Less is S'more

I was asked to provide three kinds of baked goods for my husband’s office. Trying to think of a newish recipe, I decided on S’more Cookie Bars, which I recently found on the wonderful pixie-baker.blogspot.com. I made them a week ago for the first time, and Andrew and the girls all loved them.

So how could there be a problem?

Problem #1: I ran out of parchment paper and had to use a patchwork quilt of what little I had left.

Problem #2: I forgot how messy and sticky these were when I cut them. In case you’re curious, an outside temperature of 35ºC (95ºF) does not improve my ability to tidily slice melted marshmallows.

Problem #3: The stakes are pretty high. Not only were these bars being taken into the office, they’re being posted online for my many readers to see!

Outcome:

Not nearly as abysmal as you might think. Because of the parchment paper dilemma, I had to cut them in the pan. But other than wrecking the first one or two, they actually came out well. And no one expects S’mores to be perfectly symmetrical, anyhow.

Give them a try. Just make sure you have lots of parchment paper.

S’More Cookie Bars (recipe adapted from pixie-baker.blogspot.com)

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 flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 Lindt Swiss Classic 100 g chocolate bars

1 1/4 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Method

Preheat oven to 350ºF .  Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper and butter it, allowing it to hang over the edges for easy removal.  (Blogger's note:  this step is pretty important.)

In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and white 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.  Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff.  Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned.

Cool completely before cutting into bars.