Mud Hen Bars
By: TheHillCountryCook
Published: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 8:32pm

Ingredients




1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nuts, chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup brown sugar

Preparation

1 First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 2 Beat together your sugar and butter until creamy. 3 If you're like me and keep your butter in the freezer, I soften mine in the microwave, which usually gets too soft, so I stick the bowl back in the fridge for a little while after I beat in the sugar to stiffen it back up. 4 Next , mix in 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks (save the whites for your meringue). 5 Then, dump in the dry ingredients - the flour, salt and baking powder. 6 Mix well. Spread into 9x13" pan. 7 It appears that there is not enough batter to spread along the bottom, but keep methodically spreading it with your spatula, all will be fine. 8 Then, sprinkle with marshmallows, nuts, chocolate chips, and love. 9 Finally, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in the brown sugar. 10 Spread the meringue mixture over the marshmallows and chocolate chips. (This will also appear to not be enough, but it will.) 11 Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until bars are a deep golden brown and the crust is cooked through. 12 Two more tips: 13 One friend told me she baked the bars on the bottom rack for 15 minutes and then the middle rack for 15 minutes and it came out perfect. 14 I baked the cookie layer first for 10 minutes or so, then added my chips, mallows, nuts, and meringue topping. Perfect! Either way works! 15 I hope ya'll love these bars as much as I do! One of my new favorites! Feel free to post a picture on the Facebook page of your masterpiece, preferably you eating it! 16 Peace, love, and baking :)

About


Saaay whaaat? The moment I saw these beauties on Mommy's Kitchen, I knew I had to make them, no matter what they were. I just looved the name. When I found out they were marshmallow, chocolate, and cookie, uh HELLO, I was hooked. They even have a meringue topping to make it feel extra special! I was also pleasantly surprised, they're not sickly sweet. They're not sooo sweet they make you're teeth hurt.... They're just sweet enough to know you should add an extra 10 on the elliptical tomorrow..... And then bring the pan to work tomorrow to share with your co-workers - after saving one, or three, for yourself. Oh, and your family.
What the heck is a mud hen you ask? I don't know and who cares, just eat the daggum bar. Actually, Mommy's Kitchen did share an interesting theory. The mud hen is some awkward looking bird (well, Wiki didn't say that, but it sounds pretty weird!) with realllly short wings and absurdly long legs. Apparently, it takes a long time to take flight (good grief, can you imagine this), paddling it's poor string bean legs in the water as its short stalky body tries to get out of the water (kinda reminds me of me!), and I guess it stirs up a bunch of mud in the process.
I don't know. You got me. Sorta the same as my other favorite, Mississippi Mud Pie Bars (apparently I have an affinity for high fructose corn syrup marshmallows).
Ok, everybody have their nuts and marshmallows in hand? And flour, eggs, chocolate chips, and egg beater? Let's do this!!