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There is only one appropriate response to finding a product called “Coffee Syrup” at your local Trader Joes: you purchase it, let it sit on your kitchen counter for a week, and allow your mind to subliminally conjure up recipes with it. Dousing pancakes in it is clearly not enough…

I concocted this little ditty inspired by autumnal campfires, conceptual seven-layer bars, and of course, the love of coffee.

I give you:

Sh’Mocha Bars

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Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter (8 Tablespoons)
• 1 ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 26 (ish) Marshmallows, cut in halves or fourths*
• ½ cup Coffee Syrup

 

Heat your oven to 325°

Put the butter in a 9” deep dish pie plate and put it in the oven

until it’s all melty.

Toss the graham cracker crumbs on top of the butter

and combine them with a fork until there’s no dry crumb remaining.

Press the crumbs down into a crust with the back of your fork

top with chocolate chips and sprinkle with salt,

then evenly distribute the marshmallows,

and drizzle with coffee syrup.

Bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Watch it though, as marshmallows do like to puff up, and if you see they’re about to spill over the edge of your pie plate, just open the oven door and they’ll deflate a bit.

When they’ve baked for 20 minutes and they look gooey, turn on your broiler to 500° and broil for 2-3 minutes.

Watch this the whole time… you know when your campfire marshmallow ignites in flame and you quickly bring it to your face to blow it out??? Yeah, you don’t want to do that with 26 of them in your oven. Just saying.

Take the pan out of the oven and let cool completely. Chill for at least an hour.

Cut with a very sharp knife. If the marshmallow is sticky, spray cooking oil on your knife.

Serve.

O good grief. This is ridiculous.

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*Fresh marshmallows are easier to cut than old, sticky ones. You can still break the sticky ones though, by spraying cooking spray on your finger tips and pulling them in to pieces. Cutting them is an exercise in futility. Work smart.