Crispy S’mores Bars

It’s time to start thinking about the holidays, but I haven’t really planned ahead this year, so I’m still deciding on what I want to make. I pulled out a handful of my Christmas baking magazines that I have picked up over the past year or so to start looking for ideas. I put a couple of them in my work bag, with the hope that I would be able to look at them during lunch. It’s been so busy at work that I didn’t have time to do that, but I have great friends at work. My friend looked through one of the magazines and selected this recipe. I thought these looked so yummy.

These have the elements of s’mores, with the addition of peanut butter cups. I’ve not had s’mores with peanut butter, but I can’t image that they would be bad! These are quite simple to put together, assembling more than baking. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the crumbs to cover the base of the pan, but I did, just know that the bottom layer is very thin. They are everything that you would expect them to be: gooey, chocolaty, with a great combination of flavors. Since we’re deviating from the original anyway, I think these would be good with some nuts, to make them extra crispy and crunchy.

I don’t usually talk much about the behind the scenes aspects of my blog, but do you like my new plate? I work at a college and every so often the college ceramics program has a sale. They just had the sale and I was able to pick up this great little plate, which I figured would be perfect for my photos. It’s nice to help support student artists and it is fun to have new plates for my blog. I don’t know how much the readers of this blog notice the plates I use, but I enjoy it when I find something new.

½ cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup flour

12 (regular sized) peanut butter cups, quartered
1-1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 pan and set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. It will look curdled, don’t worry. Add the graham cracker crumbs, salt and flour and stir to combine. Reserve 2/3 cup of the mixture. Press the remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. The layer will be very thin. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are golden.

Immediately sprinkle the hot crust with the peanut butter cups, miniature marshmallows, chocolate chips and the reserved crumb mixture. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the marshmallows are puffed and golden.

Cool bars completely before cutting. Dip the knife in hot water or spay with cooking spray to prevent the marshmallows from sticking.

Recipe from Cuisine at Home Holiday Cookies