Recipe to Reality: Chocolate Chip S'mores Cookies

My husband and I share the same group of best friends, which is a really amazing thing.

In fact, his best man at our wedding introduced the two of us at college.

Every month one of us hosts a get-together weekend where we provide meals, housing, and entertainment. We plan these rituals so that we can keep in touch, even though we live within a 4 hour range of one another.

Last weekend, my friend Cup of Joe (who was also mentioned in my Breakfast Muffins post) really wanted to try these incredibly deceiving Chocolate Chip S'mores Cookies.

The idea is to make a tiny s'more and surround it with cookie dough.

I was reluctant because I wasn't sure how a crunchy graham cracker was going to taste in my cookie (since I love soft, chewy cookies) but Joe was super excited so we went for it.

Here's What You'll Need!

• Graham Crackers
• Mini Marshmellows
• Hershey's Chocolate Bars
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (we used premade)

Putting it All Together!

1) Assemble mini s'mores.

2) Surround mini s'mores in cookie dough! (This part was tough! I needed a lot of cookie dough to cover up the edges and we used a whole roll of dough to make 7 of these cookies!)

Sticky business!

3) Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

We only made 7 cookies!

As you can see, a bunch of them exploded in the oven, cracking open. Overall, we didn't notice that much of a difference with the addition of the s'more. I mean, don't get me wrong, they were delicious...but I'd say more work then they're worth. Fun to say that we made these though! It was definitely an experience baking with my buddies :)

Stay Sweet,

Recipe To Reality: Mallow Brownie Bars

Happy End of Summer Sweethearts!

Last Friday Jasmine and I got together and baked up a STORM! Her recipe of choice was some delicious oatmeal cookies.  I chose to whip up some Mallow Brownie bars for a Labor Day BBQ I was attending!

I found these decadent treats on Nichi's blog, The Mandatory Mooch. They are extremely easy to make despite their intricate appearance. They are so delicious and definitely will not fail to impress anyone's taste buds.

One of my favorite quick desserts has to be box brownies. I know, I know, probably not worthy of a "food blog" discussion, but just having access to a delicious treat that only takes a few ingredients you are bound to have around your home is a relief when you finish the last box of Oreos. Thus, when I saw that brownies were included in this recipe, I was extremely excited to make it! Another incentive was that I had all of the ingredients for the rest of recipe, and I'm sure many of you will be in the same boat!

The actual process was a piece of cake, no pun intended. When the brownies were almost done, I took them out of the oven and dumped a bag of mini marshmallows on top. I allowed it to bake for another 3 minutes (I let the brownies bake prior for about 25 minutes) so that the sugary topping had developed a sort of hard shell, but had not completely melted.

While the bottom layers of the dessert were cooling, I started on the top chocolate layer, which involved  chocolate, peanut butter, butter, and crispy rice cereal.  Although I ended up having only half a bag of chocolate chips (the recipe called for 1 full bag) everything actually ended up coming together fairly nice. I also used Simply Jif peanut butter, which has about a 1/3 less fat than the regular kind included in a popular lunch box staple.

Once I finished melting everything together, I poured the chocolate mixture on top of the brownies and spread evenly with a spatula. Once everything was visually appealing, the brownies went into the fridge for 1-2 hours to set.

A little while later, the treat was ready to eat! They cut evenly, and there was no problem with any liquidy chocolate left on top. Everyone at the party I brought them to loved them, and they were gone within 10 minutes! They actually remind me of chocolate Rice Krispie Treats.  All in all, I though these brownie bars were a hit and I will totally be making them again! If anyone is going back to school, these are a perfect cure for the end of summer blues that everyone is sure to face in the coming weeks. (:

Stay Sweet,