We were blessed this past weekend to travel West a few hours and spend some time with extended family. It’s a weekend we look forward to every year, though this year it seemed a little more special because we all missed it last year. One of the things I try to do every time we go is to come up with some kind of new and exciting bars to take along. Usually that involves hours of trolling my internet friends, looking for something new and delicious looking. This year, I kept it simple and made up my own special creation.
It worked spectacularly!
I started with a brownie base. I thought about the many different brownie recipes I have and decided that the brownie layer for my bars would be my favorite brownie- a Malt Fudge Brownie that is dense and fudgy- though I leave out the malted milk balls. It’s a different brownie- it calls for malted milk powder which gives the brownie a slightly malty flavor, yet they’re not really that sweet. They’re not overly sweet as some brownies can be. I multiplied my recipe by half because I wanted to fill a sheet pan with this bar. The brownies were baked up in no time, and then I focused on the topping.
Since these brownies are not super sweet, I wanted a sweet topping- mini marshmallows were going to fit the bill perfectly. I let the brownies cool for about ten minutes, and then I spread half a bag of mini marshmallows over the brownies in a single layer. Then I needed something to adhere the marshmallows a little better, so I decided on a chocolate pan frosting- which I adapted, of course, to punch up the flavor just a bit.
These brownies are delicious! They’re fudgy and completely satisfying. The marshmallows and cooked frosting take the brownie into the stratosphere, and they were a huge hit over the weekend. They traveled beautifully, and we even brought just a few home with us to add to Andy’s lunches this week. Well worth the trouble, these are going into the recipe file.
Mallo-Malt Brownies
Brownie Layer: 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour1/2 cup malted milk powder
3/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups butter
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate — chopped 3 cups sugar
6 whole eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla Topping: 1/2 bag miniature marshmallows Frosting: 1 stick of butter 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1/3 cup milk 2 tablespoons coffee 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted pinch of salt 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 325ºF.
For the brownie layer, combine the flour, malted milk powder and salt and mix well. Melt butter and chocolate together over low heat until fully melted. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Fold dry ingredients into chocolate mixture. Add vanilla.
Bake for 35 minutes. Allow to cool on the rack for ten minutes. After ten minutes spread the miniature marshmallows over the brownie in a single layer.
To make the frosting, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Add the cocoa, milk and coffee and whisk together until well combined. Add the pinch of salt. Stir constantly while bringing to a boil. Just when it comes to the boil, remove from heat and whisk in the powdered sugar. Stir until the frosting is smooth and there are no lumps. Stir in the vanilla.
Drizzle the chocolate frosting over the marshmallows. Work fairly quickly as the frosting sets as it cools.
Allow the bars to rest for at least an hour before cutting into them- if you can wait overnight they’re even better.
Makes 45 servings.