It is not officially summer at our house until we have made our first round of s'mores, or at least something in the chocolate/marshmallow/graham family. Although Boy Mimi long ago took care of officially welcoming summer around a fire with some friends, we couldn't resist trying a new take on this classic summer dessert.
While these will never replace the fun of roasting a marshmallow and sandwiching it between chocolate and graham crackers, these s'mores bars hit all the right notes, and in less time than it takes to build a fire and get out the wire hangers. Bar cookies are a favorite of mine because they can be made in advance, and usually feed a crowd. We took these to our annual 4th of July party, and they were a nice sweet ending to our meal ( in addition to Mrs. A's angel food cake with her famous chocolate frosting. It was a holiday, so eating two desserts was totally allowed.)
Originally I thought I would just use a graham cracker crust topped with chocolate and marshmallows, but after some thought I decided that these needed a sturdier crust that wouldn't crumble in your hand. We went for a graham cookie/shortbread type crust. While s'mores are usually made with milk chocolate, I didn't want these bars to be too sweet so I used half milk, half dark chocolate in the middle layer. Finally, I wanted to get both the creamy marshmallow texture like the inside of the toasted marshmallow, but also the crispy exterior so on top of the marshmallow cream layer, I sprinkled some mini marshmallows to get nice and golden, like that perfectly toasted marshmallow everyone always attempts while roasting over a fire.
S'Mores Bars
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 egg
1 1/4 cup plus 5 tablespoon graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 ounces dark chocolate chopped
6 ounce milk chocolate chopped
1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallow
Cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy. Add
egg and vanilla, mix well. Add flour, salt and 1 1/4 cups graham
cracker crumbs. Mix until thoroughly combined. Reserve 1 cup of mixture for
topping. Press the remaining mixture into a 9x13 pan.
Sprinkle unbaked base with chopped chocolate. Dollop marshmallow
creme over chocolate and spread with an off set spatula as best you can. Sprinkle
mini marshmallows over top, filling in gaps in marshmallow creme layer.
Add the remaining 5 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs to reserved base and work in with finger tips. Crumble over top of mini marshmallows.
Bake in 350 oven for 25 minutes until marshmallow are
golden.
Cool and cut into squares.
Link:Foodie Friday
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