Easter S'Mores Jars

I found this absolutely adorable idea on Pinterest and I COULD. NOT. RESIST. These jars are cute as a button!  And, the person you give them to gets to add a few ingredients and make them into S'mores Bars.  Perfect!  The jars are simple to assemble and the bars are easy for the recipient to make.  This is a perfect Easter Gift for the little people in your lives, but some adult supervision will be required to make the S'mores Bars.  My mom and I made a  whole batch of these jars to give to the kids in our family. 


Adapted from: Creative Holiday Gift Ideas


Here's what you need to make 1 jar:
1 One Quart Mason Jar
23 Hersey Kisses
8 Peeps
1/2 of a sleeve of Graham Crackers, crushed
1/4 cup of Brown Sugar


Here's what you do to assemble the jar:
1.  Clean the jar. 
2.  Put the crushed Graham Crackers in a baggie.  Add the Brown Sugar.  Set aside.
3.  Put the Hersey Kisses in the bottom of the jar. 
4.  Put the Peeps in the jar, with their faces facing out (so you can see their faces from the outside).  We could only fit 7 around the perimeter of the jar, so we stuck the 8th one inside the "circle" of Peeps.  
5.  Put the baggie of Graham Crackers and Brown sugar inside the jar above peeps. 
6.  Put the lid on the mason jar. 
7.  Create a recipe card with the instructions listed below.  Attach the recipe card to the jar with a piece of festive ribbon.  Ta Da!  You're done!


For the recipe card:
1.  Remove the contents of the jar and put on the kitchen counter. 
2.  Unwrap and cut Hersey Kisses into halves or quarters.  Put in a medium sized mixing bowl. 
3.  Cut (or tear) the Peeps into pieces.  Add to the mixing bowl. 
4.  Add the contents of the baggie to the mixing bowl. 
5.  Add 1 tsp of Vanilla to the mixing bowl. 
6.  Add 1/4 cup of melted Butter to the mixing bowl. 
7.  Stir the contents of the mixing bowl well. 
8.  Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into a small, well-greased baking dish. 
9.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. 


Enjoy!  Happy Easter!!

S'Mores Cookies

I was deprived of S'mores at the beginning of the summer.  I found it very traumatic.  You can read all about it here.  The result was a S'mores themed cooking frenzy.  These cookies were one of the results of that cooking frenzy.  As promised in my S'Mores Bars post, here are the S'mores Cookies I made.  These were delicious and perfect for the summer time.  And, they resulted in a conversation with a friend that went something like this:


As I was assembling the cookies to bake he walked into the kitchen. Stopped.  And stared.  For a long time.  Then he said:  "Wait a minute.  What's going on here!?!"
Me:  "What?"
Him: "Graham Crackers?  And Cookie Dough?  And Marshmallows?  AND Chocolate!?!"
Me:  "Yep."
Him:  Long pause.  "Hmmmmmmm. . . "
Me:  "Am I blowing your mind?"
Him:  "Yep.  You're blowing my mind."  Then he turned around and walked away.


I found it quite amusing.  Anyhoo. . .


Slightly adapted from: The Girl Who Ate Everything


Here's what I used:
11 Tablespoons unsalted Butter, softened
1 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
½ Cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
2 ½ Cups Flour
1/2 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Mini Marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages Graham Crackers, broken into squares

Here's what I did:
I Preheated the oven to 375 degrees and lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper.


I laid out the graham crackers side by side on the pan as close as possible (they should be touching).


In a bowl I whisked together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Then I sat that bowl to the side.


In another bowl, I creamed the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy.  Then I added the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.  After that, I added the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.  Finally, I folded in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Then I stuck the dough in the refrigerator.  It needs to stay there for at least 1 hour.  It can stay for as long as overnight.  I left it there long enough to make the S'Mores Bars . 

After the dough had chilled, I placed a tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart.  The result is that you'll have more than 1 ball of dough on each graham cracker (about three balls per 2 graham crackers).  Then I pressed down slightly on the dough with my fingertips.


I baked them for about 5 minutes.  I removed the pan from the oven and pushed the Hershey's Bar pieces into the tops of the cookies.  I then put the pan back in the oven and baked for about 6 minutes longer.  I removed the pan when the dough was turning golden brown.  Mine looked like this straight out of the oven:

 Look at the ooey gooey goodness:

I cooled them on a wire rack.  Don't cut them until they are completely cool.


Enjoy!

S'Mores Bars

A few weeks ago my sweet tooth kicked into overdrive right before bed.  I had to have a s'more.  Now.  So, I pranced into the kitchen, prepared to make a microwave s'more.  Classy, I know. 

When I opened the freezer to pull out a chocolate bar, there were none.  I had seven chocolate bars in there.  SEVEN.  And they were all gone.  All. Seven. Of. Them.  I was not a happy camper. 

So, I had two choices.  I could be a big kid and run to the store and grab a chocolate bar to make my s'mores.  Or, I could pout.  So, I pouted my way right back to bed.  

I woke the next morning with s'mores on the brain.  And they stayed there all day.  Clearly, this was not going to go away until I did something about it.  I headed over to one of my favorite food blogs, The Girl Who Ate Everything, to see if she had any s'mores recipes I should try.  Of course she did.  She has everything.  But, just one s'mores treat wasn't enough for this girl.  Nuh uh.  Nope, I needed two.  So I made these S'mores Bars and I also made her S'mores Cookies.  I'll post that recipe later.  Here's the info on these delicious S'mores Bars:

Slightly adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Here's what I used:
 

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 king-sized Hershey's milk chocolate bars
1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff (7 1/2 oz jar)

Here's what I did:

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and sprayed an 8 inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

First I mixed together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.  I set those dry ingredients to the side.  Next I creamed the butter and sugar together.  Then I beat in the egg and vanilla.  I slowly added the dry ingredients into the wet ones until everything was mixed well. 

I pressed about half of that dough into the bottom of my greased pan.  I broke up my chocolate bars into pieces that would fit into the pan and covered the bottom dough with chocolate (only one layer deep).  You could use more or less chocolate, depending on your tastes.  I thought this amount worked out just right for me.

 Then I spread the marshmallow fluff on top of the chocolate bars.  Finally, using parchment paper, I made a square out of the remaining dough that was roughly the size of my pan.  I transferred that square on top of the marshmallow fluff for the top layer.  

I baked the bars for about 35 minutes.  Don't let your crust get too brown or too well done.  This is what mine looked like fresh out of the oven:

You do want to let the bars cool before you cut them, but I think these bars and infinitely better if eaten warm.  So if they aren't still warm when you go to bite into them, toss them in the microwave for just a few seconds.  It's totally worth the wait.

The original recipe provided that this pan would make 16 bars.  I found these bars to be very rich and couldn't eat an entire bar if I only divided the pan into 16 pieces.  I ended up cutting mine into about 24 different bars.  Make your bars whatever size you prefer.

Enjoy!