Sunday, February 3, 2008

Mississipi Mud Bars


This is going to be quick because it's past my bedtime (yeah, I'm old, I admit it) but we just watched the New York Giants win a great Superbowl game against the despised Patriots so all is good for the night. Not only did the team I was rooting for win, but it was a good game to boot, which doesn't actually happen all that often in the Superbowl.

Earlier today Chris had to flip a coin to decide between this recipe and a cheesecake recipe -- no worries, the cheesecake will appear later this week I'm sure. This is yet another ridiculous Passion for Baking recipes -- loaded brownies (coconut, nuts, chocolate chips) on the bottom, topped with marshmallow cream, then a thick layer of chocolate frosting. They are a total mess to eat and I dare anyone to try to eat one without getting it all over the place. Sweet, yummy, chocolatey, good -- but so sweet and rich that I cut them into fairly small squares.

One thing to note -- it's a weird-sized baking dish she requires -- I have a 10 x 6 so that's what we used. The brownies filled it to the top. The marshmallow creme was layered on top, and the frosting -- well, we did the best we could to keep it on the top and we mostly succeeded since it's nice and thick -- but these were a mess to make and cut.

Ingredients:
Bars:
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
4 large eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme

Mississippi Mud Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 350. Generously spray an 11 x 7 inch pan with non-stick baking spray and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet.

In a food processor, blend sugar and butter until pasty. Add eggs and vanilla; blend well. Fold in flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and blend well. Fold in nuts, chocolate chips and coconut and blend briefly. Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake until set and firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Spread marshmallow cream on hot cake and refrigerate, uncovered 3 or more hours.

For Mississippi Mud Icing, blend all ingredients in a food processor until stiff and glossy. Using a metal spatula, dipped as required into hot water, spread icing on chilled uncut bars. Chill briefly to set icing. Cut into bars. These are messy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahaha "despised" patriots, huh... guess it sucks to the best, even if ref'd best had no game at all the most important night of the year (and Manning performed BRILLIANTLY)

Anyhoo, mississippi mud bar = YUM. Looking forward!=D

Anonymous said...

these were ridiculous, but nowhere near as over-the-top as the one last week. i'm not the biggest marshmallow fan, but i could eat a small one of these again. it was a pretty good brownie base. they do look like cows, though :)

-jb

Anonymous said...

i was a fan of the marshmellows... until i was told by the biscuit pusher herself that i still had them all over my lips... like, half a work-day later... oops.

mira said...

hahaha, the mudbars looked like cows!! :)

biscuitpusher said...

nobody warned me that the frosting would slide off of the marshmallow layer if I left them on the counter overnight!