S'mores Bars

This recipe comes from Rebecca of Cooking With My Kid, who's actually a friend of a friend of mine, and who is on a mission to make 365 recipes in 365 days, with her kid. Although I like cooking with my kids, I still think it's an ambitious project.

When she posted this recipe, I knew I had to make these right away. Just Had To. After all, I'd bought all the ingredients for s'mores recently, but before we could make them someone ate all the Hershey's bars. Someone else snuck half a bag of marshmallows. And who knows who ate most of the graham crackers. It's just the way it works around here I guess.

Note: when opening a jar of marshmallow fluff at altitude, just for a "taste," be prepared to immediately make your recipe because it will just keep expanding and you won't be able to "taste" that much without making yourself sick. Just trust me on this.

I didn't do the shopping yesterday, and to be honest my entire grocery list was this:

1 large jar marshmallow fluff
2 king-size Hershey's Special Dark bars
1 box graham crackers
=)

I took Rebecca's advice and planned to use dark chocolate from the start. So Number One brought home 4 bars of Hershey's Special Dark, in two sizes. I'm guessing that the 4.25 ounce bar is the "king size," but I didn't come to that realization until I already had the "giant size" bars unwrapped and discovered they wouldn't fit as neatly as Rebecca's had in the pan. Oh well, we've got some extra dark chocolate to eat!

Now that I'm thinking about it, I can't say I recall ever eating marshmallow fluff. I know that seems like blasphemy for a Midwestern girl like myself to admit, but I just don't remember it in my life. Of course I've seen the jars around, and of course when someone took that little taste, it tasted like heaven, but it didn't ring any bells. I didn't remember the stickiness, or anything. I do love it though, so I think that makes up for my possibly faulty memory.

The verdict: These are very good, but dare I say it, with dark chocolate, I think you need to use MORE fluff. There, I said it. It really needs more fluff!! Next time, I will try it with milk chocolate, which is probably the more classic flavor, and maybe just a little extra fluff.

Let me know which chocolate YOU would use, and how you like them!


S’More Bars
Prep Time:15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 to 35 minutes
Makes 16 squares

1 stick of butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (~7 full-sized graham cracker sheets, processed until fine)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 king-sized dark chocolate bars (*note: I believe "king-size" is 4.25 ounces. "giant-size" is too big, but will work if you use a little more than one bar. I know because we used "giant-size.")
1-1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. (I used butter). Use an electric mixer to cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Set aside.

Meanwhile,whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture 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.

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. Be sure to cool completely before cutting into 16 squares.