Peanut Butter Cup Smores Bars

View fullsize

Hi Everyone! I'm sure you noticed I've been on a bit of a vacation. I'm back now and excited to share lots of new yummy recipes with my readers. I think there's no better way to come back than with an indulgent, gooey, summer memory packed dessert. In my opinion, peanut butter makes everything even more delicious so I added peanut butter to the killer marshmallow, chocolate, cracker combination.

View fullsize

So what have I been up to for the past two weeks? Well, my parents came up to visit and my husband and I planned a Mother's Day brunch for our wonderful Mothers. I made a few of my own recipes in addition to some amazing recipes from my favorite blog, Half Baked Harvest. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures taken of the brunch! 

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

This past week I've also been doing some catching up on quality time with my husband who finished his first year of graduate school a week ago (yay Macky!!). Some of his friends from school were able to make it out to our house last week to finish up a project which was awesome because I got to spend some time with them AND because I was able to serve them up some of these smores bars! We always have lots of samples of the recipes I am developing but we never really know what to do with them (besides eat them up ourselves...). 

View fullsize

So about these Smores bars. First of all, YUM! These bars have a peanut butter cookie base with chocolate chips topped with LOADS of marshmallow fluff and a chocolate layer with crushed graham crackers and peanut butter cups. Some (eh hem...Macky) may say there's too much fluff. Personally, I don't think that's possible! The more gooey marshmallow the better. I included a range in the recipe for the fluff so you can tailor the recipe to your own fluff lover meter.

View fullsize

When left at room temperature, the marshmallow will ooze out the sides and start to drip down. I think this is awesome but if you want a cleaner bar, you should store them in the fridge and enjoy them cold. They are still super delicious this way!

View fullsize

---

Peanut Butter Cup Smores Bars
Makes a 9 x 13 pan

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (187.5 grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 large egg

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

8 - 16 ounces marshmallow fluff (I used 16 oz)*

12 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted

5 honey graham cracker sheets

6 peanut butter cups

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Add the peanut butter, sugars and vanilla extract to the melted butter and whisk to combine. Now add the egg and whisk until incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the batter and stir to combine.

Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips. Using your hands, evenly spread the batter in the pan - it will be thick.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes and allow the bars to mostly cool before adding the toppings.

To make the crumb topping, add the graham crackers to a food processor and process until mostly small crumbs. Now add the peanut butter cups and continue to process until you have mostly small crumbs with some larger chunks of peanut butter cup. Set aside.

Spread the fluff over the cooled bars in an even layer. Now evenly spread the melted chocolate over the fluff.

Sprinkle the graham and peanut butter cups over the wet chocolate. Gently press the crumbs down with a spoon to make sure they stick to the chocolate.

Cover the pan and place in the fridge for at least an hour, or until the chocolate is completely set. Cut the bars into squares with a sharp knife.

Store in the refrigerator to keep an even layer of fluff or keep at room temperature if you would like it to drip down the sides of the bars.

* If you use the 16 ounces, the top layer of chocolate will crack and marshmallow will start to ooze through, like in the pictures. If you use the 8 ounces, the chocolate will stay a solid top layer, but it will still ooze down if left at room temperature.