Vegan Smores Cookie Bake

Rich, chocolaty, and delicious, this easy Vegan Smores Cookie Bake is a fantastic twist on a classic dessert. We stuffed vegan smores inside this delicious cookie vessel and topped it with MORE chocolate--or is that s’more chocolate?

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Hey Internet, sorry for that pun (no I’m not) but I had to. It’s chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker all stuffed inside a giant soft chocolate chip cookie shell! Does it get any better than that?

This vegan cookie cake is the most impressive and delicious but it’s secretly super simple! All you have to do is make one batch of cookie dough and layer it with smores elements to create almost like a smores lasagna, but better.

Sorry, sugar high. 

Anyway, this probably seems a little weird, coming from a vegan and plant based blog. I’m supposed to be all about healthy food, right?

Well, sure, but we all need to have some sweets sometimes, and I’m a firm believer in not feeling guilty about food and eating what my body is asking for.

And today, it was asking for chocolate.

Sidebar: I’ve actually had the best results with weight loss on a vegan diet when NOT denying myself the foods I crave. I eat a sensible portion, and don’t let it ruin my day or week of healthy eating. This is a lifelong change, so I try to think about it as making positive decisions, and sometimes those include chocolate.

I digress.

My recipe actually features these crazy awesome homemade vegan graham crackers I made so they’re kind of ridiculously good. 

You can just use store bought vegan graham crackers to make this super fast and easy.

This easy dessert *almost* as fast as my regular vegan smores recipe, but it’s even better (debatable), so I highly recommend you try it.

Let’s dive into this gooey deliciousness.

What You’ll Need

Remember to check out the substitutions section below if you need to sub out any ingredients.

Starting with the cookie shell, because, wow, this is the most complex part of the recipe and it’s honestly not bad at all.

For the dry ingredients, you’ll need flour, baking soda, and salt.

For the wet ingredients, you’ll need canned coconut cream (it’s the thick part of canned coconut milk, and canned coconut cream generally has more of it than canned coconut milk) OR vegan butter.

You’ll also need organic brown sugar and organic cane sugar for the ultimate crisp on the outside, soft on the inside cookie.

Oh, and chocolate, of course. The cookie dough is even better with vegan chocolate chips mixed in. Some of my favorite chocolate chips brands are Hu Kitchen, Enjoy Life, and Lily's.

Now for the smores-y parts.

Like I mentioned above, I used homemade vegan graham crackers, but you don’t have to. I definitely think they taste way better, and they’re super crunchy and awesome, but you don’t need to.

Several brands make graham crackers that happened to be vegan. I actually first made this recipe using Annie’s Snickerdoodle Bunnies crackers and it turned out pretty darn amazing.

I only made the graham crackers from scratch because I love challenging myself, and I’d never made crackers before. Actually they turned out totally delicious and easy!

ANYWAY.

Moving onto… um… more chocolate…

Any vegan dark or milk chocolate bars will work. Again, I like Hu Kitchen, but there are several brands out there that make vegan dark chocolate, and even a few that make vegan milk chocolate, such as Enjoy Life!

Finally, marshmallows! I LOVE the Dandies vegan marshmallows. They melt awesome, they brown, and they honestly just taste like the marshmallows I grew up eating on special occasions. I used their full size marshmallows inside the vegan cookie cake and the mini ones on top.

What Substitutions Can I Make?

Flour

This Vegan Smores Cookie Bake should work great with other flours including whole wheat or spelt (add a little more coconut cream or vegan butter).

If you cannot have gluten, try a cup for cup flour. I love King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluten-Free Flour and Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour. Oat flour may also work, but you might need a bit more baking soda. Remember to sub out the graham crackers for a gluten-free option, too (you could try making my homemade vegan graham crackers with a 1:1 flour substitute and it should work).

Coconut Cream or Vegan Butter

I always sub coconut cream for vegan butter. Coconut cream is the thick stuff from a can of coconut milk, or you can buy a can of coconut cream which has more of the thick stuff than just regular canned coconut milk.

If vegan butter is more your thing, you can totally use that here. I recommend Miyoko’s or Earth Balance--I’ve baked with them before and they work well.

However, if you don’t want to use coconut cream OR vegan butter, you could try substituting canned pumpkin (oooh pumpkin smores!) or unsweetened applesauce. It won’t be as fluffy but it probably will still work and will certainly taste good.

Organic Cane Sugar or Organic Light Brown Sugar

First of all, can you use non-organic? Sure but they may not be vegan. This is because some sugars are processed using animal bone char, and companies don’t legally need to disclose this on their packaging.

So if you’re vegan, make sure to buy organic.

Second, the combination of these two sugars makes the perfect soft yet crispy cookie shell, but you can totally just use one or the other.

Other sugars, like coconut sugar, should work well, too.

Chocolate

Would it be smores without chocolate? Maybe. But I don’t wanna find out.

For the chocolate chips, any dairy-free chocolate chips or chunks will work. I LOVE Hu Kitchen (honestly some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had, but other brands will work if you can’t find Hu Kitchen. 

Brands I’ve used and liked: Enjoy Life chocolate chips, Lily’s, Target’s Simply Balanced brand (for real, they’re accidentally vegan! Just double-check your package to make sure nothing changed), and Trader Joe’s semi sweet chocolate chips.

For the bar chocolate for the smores part, again, I like Hu Kitchen’s bar chocolate, but there are lots of vegan dark chocolate bars out there, just look over the ingredients. There are even a few vegan milk chocolate brands out there!

Get 15% off sitewide for Hu Kitchen with coupon code AFFILIATE15

Marshmallows

OMG Marshmallows.

I highly, highly, highly recommend Dandies vegan marshmallows. But Trader Joe’s also sells vegan marshmallows and they’re definitely the next best thing.

If you can’t find, or don’t want to use marshmallows, I’d just say skip it. Not sure what you could replace that amazingness with!

Tips for Making an Epic Vegan Smores Cookie Bake

• It’s easiest to think of this dessert in sections. The cookie dough section, the assembly section, and the baking section. They’re all super easy, and you can just work in one section at a time.
• Start with the cookie dough: in your stand mixer or a large bowl with a strong spoon, mix together the coconut cream or vegan butter and sugars until they’re well combined.
• Add the dry ingredients slowly while mixing. Mix until you have a thick dough that is not super sticky. If you need to add a touch more flour, do so--and if it’s too crumbly or dry, add a touch more coconut cream or vegan butter.
• Mix through the chocolate chips and guess what, we are done with section 1!
• Any kind of baking dish should work for this next step. I used a deep 9 inch square baking dish, but a pie dish or a cast iron (11 inch, probably) skillet should work. I did not grease my baking dish but if you use cast iron, you probably should.
• To assemble, first lay down a generous third of the cookie dough into a baking dish. Press down the dough till you have an even layer that covers the bottom.
• Lay out your marshmallows in even rows or haphazardly, but I would leave some gaps in between them so you have little pockets of marshmallows (or a full layer might be totally delicious, IDK).
• Place the chocolate pieces on top of each marshmallow. I cut mine into pieces that contained 2 “pieces” of chocolate, but if you do just one each you will probably have less of a chocolaty mess on your hands. I happen to like chocolate messes, so I did 2.
• Finally, use the rest of the cookie dough to cover the chocolate and marshmallows. 
• It may be a little tough to keep the chocolate on the marshmallow while you spread the cookie dough. I like to rip off a hunk of dough, flatten it between my hands, and spread it over the chocolate and marshmallow like a blanket. Then just press all the edges together.
• If you want, press extra chocolate and mini marshmallows or (or diced marshmallows) into the top and bake!
• I like to bake it until the tops of the marshmallows have just started to brown, because it means they’re gooey--yum.

How to Serve and Store

I recommend just serving as is, but if you want to be extra decadent, add a scoop of vegan ice cream on top. Especially when it’s still warm and it melts the ice cream a little bit… Contain the drool, Liz.

Okay, but does it keep?

Absolutely! Cover it and store up to 5 days. I recommend warming just a touch before eating, but you do you. 

If you live in a humid area like Florida (I used to live there, so I remember what hot and humid weather can do to food), I’d store this in the fridge. It’s even good cold!

You can also freeze it in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months.

More Epic Vegan Desserts

Like amazing vegan desserts just like my Vegan Smores Cookie Bake? Me too.

It’s funny, I never liked dessert that much (except ice cream) until I went vegan. Or was it when I figured out how to bake them myself?

Nonetheless, not trying to toot my own horn, but these vegan dessert recipes are AMAZING and you should totally try one (or them all):

• Matcha Pound Cake
• Soft No Chill Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Coconut Cake
• Apple Cake
• Chocolate Chip Scones
• Carrot Cake
• Coconut Almond Butter Cookies

Anything Else?

As always, I hope you love this recipe–I know I do and so does Mr. Zardyplants. We keep making these over and over again. 

This vegan smores cookie bake is:

• Gooey
• Chocolaty
• Sweet
• Cozy
• Crispy
• And the perfect dessert for kids and adults!

Let me know in the comments below if you make this recipe or tag me @Zardyplants on Instagram so I can see your beautiful recreations! If you tag me on IG, I will share your post in my stories :)

Also, one quick request: if you love how this recipe looks or tastes, please leave me a 5-star rating and a nice comment–ratings help more people find my recipes which helps me keep providing them! Thank you!

<3 Liz

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