Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Deluxe Chocolate Marshmallow Bars


Imagine a light chocolate cake with a marshmallow creme filling, topped with crunchy chocolate-peanut buttery rice cereal. These base of these bars isn't too heavy so it keeps these from being overpowered by chocolate. The reason the ingredient amounts are so weird is that I adjusted the serving size from 36 to 22, which is enough to fit in a 12 X 8 pan (a little small than the usual cake pan, though the original recipe calls for a 15 x 10 x 1).

Ingredients:
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp. margarine or  butter, softened
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp. & 2 tsp. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. + 2 and 1/2 tsp. baking cocoa (I added a little more, plus a little bit of Hershey's syrup b/c I  didn't think it tasted chocolatey enough)
2 and 1/3 cups + 2 tbsp. mini marshmallows
Topping:
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp. semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. + 2 and 1/2 tsp. butter or margarine
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp. +2 tsp. peanut butter
1 and 1/4 cups crisp rice cereal

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa; add to creamed mixture. Spread in a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x -in. pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 min. (Mine took an extra 10 min.) Sprinkle marshmallows evenly over cake; return to oven for 2 to 3 min. Using a knife dipped in water, spread the melted marshmallows even only the cake. Cool. For topping, combine chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and well blended. Remove from heat; stir in cereal. Spread over bars immediately. Chill.