S'mores Bars

When we were kids, my parents would pack up the van and take us all camping on the weekends during the spring and summer.  I wasn't even a year old when my parents took me on my first camping trip. 

Of course, toasting marshmallows was always (and still is) the best part of a camping trip.  I loved eating burnt and melty marshmallows until my belly hurt!  (Still do!) 

As much as I enjoy marshmallows over the campfire, can you believe that I never ate a S'more until I was an adult?!  I'm not sure why or how that happened, but it's true! 

After not camping for a few years (late teens/early twenties), I met Joe and was happy that he also enjoyed camping and we started taking trips several times a year.  It seemed easier (and more important) to get out into the woods and camp when we lived in our apartment in the city.  Now that we are homeowners (in the country) we haven't been able to get away.  Seems that either Joe is working on the weekends or we have something to do around the house. 

Grace loves the outdoors and nature (especially leaves), so I am sure she would love camping.  Hopefully soon, we'll be able to take her on her first camping trip and show her how to toast some marshmallows!

Until then, I'll be making S'mores in the oven, thanks to a S'mores Dessert recipe posted by Jennifer over at Home Matters.   Be sure to click the link to see Jennifer's photos, her S'mores look nicer stacked on a serving platter than mine! 

S'mores Bars

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 12 graham cracker sheets
• 3 cups mini marshmallows
• 4 Hershey bars

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Line cookie sheet with foil and arrange graham crackers in a single layer (I used 14 since I had a little more space on my cookie sheet).
• Melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. 
• Pour over the graham crackers (I used a silicone basting brush to spread the butter/sugar mixture evenly over the crackers).
• Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. 
• Now would be a good time to break up those Hershey Bars (I used a couple of hand fulls of chocolate chips leftover from Christmas). 
• Remove crackers from oven and sprinkle with marshmallows and chocolate.
• Return to oven and bake for another 3-4 minutes until marshmallows are puffy and chocolate starts to become melty. 
• For a toasty marshmallow look, put under broiler just a bit...not too long, you don't want to burn them! 
• Allow to cool completely before cutting into small pieces (a pizza cutter made cutting those sticky marshmallows really easy). 

These were really good!  A perfect substitute for the real thing!  I served them for dessert on Super Bowl Sunday.  I wanted to serve them when they were still warm, but I knew that I would forget once we all started eating and visiting and watching those commercials!  My nephews popped their S'mores Bars into the microwave for a few seconds to warm them up a bit! 

Note:  I used too many marshmallows.  My measuring cup was in the dishwasher so I estimated 3 cups.  I don't estimate well, so the result was a lot of marshmallows!  Not really a bad thing! ;)  Mmmmm!

Here's where I'm sharing this recipe: 

• Sweets for a Saturday
• Your Recipe, My Kitchen
• Ultimate Recipe Swap