How Risks Can Lead to Reward: A Delicious Tale

There is nothing in this world quite like the first bite of a crunchy, melty, gooey, chocolately s'more. Except for maybe the next bite, not to mention the second s'more. But that's besides the point, which is this: s'mores are delicious. And after having made an absurdly over-sized batch of marshmallows, I figured some of those should have the privilege of being displayed in their proper place between a graham cracker and a piece of Hershey's chocolate. However, I had to take it one step further. Many moons ago I saved a recipe for s'mores bars because really, how could you go wrong? And on surveying said recipe, I was disappointed to see this last looming ingredient: 1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff, not melted marshmallows. Why not melted marshmallows? What would happen? You guys, I have a confession. I do not understand marshmallow chemistry. I'm sorry, science has never been my strong point. So I looked for other s'mores bar recipes, and while there's a slight tweak here and there, they all specify no marshmallows. But by gad, I had marshmallows and I wanted to use them. So I did. And they were delicious.


Granted, the marshmallows did melt and become very sticky and kind of chewy, but these were SO GOOD that I didn't care. In fact, I really liked the weird texture of my melted marshmallows; it gave a little character to the s'mores bars. If you have the option between marshmallows and marshmallow fluff without having to make a special trip the the store, I would probably recommend the marshmallow fluff. Really though, these were amazingly delicious anyway.

Smores Bars

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 size or 3 regular Hershey's bars
1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff (or about 15 marshmallows cut in half if you want to stick it conventional methods)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*F and grease an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Slowly add this to the butter mixture.
4. Press half the dough into an even layer covering the bottom of the greased pan.
5. Place the chocolate on top, arranging it to cover as much of the surface as possible.
6. Spread the fluff on top of the chocolate, using a greased spatula to smooth the top. (Or, if you decided to go the devil-may-care route, place marshmallow halves on top of the chocolate, covering most of it.)
7. In sections at a time, flatten the remaining dough and place it on top of the marshmallow, covering completely.
8. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned.




My brother's birthday (22! happy birthday George!) is this week and I might have a couple things planned, so stay tuned listeners. It's about to get intense.