Friday, December 3, 2010

S'more Cookie Bars


We all want s'mores every once in a while, but the weather may be too windy or cold for a big campfire. The next option would be to light a fire inside and roast marshmallows.  No fireplace? Well don't despair, these bars give you the same great flavor combination of marshmallows and chocolate and does not require any fire to be built.

The recipe uses marshmallow cream and I had some on hand.  Since this recipe, I have found out that there is marshmallow cream that you can buy that actually has a toasted flavor. You can find it by clicking here.  I will definitely be using the "toasted" cream next time.

S'more Cookie Bars
adapted from Saveur Magazine 

Ingredients
7 oz jar of marshmallow cream/fluff
2 4-5 oz chocolate bars (milk or dark, your preference)
1/2 cup butter, room temp
1 egg
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 inch square pan. Take a long piece of parchment paper and line bottom and two parallel sides, leaving an overhang on the sides for handles.  Grease parchment paper.

In a small bowl, sift together salt, baking powder and flour.  Then whisk in graham cracker crumbs.  Set aside.

Take a large bowl or stand mixer bowl and put it both types of sugars and butter. With an electric mixer, cream together ingredients until fluffy. Then beat in egg and vanilla extract. Set mixer aside.  With a wooden spoon, fold in 1/2 of the flour mixture into the batter until combined.  Repeat with second half of flour.

Once no more flour remains, take dough and split in half.  Using your hands, press 1/2 of the dough into the bottom of the pan, making sure it is even.  Then place the candy bars in a single layer on top of the dough.

The next layer will be the marshmallow fluff.  Using a spatula, scrap out all the fluff and put in pan.  Taking a wet knife or dampened hands/palms, smooth the fluff evenly over the candy bars. Set pan aside.

Then take a piece of wax paper and place the second half of the dough on top.  Press or roll into an 8 inch square and place in the freezer for 5 minutes.  After freezing, take out square and flip into pan (over the fluff) and peel off wax paper.  Wait 10 minutes for dough layer to soften and then press down to make sure that there is no air between fluff and dough layer.

Bake s'mores for about 30-35 minutes.  They should be a light golden brown when done.  Wait until completely cool before lifting out of pan with parchment handles.  Then cut and serve.