Marshmallow Chocolate Cookie Bars

  • Marshmallow Chocolate Cookie Bars

    You have two options here, my baking friend, and I won’t judge you either way you take this kitchen crossroads:

    1. From Scratch: bake your little heart out, champ.  Make the chocolate chip cookies like the industrious worker bee that you are (or is it the ants who are industrious?).  Get flour on your apron.  Get that 350° glow on your T-zone.
    2. From Sloth: buy a bag of your favorite cookies and call it a day.  You’re a resourceful time manager and you don’t have time for things like sifting.  Not today.

    So if you’ve opted for the From Scratch route, follow the first half of the recipe below and rejoin us later at Step 8.  We’ll have our feet up with a magazine and a cup of tea/glass of wine on the go.

    If you’ve opted for the From Sloth route, cheers to you.  You might want to have a nap or watch Billions on demand while our From Sucker Scratch friends bake their cookies at home.

    After all this judgement-free baking banter, the real point is this: you get to smash your cookies- however the hell you come upon them- up into bits and stir them into the holy concoction of marshmallows melted in butter and vanilla.  What are you waiting for?  Get baking/buying!

    Adapted from my Ugly But Good Bars and Jacques Torres’ insane cookie recipe…

    COOKIES:

    2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake/pastry flour

    1 2/3 cup bread flour

    1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

    1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

    1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

    1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

    1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed

    1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

    2 eggs

    2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract

    1 1/4 pounds (or 2 1/2 cups) bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks (at least 60 percent cacao content)

    BARS:

    3 tablespoons butter, melted

    1 (10 oz.) package marshmallows

    1/2 teaspoon vanilla

    1. MAKE COOKIES (or simply crush 5 cups of your favorite store-bought ones):
      1. In a medium bowl, sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
      2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light (about 5 minutes).
      3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Stir in the vanilla.  Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined (5 – 10 seconds).
      4. Drop chocolate chips/pieces in and mix until just combined.
      5. Scoop tablespoon size amounts of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, wrapping with plastic wrap (or store dough balls into a container that you can comfortably store in the fridge).  (You will likely scoop more dough mounds than you will actually bake onto each sheet; you can separate them before you bake them.)
      6. Refrigerate for 24 – 36 hours.  (Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours or frozen & thawed in the fridge for use at a later time).
      7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°.  Spread 12 dough mounds onto each parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake until golden brown but still soft, 10 – 12 minutes.  Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies off sheet and onto the rack to cool.
      8. Place 5 cups of cookies in a large ziploc bog and using a rubber mallet or handle of a large kitchen knife, smash cookies into bite-size chunks.  Great fun.
    2. MAKE BARS:
      1. Line a 9″ square pan with foil and butter lightly.
      2. In a large bowl, melt butter in microwave and add marshmallows.  Microwave for 2 minutes, stir, then continue to microwave for 1 more minute, stirring until mixture is melted and smooth.  Immediately stir cookie chunks into marshmallow goo, and spread into prepared pan (with buttered wax paper or fingers).  Allow to cool in fridge for at least an hour, then slice into squares with a knife.

     Tips:

    • This cookie recipe makes more than 5 cups’ worth, so you’ll have to freeze the extras.  Or eat them.
    • The wait can be excruciating.  There is no better way to describe it, because every time you open your fridge you’re reminded of what you can’t bake yet.  I’m sorry, but all the reviews on Jacques Torres’ cookie recipe are adamant that you must wait.  (I’m usually inclined to cheat in such areas- like maybe baking after 12 hours [which is still ridiculously long for a cookie dough batter to wait], but I refrained and was a good little baker.  I think it paid off.)
    • Two kinds of flour.  Really?  I didn’t argue with the recipe.  But what I will tell you is that some reviewers say that all-purpose works, too (as I’m really sure it does).  I almost want to make a batch with the pastry/bread flour combo and a batch with the “commoner recipe” all-purpose flour and see if anyone in their right mind could tell the difference.  I doubt I will ever make the time to do this.  Could you do it and tell me how it turns out?
    • As always, the quality of the chocolate dictates the quality of the dessert.
    • What, no nuts?  If nuts make you happy, then add them in.  Toast them first.
    • Is it ridiculous to make such a labor-intensive cookie, only to smash it up and stir it into marshmallow goo?  Maybe.  Maybe not.
    • Prefer firmer bars? Use less marshmallows or more cookies.  For gooier bars, use more marhsmallows or less cookies.
    • Stir cookies in while the marshmallow goo is still hot- that way the chocolate will melt a bit and make these look more appetizing than my original Ugly But Good Bars (which had an easier chocolate sugar cookie recipe in it, FYI).
    • These freeze well.
    • Enjoy!

     

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    March 12th, 2016 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , ,

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