I was shocked how quickly this dessert came together. Being a southerner there's really no take on pecan pie that I don't like, these bars included. I made them for my family on our beach trip this year (hence the melted ice cream in the picture two seconds after I scooped it!), and everyone loved them. Ice cream is always an essential part of dessert for my family, and while I'm not a huge ice cream and cake fan, these pecan pie pars almost demand it.

Thinking about what else to say about these to convince you they're delicious makes me want to go make them right now, so I'm going to have to cut it off here seeing that I have class in an hour. Really the only thing you might not have in your cabinet out of these ingredients is a package of pecans. So write those down on your list now and make these asap!

Chunky Pecan Pie Bars
Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

For the Crust:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
¼ cup packed brown sugar

Filling:
3 large eggs
¾ cup corn syrup
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¾ cups coarsely chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (or chocolate chunks in a bag!)
1½ cups chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.

2. For the crust, mix together the flour, butter and brown sugar until crumbly. Press into the baking pan and bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown.

3. For the filling, beat the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla extract with a wire whisk. Stir in the chunks and pecans. Pour evenly over the baked crust and bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.

4. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cool completely and cut into bars. Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the refrigerator if you live in a warm/humid area with no air conditioning).

Yep, I was the impatient person who cut one right out of the center before taking pictures.

So which are you wondering more right about now: what on earth is a smookie or where on earth have I been for the past two months?


For the latter of those let's just say things got hectic and unfortunately blogging took the backseat, but I'm back now (for good this time!). As for the smookies, the short answer is it's a s'more and cookie in one. I've made s'more cookies before, but these are on their own level of good. Therefore, they get their own weird name. Not to be confused with Snooki, which people will undoubtedly think you are saying when you tell them you're making smookies. I'm not sure if I want to know what a cookie named the Snooki would be. Any ideas?


The concept behind these is fairly basic. You lay out the graham crackers, drop the chilled dough on top, pull them out of the oven right before they're done to top them off with chocolate, and a few minutes later you have yourself a delicious mixture of everything you love about s'mores and everything you love about cookies. I personally don't like the graham crackers when they're not as crispy, so I like to finish these off as quickly as possible (see how I justify things?). I also now omit the cinnamon because the first time I made these everyone's initial comment was, "Is there cinnamon in these?". We all know questions pertaining to a certain ingredient that aren't followed by an "Mmm!" aren't quite the best sign. That's also coming from a cinnamonster over here, so you know it pains me to leave it out. Your call! Hope you'll enjoy them regardless!


Smookies
Recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything


11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. I used one 11x17 pan and one 9x13 pan but you can really use any sized pans you want.

Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). I used 16 graham cracker squares on one pan and 10 squares on another. You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.

Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (I did one batch right away and another after chilling overnight and found there was no difference.)

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. I averaged about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per graham cracker square as seen in the picture above. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.