Rocky Ledge Bars
It’s been a while since I’ve done a Week of something, so I thought I’d feature 5 bar/brownie recipes. They’ve been my favorite dessert recently.
A couple weeks ago was my brother’s wife’s baby shower. We’re all really excited about the first grandchild in our family and I can’t wait to meet my nephew in just a couple months. The majority of my family is still in the Midwest, but luckily quite a few of them got to make the trip out East for the shower. One of my sisters, my mom, and 3 of her sisters all came to Boston for a 3 day weekend.
The day before the shower, the plan was to hang out at my brother’s house in the evening. I offered to bring over a dessert to snack on. One thing I love about making bars is that they travel so well! You don’t have to worry about them toppling over like you do with cupcakes.
We all really enjoyed these bars. They had the perfect amount of candy mixins and surprisingly weren’t too sweet. I think all of my aunts and my mom asked for this recipe so they could make them for their families. I did slightly adjust the amount of chocolate in the recipe as shown below.
Two Years Ago: Lemon and Key Lime Curd
Check out my entire week of bars and brownies here.
Rocky Ledge Bars
Yield: ~36
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini marshmallows, divided
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup white chocolate chips, divided
18 squares individually wrapped caramels, divided and chopped into quarters
1 1/2 cup chocolate covered toffee chips, divided
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Cut a piece of parchment paper large enough to cover the bottom of the pan and to overhang the longer sides. Place the parchment in the pan, butter the parchment, and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl using a wooden spoon, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture; mix just until combined. Fold in half of the marshmallows, chocolates, caramels, and toffee chips.
Using an offset spatula, spread the batter in the prepared pan. Scatter the remaining marshmallows, chocolates, caramels, and toffee chips over the surface of the batter. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out almost clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled. Using the overhanging parchment paper, remove from pan. Place on a baking sheet, and chill in the refrigerator until set, about 30 minutes.
Remove from refrigerator, and peel off the parchment paper. Using a serrated knife, cut into 15 irregular-shaped bars. Stack bars vertically. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Recipe from Martha Stewart
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Aren’t they the best? They’re so addicting. I’ve actually starting using the same ingredients, but mixing them like a more traditional chocolate chip cookie (i.e., softened butter instead of melted), because I like the dough better with softened butter. The baked cookies were just as good. Best of both worlds!
These look gorgeous. Don’t you just love AB??? 🙂
The cookies look great. I love AB too..he’s such a dork (in a good way).
I love the ATK/CI Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. I will have to try these to see what I think. I remember seeing that the recipes looked similar so I am sure I will love them.
Another AB lover here. My husband gives me a hard time about my DVR list with him but loves it when I give him a fun tidbit or cook him something from AB.
I completely agree CoCo. Hubby does the same thing. I sometimes even watch episodes I’ve seen before! Hubby doesn’t like to admit it, but he loves AB too. Sometimes he’ll be the one saying “AB says to do this…”
They look SO good!! I am a sucker for a chewy chocolate chip cookie. Although, I must side with your hubby – I prefer mine with just a bit of chocolate.
How much is a stick of butter? I’m not in the US and have never come across this measurement before.
Sorry about that Naomi – 1 stick of butter = 8 Tbsp. Does that help?
this is very similar to the ccc recipe i use, but anything that makes it chewier is good in my books! i will have to keep this one in mind 🙂
Yes Jen, thank you!
Yum! I will definitely be trying these. I always chill my cookie dough too usually because I’m too busy with 3 little ones but I also read that article in the NY times awhile ago and I felt like I deserved a nice big pat on the back for always doing the 24hour chill 🙂 Great post and beautiful cookies!
I love Alton Brown because of his scientific approach to cooking and baking. I’ve been baking “The Chewy” for years. One thing I do differently: Before chilling the dough, I scoop it into balls. This makes the process much easier. Sometimes I freeze the balls for baking later. After I place the balls on parchment, I carefully place a few extra chocolate morsels on top, pointy side up. This extra step produces picture-perfect cookies every time.
The Chewy is my go to recipe for cookies. I make a few alterations, occasionally, such as substituting 1/4 of the brown sugar with dark brown sugar. I bake small portions in mini muffin tins; one batch makes 48 cookie bites that are super chewy and the perfect size bite. I’ve made them every year for Christmas gifts for a few years now.