but they don’t sell those here. I would hesitate to use caramel sauce, as it may just turn into semi-scorched caramel soup.
Return the pan to the oven for about five to eight minutes, rotating it midway through if your oven bakes unevenly like mine does. Remove the pan from the oven when the caramels have melted and marshmallows are just barely starting to brown.
Immediately upon removing the pan from the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top, lightly pressing them down. The carryover heat from the pan will melt the chocolate chips, ever-so-slightly. White chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips would also be great options.
Allow the bars to cool for at least two hours before slicing through the white and black layers. This can be expedited by placing the pan in the refrigerator. I placed mine in the refrigerator overnight because things melt in Aruba at room temperature and there would have been no chance of these gooey squares setting up otherwise.
I really enjoy contrasting flavors and textures and these bars are full of both. The chocolaty, buttery, crisp, cookie-crumb-crust contrasted with soft, fluffy, airy, white marshmallows made each bite a dichotomy. The sprinkled chocolate chips add a pop of texture, and of boost the chocolate intensity.
The puddles of sweet, melted caramel that pool in between the puffed marshmallows reminded me that I need to bake with my favorite ingredients more often.
Sticky, sweet, chewy, and gooey. Just the way I like it.
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Marshmallow Caramel Oreo Cookie S'Mores Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (3/4 of one stick)
- 32 Oreo Cookies or chocolate sandwich cookies, ground
- For the Topping
- 2 cups mini marshmallows
- 15 caramels, unwrapped and quartered (total of 60 small pieces)
- 3 to 4 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil leaving overhang (you must line your pan), spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- For the Crust - In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter on high power, about 1 minute; set aside. Add the ground cookies and stir to combine (grind cookies with a food processor or place them in a sealed plastic ziplock bag and gently mash the outside of the bag with a drinking glass or roll over the bag with a rolling pin). Transfer crumb mixture to prepared pan and pack it down firmly with a spatula or the bottom of a flat-bottomed drinking glass. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or just until set; don't worry if it's a bit under-baked as pan will be going back into the oven in the next step.
- For the Topping - Evenly sprinkle the marshmallows over the crust. Evenly sprinkle the caramels, making sure to do it in that order. Bake for about 5 to 8 minutes or until marshmallows and caramel have begun to melt and remove pan before marshmallows start browning or developing color. Immediately upon removing pan from oven, evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips, pressing them down very lightly with a spatula if desired. The carryover heat will melt the chocolate just slightly and embed them into the melted marshmallows and caramel. Allow bars to set up for at least 2 hours before slicing; pan can be placed in the refrigerator to expedite.
- Slice bars by lifting them out using the foil overhang and transfer to a cutting board. Bars will keep in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to one week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Recipe may be kept vegan by replacing the butter with margarine or Earth Balance and by using vegan marshmallows and caramels. Oreos are Accidentally Vegan. Recipe may be kept gluten-free by using a gluten-free chocolate sandwich cookie. Take care all ingredients used are suitable for your dietary needs.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Do you have a favorite marshmallow, caramel, s’mores or Oreo recipe?
great
how many does it make?
The recipe indicates 9, or how many ever pieces you want to cut out of an 8×8 pan.
okay thank you.
Made these, and they tasted awesome. I thought the crust was too thick and not thin like in the picture though, and I let the marshmallows brown in the oven because I thought why not. Next time I would probably halve or quarter the crust, but everything else was great!
Glad they tasted awesome for you and glad that you will try them again with a different crust ratio that you may prefer more. I love a thick Oreo crust but of course alter to your tastes!
It look amazing! forgive me for my newbie question but what exactly did you mean by quartered caramel? how do you quarter them?
Cut 1 caramel into 4 pieces; i.e. quartered.
Do you discard the Oreo creme stuffing or grind that as well?
Going to give this a go.
Thanks for sharing. Love that you added pictures for most of the steps!
Don’t discard it! USE EVERYTHING otherwise there’s not enough ‘glue’ courtesy of the frosting to hold the crust together!
The first time I made this, I had some trouble with the quartered caramels melting evenly. The second time, I bought the liquid caramel from the ice cream topping aisle and drizzled it on with a spoon. This worked out much better for me and saved a bit of time since I didn’t have to quarter the caramels. In this case, I found it best to melt the chocolate chips with the marshmallows and drizzle the caramel on after.
Glad you found a way to make things easier on yourself! I made these when I was on vacation and didn’t have access to caramel sauce and only had access to caramels, so that’s what I used, but caramel sauce I can for sure see would be easier!