By: Alice Rapacz

Ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (around 8 full sheets)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 heaping cup marshmallow creme (fluff)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line an 8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy (about 2 minutes).
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until combined. (It may look curdled but that is ok) scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
4. In a separate medium bowl mix together the flour, graham cracker crumb, baking powder, and salt.
5. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix on medium speed until combined.
6. In your prepared baking pan, spread ⅔ of the cookie dough onto the bottom of the pan. The dough will be sticky so do your best to evenly spread the dough in a thin layer.
7. Use a spatula to spread the marshmallow creme on top of the dough. It is very sticky so just do your best to spread it in an even layer.
8. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the marshmallow creme in an even layer.
9. Using the remaining cookie dough, mold it into flat pieces and layer on top of the chocolate chips. (There won’t be enough dough to cover the whole top in a single layer, some marshmallow and chocolate chips will be exposed.)
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
11. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
12. Lift the bars out of the pan and cut into squares
13. Cover and store the leftover bars at rooms for up to 1 week.
14. Lastly, Enjoy!

Review:

The process of making the bars was very straightforward and the recipe was easy to follow. Once the dough was made the only part that was kind of hard was the assembly, only because of how sticky the dough and marshmallow creme was. I used my hands to spread out the dough, which made it easier to make sure it was spread evenly to each corner. Using a rubber spatula to spread out the marshmallow creme was a lot easier than anything else because it didn’t stick to it as much. I found that placing a few dollops of the creme on the dough before spreading it out made it much easier.

The hardest part of the whole process was waiting. The combination of the baking time and cooling time felt like forever and the smell of sweet graham cracker filled the air.

These cookie bars were so good! The inside of the cookie was soft from the marshmallow and the actual cookie itself, and the outside had the perfect amount of crunch. The sweetness from the marshmallow complemented the bitterness from the chocolate. I wasn’t sure how the marshmallow creme would bake, I didn’t know if it would get hard like other marshmallows when they are cooked for a while, but they were still soft.

These bars were so good, I made them a second time. They were the perfect way to end the night and my family loved them. I think that these would be perfect for a summer night and definitely are a better version of the classic s’more.

By: Austin Bailey-Zimmerman

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup crushed pretzels
• 1 cup potato chips
• 4 graham crackers broken up
• 1 cup toffee bits
• Flaky sea salt for garnish

Instuctions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and the sugars until they are creamy and combined, about 2-3 minutes
4. Add in the vanilla and the eggs and beat again, until everything is evenly mixed together.
5. Stir the flour, salt, and baking soda into the wet ingredients and mix.
6. Add the milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, crushed pretzels, potato chips, graham cracker pieces, and toffee bits into the mixture and stir just until evenly distributed.
7. Scoop 1/3 cup sized balls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Space them about 1 to 2 inches apart to allow for spreading.
8. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until golden brown
9. Top with the flaky sea salt.
10. Enjoy!

Review

I made these cookies for my friends and I to have. I have never tried to make these types of cookies before, and I was very pleased with the outcome. I absolutely loved the sweet chocolate, caramel, and graham crackers paired with the salty chips and pretzels. I also loved how crunchy the chips were along with the gooey chocolate and caramel. Overall, the cookies were very balanced, and the flavors compliment each other greatly.

I had decided to make these cookies because they honestly just looked so fun! My friends and I decided to have a bonfire because it was finally getting warm outside again, and I thought it would be great to have a treat with it. It was really enjoyable to make with my friends, we had a great time, and the outcome was so worth the time spent making them.

These cookies would be great for any occasion, whether it be a holiday, party, or just for fun. It is a great thing to make with your friends and family!

I got this recipe from House of Nash Eats by Amy (https://houseofnasheats.com/kitchen-sink-cookies). She did a great job with this recipe; it was all very easy to follow and to make.

I really enjoyed making these cookies, and had an even better time eating them with my friends! Try this recipe for yourself! Enjoy!

By: Norah Hoglund and Max Cahoon

Overview

Jam thumbprint cookies are a classic Christmas or holiday cookie for this time of year. They not only look cute but they also taste really good. We tried out a recipe for them and are going to share our thoughts on it.

Link to the recipe:

https://www.loveandlemons.com/thumbprint-cookies/#wprm-recipe-container-53346

Review

Taste

These cookies had two components: the cookie and the jam. The cookie was like a shortbread cookie, and it was sweet and crumbly. They were also very buttery and they were quite a good cookie. If they didn’t have the jam in the center they would have been a bit boring, so good thing there was jam in the middle. It added a different tart flavor to the cookies as well as a fruity flavor and a different texture. The cookies would have been a bit dry without the jam but it made their texture perfect. We rate the taste an 8/10.

Baking process

The process of making these cookies was fairly easy. The cookie part was pretty straightforward to make and wasn’t really any more difficult than any other cookie. The hardest part was putting the jam in the middle of them, because it was sort of hard to be precise with a spoon and to not spill over the edge of the indent that was made in the cookies for the jam.

Another thing about the recipe is that it says to wait until the bottoms are lightly browned, so we put it in for 12 minutes but the bottom edge didn’t look brown at all, so we put it in for a little bit longer which made the cookies a little more dry. Other than that, these cookies were pretty simple to make. We rate the baking process a 7/10.

Overall

Overall, this recipe is pretty simple and straightforward and yields good results. The taste and texture is good and the blend of flavors is pleasant. The one thing that we would change is the instruction about looking for brownness, because you can’t see if the bottoms would be brown.

Overall, we rate this recipe a 7.5/10. We would recommend this recipe to anyone who enjoys baking, cookies, and especially the sweet jam.

RECIPE

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 cup almond flour, spooned and leveled
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ½ cup raspberry and/or apricot jam (Some people may think the amount of jam is too much, so you could use a ¼ cup  instead of half)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the two flours and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract until fluffy. Gradually add the flour and mix until completely combined.
4. Scoop rounded tablespoons of the dough and roll them into balls. Place them on the prepared baking sheets. Gently press down to form discs and use your thumb, or the back of a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, to make an indentation in the middle of the cookies. Use a spoon to spoon ½ teaspoon of jam onto each cookie.
5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely
6. Then enjoy.