Mississippi Mud Bars (small batch)

 

 

I wanted to bake a treat for my daughter and her husband to take home after our Friday Thanksgiving dinner and I wanted it to be something they both would enjoy. My son in law can be rather fussy when it comes to eating.

There is not a lot he will eat that is out of the ordinary. He is a simple meat and potatoes kind of a guy, and he doesn't even eat a lot of those.  My daughter ends up cooking two separate meals most nights.

 

I thought he might like brownies. He always takes those Little Debbie's kind of cakes to work in his lunch every day.  How much better is a homemade brownie than those!

And how much better than a homemade brownie are Mississippi Mud bars! Sinful and indulgent, I cannot think of too many people who would not enjoy Mississippi Mud bars. To do so would be indecent and not human! 

 

Mississippi Mud Bars are decadent fudgy brownies, studded with plenty of toasted pecan nuts and topped with a sweet layer of melted marshmallow and a rich chocolate fudge icing! What's not to like about that!

I made a small batch of a recipe that I found for Mississippi Mud Bars in Southern Living, Comfort Food.  This was another one of my cookbooks that I chose to replace here in Canada.

 

Its a brilliant cookbook, filled to overflowing with fabulously delicious Southern Comfort foods. How everyone down there isn't as wide as a house, I will never know!

Anyways, I thought a full recipe would be far more than my daughter and her husband could cope with, or should cope with so I cut the recipe in half with great success. 

 

Yes I did taste them. A woman's got to do what a woman's got to do. Its a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. I was only too happy to step up to the plate.

After all I wouldn't expect anyone to eat anything I wouldn't eat, right?  My only regret is sprinkling milk chocolate chips on top.  They came off looking white in the photographs and I can promise you they were not white.

 

They weren't even actually needed.  I was trying to dress them up a bit. Chocolate things can be notoriously difficult to photograph.  I thought it would help.

I hope you will forgive me for making something that doesn't look nice in photographs anyways, look even worse!  Don't let that deter you from making them. They are gorgeous!

 

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE MISSISSIPPI MUD BARS

Nothing too spectacular.  Simple ingredients put together in the most delicious way!  (That's my motto most of the time!)

For the brownie base and marshmallow topping:

• all purpose flour (plain flour in the UK)
• unsweetened cocoa powder (not chocolate drink mix, they are not the same thing)
• granulated sugar
• baking powder
• salt
• melted butter
• large free range eggs
• vanilla extract (I always use the pure stuff)
• miniature marshmallows (I like the all white ones)

For the frosting:

•  melted butter
• unsweetened cocoa powder
• evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed milk, you could also use half and half or single cream)
• vanilla extract (again I use pure)
• icing sugar (also known as powdered or confectioner's sugar)

 

HOW DO YOU MAKE MISSISSIPPI MUD BARS

The hardest part of making these lush bars is keeping your hands off them until everything sets up! 

The base for these is essentially a rich fudge brownie.  If you can make a brownie then you can make these.  The dry ingredients are whisked together and then you whisk in the melted butter, eggs and vanilla, whisking only until the mixture is smooth and homogenous.

 

You then stir in the toasted nuts. I always toast my nuts as you know. It just makes them taste nicer.  Toasted nuts taste better.  (8 to 10 minutes, spread on a baking sheet in a moderate oven. Let them cool before using.)

You then spread the batter into your prepared pan. I butter the pan and also partially line it with baking paper, so that there is an overhang on two opposite sides.

 

This just makes it so much easier to lift the finished bars out of the pan.  I am all for ease when it comes to things like this.  So just spread the batter in the buttered/lined pan and bake.

While they are baking put your frosting together as you will be needing it not too long after your brownie base is baked.

 

The brownie base is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, with only a few crumbs clinging to it.  They should not be gloopy in the least.

Once that happens you just scatter the marshmallows over top and return them to the oven for a minute or two.

You don't want the  marshmallows to brown at all. You just want them to melt until they are ooey and gooey.

Once that has happened, take them out (they will be all puffy) and then spread the frosting over top of the warm marshmallow. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it.

 

I found the easiest way to do this was to dollop blobs of the frosting over top of the batter here and there, and then just spread it over with the back of a metal spoon.  It worked really well.

The frosting is as easy to make as beating the ingredients together with an electric hand whisk until smooth and spreadable.

 

HINTS AND TIPS FOR SUCCESS 

Use cocoa powder and not chocolate drink mix.  Chocolate drink mix is considerably sweeter than cocoa powder and has a completely different consistency which just won't bake the same. The two are NOT interchangeable in my opinion.

Sift your cocoa powder.  Cocoa powder can be really lumpy and doesn't mix in well, so sift, sift, sift. Nobody wants to bite down on a lump of cocoa powder. It won't taste nice and it will be unsightly.

Always toast your nuts when baking. They just taste better.

  

Don't overmix your brownie batter. You just want it smooth and homogenous.  You don't want to overdevelop the gluten in the flour. This results in a tough brownie.

Sift your icing sugar to get out all of the lumps. Nobody wants to eat a lumpy frosting and it just doesn't look nice. 

Don't sweat it if your icing doesn't completely cover the marshmallow. It is okay if a bit of mallow peeks through. That's just the nature of mud.  Trust me, they will still be delicious!

Try (if you can) to leave them overnight before cutting into them.  You will get much nicer cuts.  Lift them out of the pan to cut. In an eight inch square pan, four cuts one way and 3 cups the other will give you 12 nice, decently sized squares.

Trust me, these are so sweet you won't want huge pieces. Break out the milk, because a nice tall glass of cold milk goes really well with these! 

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!  (And leave off the chocolate chips unless you like really sweet things!)

Mississippi Mud Bars (small batch)

Yield: 12 bars

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 32 MinTotal time: 42 Min

Deep dark, chocolatey and decadent delicious! Oh my goodness!

Ingredients

For the bars:

• 3/4 cup (110g) plain all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (4 TBS) cocoa powder (Not drinking chocolate)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (120g) butter, melted
• 2 large free range eggs, beaten lightly
• 1/2 TBS vanilla
• 1/2 cup (60g)chopped toasted pecan nuts 
• 1 1/2 cups (75g) mini marsmallows

For the frosting: (makes 1 1/4 cups)

• 1/4 cup (60g) butter, melted
• 2 1/2 TBS cocoa powder, sifted
• 2 1/2 TBS evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed)
• 1 3/4 cup (225g) icing sugar, sifted

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4.  Butter an 8-inch square baking tin. Line it with baking paper, giving yourself an overhang to lift the cooled squares out with.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Stir everything together until smooth. Stir in the pecan nuts.
3. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean with only a few moist crumbs attached.  Remove from the oven and immediately scatter the marshmallows over top and return to the oven for one to two minutes to melt the marshmallows.
5. Remove from the oven and carefully spread the frosting over top of the marshmallows.  Cool completely and cut into squares.
6. To make the frosting beat all of the ingredients together with an electric mixer at medium speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Beat at high speed until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.

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