Using up the sweets stash

In the last post I said I'd "soon" show you what I did with my leftover graham cracker crumbs, from when I made the Easter cheesecake.  Well, by "soon," I guess I meant within in the month,  and that's almost instantaneous in geologic time, which is how we live around here.

So we left our hero with about three cups of crumb crust mixture (graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar) and a big puzzle about what to do with it.  With some of it, she drizzled the leftover chocolate candy melts and had a little Me Time in front of the noon-hour news.  

The rest could make a great topping for ice cream, no doubt, but she wanted something more…something substantial.  Something that would use up a few other sweet ingredients that had been lying in wait throughout the kitchen.  

And something quick.  And easy.  And photogenic, right?

Well, two out of three ain't bad.  But that crumbly mess is so good!  A quick search of the Taste of Home recipe site turned up the S'mores Crumb Bars concoction.  Three of its five ingredients I had mixed up already in the leftover crumbs.  The last two were in my cupboards.

First came half the crumb mixture, compacted into the bottom of the pan as if you're about to lay bricks on top.

Then the chocolate chips and the tiny marshmallows.  I had partial bags of semisweet chips and milk chocolate chunks.  My marshmallows had lived too long next to the toaster oven in the bread box and had melded together.  I just pulled them apart again.  Sticky fingers are fun.

Then came the second layer of crumbs, pressed down again.  Spatula marks are evidence of effort.

The pan spent ten minutes at 375-degrees F in the toaster oven.  The top crust browned a little more than would be acceptable in restaurants, but we're alright with it here.

A tastier picture:

I'm pretty sure I didn't match the ingredient measurements exactly on anything in the recipe.  Probably more butter would have cemented the crumbs more thoroughly.  Nevertheless, the pan of bars turned out delicious.  I mean, good grief, how wrong can you go with graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows?  Especially since the traditional method of cooking requires the marshmallows to be set on fire?