Espresso S’More Bars

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 325u00b0F. Line a 8x8 square baking dish with foil or parchment paper.

2. 2

   In a medium-sized bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Pour in melted butter and stir to combine. Press mixture evenly in pan (I like to use the bottom of a measuring cup for even spreading). Bake for 5 minutes, or until crust is firm.

3. 3

   Place pan on a cooling rack and let crust cool completely. While crust is cooling, make ganache.

4. 4

   Place chopped chocolate and espresso powder in a medium-sized bowl.

5. 5

   Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan until almost simmering. Pour over chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes.

6. 6

   Whisk until completely smooth. Cover bowl (I used a kitchen towel) and let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour, stirring with a rubber spatula every 15 minutes.

7. 7

   Pour ganache over crust, cover pan and transfer to fridge. Chill for 1 hour, or until ganache is firm.

8. 8

   For the meringue:

9. 9

   In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together egg whites and sugar. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water (make sure bowl does not touch water). Whisk until mixture reaches a temperature of 160u00b0F. or until sugar is completely dissolved and egg whites are warm to the touch, about 3-5 minutes.

10. 10

    Transfer bowl to stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form and mixture is thick, glossy, and marshmallow-like in texture, about 5 minutes.

11. 11

    Remove pan from fridge. Pull bars out from pan and carefully slide off of foil and onto desired serving platter. Spread meringue evenly over top of bars. Using a kitchen torch, toast meringue to desired toastiness. Serve immediately or return to fridge until ready to serve.

12. 12

    Leftover bars (what are those?) can be stored in fridge.

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    Notes:

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    1. For the ganache, I used a combination of bittersweet and semisweet chocolate (1 cup chopped bittersweet and 1/2 cup chopped semisweet or chips). I highly recommend this combination but you can use whatever type of chocolate you desire! For my bittersweet chocolate, I used Trader Joe's 72% cacao dark chocolate-super yummy (in cookies too)!

15. 15

    2. For measuring purposes, my measuring cup was a heaping 1 1/2 cups of chocolate, so don't worry too much about getting a perfectly even measure.

* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.