Welcome fellow authors and readers! I hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of summer vacation before school starts. Unfortunately my kids start school before swim team ends. We didn’t get to go on any family vacation to the mountains this year. I’m hoping when we get a short holiday we can go somewhere, even the beach for a day would be amazing!
If you missed what the talented PG Forte had to say, just click and pop back.
Today we are asked to share our favourite recipe for hot summer days. It can be a drink, a dessert, a meal…anything!
A couple of weeks ago I shared a recipe for watermelon salsa. That is my go to recipe for the dog days of summer because it is so refreshing! If you haven’t tried it, click back through my blog posts. Its delicious and you won’t regret it!
Any type of BBQ is great for summer. We usually never cook inside unless we are making a pasta or something like that. The summer is filled with salmon, ribs, chicken, pork chops all cooked on the grill. My husband has a smoker so we do smoked nachos, they are sooooo good!
Another thing that goes along with summer is s’mores! So I’m sharing my recipe for spicy smoky s’mores bars. They are delicious and you will need to make this recipe immediately!
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted, plus more, softened, for pan
18 plain graham crackers (about 2 packages)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 cups milk chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder, optional
3 1/2 cups mini-marshmallows
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with foil. You want to leave about 4 inches of overhang on the 2 opposite sides. These are going to serve as your handles to remove the bars from the pan in 1 piece, so make sure that there is enough of the overhang for you to have a solid grip. Grease the foil well with the softened butter.
- In your food processor, grind the graham crackers into a fine meal (you need 2 cups). In a large bowl, combine your crumbs with the sugar, sea salt and melted butter. The mixture should look and feel like wet sand. Set aside a heaping 1/2 cup of the crumb mixture for the topping. Evenly press the remaining crumb mixture into the bottom the foil-lined pan. Pop your crust into the oven and bake until it is golden brown and your kitchen smells of graham crackers, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven and allow it to cool on a rack or on a dishtowel on your counter.
- Melt the milk chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, stirring continuously until fully melted. Do not turn up the heat to hurry this process, you must keep it on low. Alternately, you can microwave the chocolate on low power, stirring after 2 minutes. Once the chocolate is fully melted, it’s time to add the chipotle pepper powder, if using, and stir it in completely.
- Preheat the broiler.
- Pour the melted chocolate over the cooled graham cracker crust. Spread the chocolate evenly over the crust with a butter knife. Sprinkle the marshmallows over the chocolate and press them lightly into the chocolate. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over and in between the marshmallows so that you cannot see the chocolate peaking through the marshmallows. Broil the bars 6 inches from the flame until the marshmallows are golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Refrigerate the bars until the chocolate is hard, 2 hours or so. Grab the ends of the foil liner and lift the bars out of the pan in 1 piece. Move to a cutting board and cut into 24 squares.
Now continue on your hop to see what delicious dessert the wonderful Leslie Hachtel is going to share with us.
Well that’s it for me today, enjoy the dessert. Until next time!
Check out Leslie Hachtel’s book Murder Most Notorious
A beautiful homicide detective and a sexy cold case guy have to team up to find a vicious ax-wielding killer. Brutal murders have shocked the city and all the evidence points to a twin sister once thought dead. So many twists and turns in this action packed romantic thriller you might get dizzy. And so much passion.
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