S'mores, Sh'mores

Photo: Antonis Achilleos; Styling: Lynn Miller

          
          So . . . I'm pretty much IN LOVE with s'mores. The 4th of July cannot pass by without me having some. And then s'more. I don't really eat them any other time because they're totally bad for you. But once a year I indulge and eat my fill. Today I made these S'more Cookie Bars (yes, I know it's not the 4th of July, leave me alone) and I knew I would like them before I even made them. Aaaaaand I was right. They are amazing! So gooey and sweet. Honestly, they are just as good if not better than actual s'mores. I just might have to make these my new 4th of July tradition. Or a Saturday tradition. Or just everyday. 


Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 cups marshmallow topping (about 1 7-ounce jar)
• 2 cups milk-chocolate chips
• 
  
• Directions:
• 1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on 2 sides. Mist foil with cooking spray.
• 2. In a bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt; mix well. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Divide dough in half. Press half of dough into pan until dough is uniform and flat. Spread with marshmallow topping and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Scatter remaining dough over in clumps. Don't worry about covering the top; marshmallow and chocolate chips should peek through.
• 3. Bake until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Place pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Remove from pan, peel off foil and cut into bars.

Tips:

• The dough and marshmallow layers can be a little hard to spread into the pan because the pan is greased and the dough and marshmallow layers are both sticky; just be patient and work with it. You can use clean fingers to help you spread the layer evenly, or you can try a wooden spoon that has been sprayed with some cooking spray to help alleviate sticking as you spread.
• I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips because that was what I had on hand and they still turned out super yummy.
• I used my mini ice cream scooper to drop the clumps of cookie dough on top of the marshmallow layer and it worked great.