Rocky Ledge Bars

These bars made an appearance on my buddy Jessica’s blog, A Singleton in the Kitchen, a week ago. I wanted to run into my kitchen and make them immediately they looked and sounded so good! I planned to make them on Monday for Shane to bring to work but then I got sick and kept pushing them back. I’m still not feeling great, but I was well enough to finally get back into the kitchen on Thursday and whip them up.

I made a few changes from Martha’s recipe based on what I had on hand and what Shane would eat. The original recipe calls for mini marshmallows, semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch chips and caramel candy cubes. I used the mini marshmallows and semi-sweet chocolate chips but then I added E. Guittard milk chocolate wafers (which I coarsely chopped) along with peanut butter chips. I would like to try the caramel candy cubes in these eventually or, as Jessica suggested to me on Twitter, a dulce de leche swirl would probably be incredibly tasty!

I rarely make bar cookies. I always have a really tough time when I try to cut them. They crumble and look messy with their imperfect edges. The perfectionist in me cringes when treats don’t look nice, even if they’re the tastiest treats I’ve ever made. Fortunately, these bars are a breeze to cut. I refrigerated them for 30 minutes as the recipe instructs and then found they cut beautifully. I followed the suggestion to cut them into triangles, but far more than the 16 triangles the recipe mentions. Those would have been huge triangles! I think I did 32 triangles and they weren’t small by any measure.

These bars received some of the best reviews from Shane’s coworkers and from Shane himself of any of the desserts I’ve made! I find that the least fussy desserts are often the most well received and that was definitely the case here. I thought these were excellent too and I particularly enjoyed the peanut butter chips so I’ll definitely include those next time even if I add the caramels or a dulce de leche swirl. You can find the original recipe here if you’d like to give it a shot with the white chocolate, butterscotch chips and caramels. The bars keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a week, but I doubt they’ll last that long in your house!

Rocky Ledge Bars
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies by Martha Stewart Living Magazine

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 cups packed dark-brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Line with parchment paper, allowing a 2-inch overhang on the longer sides. Spray parchment with cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until well combined. Mix in flour mixture until combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in half of each of the marshmallows, semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate and peanut butter chips.

Spread batter in prepared pan. Scatter remaining marshmallows, semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate and peanut butter chips on top. Bake until top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Lift out of pan using the parchment, and transfer to a baking sheet. Refrigerate until set, at least 30 minutes. Remove parchment from bars, cut and serve.