Spring S'mores Bars

Whenever I am making a dessert for a family gathering it is always something of an ordeal. Okay, I am being dramatic, but I prefer making treats that everyone (or most normal people) would enjoy and between my dad and sister that automatically rules out: caramel, peanut butter, coconut, mint, and nuts. Yes, all of the most popular chocolate dessert additions. Way to ruin my baking fun guys! Luckily they both do like chocolate or we would have a situation.

For Easter I told my great aunt that I would make a fun Eastery dessert. Immediately I thought of my s'mores bars and subbing in the pastel marshmallows instead of the plain whites ones. It is so quick and easy to whip up, but it is really one of my favorites desserts I have made. The chocolate is so creamy and is a perfect fit with the graham crackers and especially the marshmallows. Every time I make it I am wowed by how great such a simple dessert can taste!

As it turns out colored mini marshmallows are much harder to find than I expected. I won't tell you how many stores I went to, but finally I found them at Target. What I didn't realize was multi-colored marshmallows are actually fruit flavored. Boo. After a taste test and a dunking in melted chocolate test I found that only the green and the pink would be usable so I picked them out and combined them with some plain white minis. Any suggestions for lemon and orange flavored marshmallows?

I know the amounts seem crazy, but I wanted to make a larger quantity. You could easily cut the recipe in half and instead use a 9" square pan instead - that's what I usually do and it turns out just as well (a bit thinner though).

Spring S'mores Bars

How I did it:

1 cup heavy cream (heavy whipping cream works well)
2 bags (about 24 oz) milk chocolate chips
7 cups mini-marshmallows (I used 2 white and 5 green/pink)
13 oz fudge covered graham crackers (not to be confused with chocolate graham crackers)

1. Cover a 9x13 baking dish with aluminum foil and set aside.

2. Pour the cream into a pot and heat just until bubbles start to form and then remove from heat. {Important: Do not walk away from the cream - it boils over very quickly and then you will not only lose all your cream, but have quite a stinky mess on your stove!} Remove from heat and pour in the chocolate chips and stir until fully incorporated and smooth. Let sit for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes so it doesn't harden.

3. Add marshmallows - stir until well coated. Gently stir in the graham crackers until also well combined.

4. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and smooth out evenly, pressing down lightly. Refrigerate until set. Cut and serve!

Keep in mind the bar will taste best the first day or two. After that they still taste great, but the graham crackers will start to soften. {Read: I'd still eat them, but would not serve them}