60 in 60: Day 1- S'mores Cookie Bars

Today's cookie: S'mores Cookie Bars

Today's Recipe: Found here.

I have been overly excited to start this project in the past few weeks. Yesterday and Saturday my boyfriend and I went to Aldi's and Wal-Mart to get cookie supplies for this week. There are a few interesting ingredients for this week's cookies in, what I've dubbed, the cookie box. (There's also a bag of half-eaten stale movie popcorn from Saturday in there, but that isn't part of the ingredients.)

S'mores Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

1/3 cups Unsalted butter (softened)
1/3 cup Vegetable shortening
2/3 cup Brown sugar (firmly packed)
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 cup Graham cracker crumbs
2/3 cups All purpose flour
1/4 tsp Salt
6 tbsp Whipping cream
9 oz. Milk chocolate candy bars (chopped)
1 cup Mini marshmallows

I was doing the ingredient list by memory and knew that I needed graham crackers for these cookies, but it completely slipped my mind that I needed crumbs and not actual crackers. It probably didn't help my memory that I took almost a complete five minutes deciding whether I wanted "cinnamon" or "honey" graham crackers. (I went for honey, by the way.) So, I get to smash the graham crackers first thing.

Now with more SMASH action.

If you needed to know, about 5 1/2 graham crackers equals 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9x13" baking pan.

Combine softened butter, vegetable shortening, brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract in medium mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, flour and salt together, and add to creamed mixture, mixing at low speed until blended.

Spread the dough evenly into greased pan.

When I first dumped the mixture in to the pan it didn't look like it was going to cover the entire bottom. But, amazingly, and with a bit of work, it did. There may have been a few holes in the bottom crust, but it didn't seem to hurt the cookies.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and the middle is set but still slightly soft. Allow to cool completely.

Make topping by placing cream in a heavy saucepan, bringing to a simmer.

Remove cream from heat, stirring in chocolate pieces until melted.

9oz of chopped chocolate bars is equal to just under 6 Hershey bars. That means you can eat a few pieces as you're waiting for the whipping cream to boil.

Stir in the marshmallows.

Spread mixture evenly over the cooked crust.

Refrigerate until firm before slicing into bars.

This was the hardest part of the entire recipe, trust. I hate waiting. I'm not very good at it. Especially when things look and smell delicious. Speaking of looks- the recipe didn't call for the marshmallow toppers on the cookie bars, but it looked like it needed something so I added, say, an extra 2 cups of marshmallows to the recipe. Now it looks even MORE delicious.

Recipe Yield: 1 9x13 pan of deliciousness

My Yield: 1 9x13 pan of deliciousness, minus a hole here and there.