Friday, May 9, 2008

S'more Bars


I don't have much use for milk chocolate. It's just not that interesting to me. Milk chocolate chips are one of the most worthless things in the world as far as I'm concerned, and about the only things made with milk chocolate that tempt me at all tends to be mini-Reeses peanut butter cups, and peanut m&ms... but usually only if they are sitting out and available -- not generally something I would buy.

So it galls me a bit to have to admit that milk chocolate would have been the better choice for these bars. But the bars looked really good on the Baking Bites website, I didn't have milk chocolate bars, and of course everything is better with bittersweet chocolate... right?

The problem of course, which most people probably could have pointed out to me before I started, was that the bittersweet chocolate overwhelms the marshmallow and graham cracker flavors. Instead of a perfect balance of flavors, you are overwhelmed with chocolate. The chocolate is good of course (ghiradelli 60% chips) but it overpowers everything else, leaving you wanting more. Plus, with all the marshmallow fluff and cookie base -- they are also really, really sweet and rich... almost too much really. Man, now I know I'm getting old...

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)

1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.

Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick.

Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned.

Cool completely before cutting into bars

4 comments:

burkie said...

you know, i took the kids to the yogi campground last year and we had a fire pit outside the cabin so i got stuff to make s'mores. i mean, that's what you're supposed to with kids and a firepit, right? but, since i'm not crazy about s'mores in the first place and i, too, am not a fan of milk chocolate, i bought a big variety pack of ghiradelli squares--perfect, right? they're the right size and shape, they have milk chocolate ones and dark chololate ones and even caramel ones. gourmet s'mores! and....as you discovered....the milk chocolate ones were better. they melted better, provided the right consistency and balance and all that. i'll never second-guess a girl scout again.
--jb

Anonymous said...

awwwwwwwwwwwwwesome. they were a great surprise!

Laura said...

Made these the other day and LOVED them! I just linked to this post on my blog. Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

I came here from Laura's blog! I just put these in the oven to bring to our Father's Day picnic at the lake, can't wait to try them! Thank you!!