Thursday, September 9, 2010

S'more Cookie Bars

Well I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I spent my weekend with my boyfriend! It has been about 2 months since I last saw him and Labor Day couldn't be a more better time to visit. We hung out a lot, chilled and made some good at home dinners! His birthday was on the 6th and I wanted to do something cool at home. I talked with his sister-in-law (SIL) on what we should do and we came up with an awesome menu! We wanted to grill steaks, green salad, pasta dish and bread. Simple but very flavorful! As for dessert, we stuck with a simple s'more bar. It is a Hershey's recipe that has been floating around the blog world for a while and been in my bookmarked recipes. Labor day, end of summer, BBQ, s'mores.. it was all just meant to be! Luckily his SIL has a pretty well stocked kitchen and had all the baking supplies I needed. The s'more bars were really easy to do. Took me less then an hour to prep and place in the oven. Glad I had this recipe handy because it turned out really well. We placed a few candles on top and sang happy birthday!

 
S'more Cookie Bars (Adapted From Hershey's Kitchens)  
Ingredients
1/2 cup or 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup Stevia in the Raw (you may use granulated sugar)
1 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 4 (1.55 oz. each) HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate Bars
1 jar of marshmallow creme

Heat over to 350°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan or line with foil and grease for easy cutting later on. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Press half of dough in prepared pan.

Arrange chocolate bars over dough, breaking as needed to fit. Spread with marshmallow creme. Scatter bits of remaining over marshmallow; carefully press to form a layer. (This part was a bit challenging. I used more dough on the bottom layer, so the top layer was more of a crumble.)
  Bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. 16 bars. These are best to be eaten after being cooled off and slightly warm and gooey. By the time we had ours, they were more like room temperature, so we nuked them for a few seconds in the microwave. Worked like a charm. ;) Tasted just like a s'mores!

Time to make a wish!
 
You will also notice I didn't use sugar but stevia. His SIL had the brilliant idea to sub that for sugar, since it is cup-to-cup in measurements. I was worried of an aftertaste but with the chocolate and marshmallow it evened out and you would of never known! I bought a bag of the stevia she has and I'm going to start subbing it for sugar in certain recipes. Can't hurt and will save on the calories!
Enjoy,
Fallon

6 comments:

cookies and cups said...

These sound amazing!! Love that you used stevia

Chef Dennis Littley said...

they sound so good!!! I know my girls would love them!

Fallon said...

Kids will love these for sure!

Debbie said...

These look great! I have never used Stevia, I have used Splenda before and I know what you mean about an aftertaste. Glad to know it worked with this recipe! Thanks

Katrina said...

I can't believe how behind I get and that I have 8 posts of yours in my reader. Sigh.
Those bars ARE good, huh. I kind of like the crumble topped look. I've used that Stevia before. It's not bad. If it's the only sugar in something, I do think it does have an aftertaste. But I like that it's all natural. I think Splenda and the like have a lot more of an aftertaste and they aren't even really good for you since it's all chemicals. Can't wait to see what else you do with the Stevia. ;)

Fallon said...

I was worried about the stevia aftertaste...but after using Hershey milk chocolate and the marshmallow creme, it ALL evened out! I fed them to guys in the Army and they really didn't know. LOL. I would use normal sugar in a recipe that was for an important occasion or for someone else. But for at home use and knowing I want to eat it, it is a good replacement. With Christmas coming around I want the real deal ;)