Armando Bars

Armando and a glimpse of his bars.

In July, I made "Smore's Bars" for my roommate's birthday. I took several of the bars to work to share and one of my co-worker's was smitten. We're talking, asking about them a month after the fact, asking me to make them again almost every day for a couple of weeks, randomly telling me several days about how good they were in love. His birthday was today, so I decided to make him a batch. In honor of the Birthday boy, the treat was renamed, "Armando Bars."

Here's the recipe:

Armando Bars

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs*
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars*
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)*

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
Use about 2/3 to
Place chococolate bars (or bar) over first layer of graham crackers. If you use two bars, lay them side by side. If you use chocolate chips, just sprinkle them over the first layer of dough. If you use one king size bar, just break it up and lay it over the dough in a single layer.
Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff.
Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned.
Cool completely before cutting into bars

Makes 16 cookie bars.

*3/4 cup crumbs is approximately 7 full-sized graham crackers, put in the food processor or food chopper until ground into crumbs.

*1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips can be used instead of the chocolate bars. You just want enough chocolate to cover the layer of chocolate. I used 1 king sized bar for this batch, and I think it worked out just fine. There still was enough chocolate to cover an 8 by 8 pan.

*Marshmallow creme is a pain to smooth onto the layers without everything sticking to it. It's also a pain to measure. I've found microwaving the jar for 15 seconds aids in spreading the creme onto the layer. If you have a hard time measuring the creme, you want about a half inch or so layer over the bars, or measure it to what you prefer. 1 1/2 cups is most of a jar of marshmallow creme I've found, if that helps.

Adapted from Baking Bites