s’more cookie bars!

It’s another football Saturday and these S’more Cookie Bars are another favorite tailgate recipe! I’ve made these a bunch and they are GOOD! The recipe is online, so I was able to include it below. I also added my SCBD tips {small change, big difference} that make these perfect every time 🙂 .

S’mores Bars
From Cooking with Paula Deen, Mar/Apr 2007

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 6 sheets of graham crackers)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 (1.5-ounce) Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars
1 cup marshmallow crème

Instructions
– Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch baking pan.
– In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined.
– In a small bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat until combined. Press 1/2 of dough in the pan, spreading evenly. Lay chocolate bars on top of dough, breaking apart as needed to create an even layer of chocolate. Spread marshmallow cream over chocolate bars.
– Spread remaining dough over marshmallow cream and chocolate bars. Bake 30 to 35 minutes.
– Makes 2 dozen bars

SCBD tip #1 ~ it’s about the pan, ummm dish! I like to bake these cookie bars in a glass baking dish, so I can see how the layers line up. Plus, my 8×8 glass baking dish has a snap-on cover, making it perfect as a take along dish.

SCBD tip #2 ~ layering tricks! Marshmallow cream is super sticky, so the top cookie layer is tricky. Trying to spread the graham cookie batter on top of the marshmallow cream is messy. My tip makes the difference for me between evenly layered cookie bars and bars that are just a gooey mess. Soooo ~ after mixing the graham cookie batter, I put a sheet of non-stick foil in the bottom of the dish before greasing the dish. Then I press out a layer with 1/2 the dough on the foil and lift out the layer with the foil. This becomes the TOP LAYER 🙂 . Then I spray/grease the dish and press out the bottom layer with the remaining 1/2 dough. Lay the chocolate bars on top of the layer and spread the marshmallow cream. Now I use the other prepared layer. You can carefully slide the layer from the foil to the dish ~ or ~ I use my Wilton Cake Lifter which makes it super easy to transfer the layer from the foil to the dish. This helps put the layer cleanly on top and then I can press gently to seal the edges. Voila ~ cookie bars with even layers that slice cleanly 🙂

Of course with these ingredients, the cookie bars are yummy regardless of how they are put together, so don’t sweat it if they are messy. I’m sharing my SCBD tips from my trial and error efforts to make it easier for y’all 🙂 . Hope you give these a try for your next tailgate, or neighborhood get-together or school bake sale and let me know what you think!

Happy football Saturday y’all ~~~