These little, unassuming bite-size goodies made quite an impression last weekend.  I brought them to a Christmas party where they were completely devoured and raved about.  I saw one of the party guests 2 days later and she asked me for the recipe.  I hadn’t had such a great response to a dessert in, well…ever!  I wish I could say they were my own creation, but alas, they were not.  I got the recipe in my 12 Days of Cookies email from the Food Network.  This was Day 10: Sunny’s Crunchy Peanut Butter S’more Bites.

If you go to the Food Network site and read the review on these cookies, you will wonder why I made them.  Bad reviews on taste and preparation.  What was I thinking?  Well, I wasn’t.  However, with a few modifications to the recipe, they taste yummy (still very sweet of course) but still make quite a mess of your kitchen.  Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good!

Here are the changes I made, and some I would make in the future:

1. Add powdered sugar a little at a time to the butter and peanut butter mixture, just until it is sturdy enough to hold its shape.  This should be 3-4 cups…not the 5 cups called for in the recipe.
2. Let the coins sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight, or put them in the freezer.  When you’re dipping them in the melted chocolate, they get very soft and will start to fall apart if they are not properly chilled.
3. Melt more chocolate than called for.  I did not have enough to coat all my little peanut butter coins.  I also added a little shortening to make the chocolate a little thinner and easier to coat the bites.
4. Let the graham cracker coated bites sit in the fridge again to firm up before filling them with the marshmallow cream.  I would recommend buying two containers of the cream, as I also ran out of that.
5. When sandwiching the cookies, make sure to use a very flat cookie as your base.  If it is not flat enough, then if will topple over and sticky marshmallow cream will spill out the sides.

If you can make it through the preparation and assembly of these cookies, you will loved by the people who you choose to bless with these little bites of peanut buttery, marshmallowy heaven.  Give yourself a good 2 days to get these done.  If you try to complete them after work one day, you will be sad and sorry.

Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bites

Adapted from Sunny Anderson, Food Network

Ingredients

• 2 cups crunchy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• 24 ounces (4 cups) milk chocolate chips, melted
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup marshmallow fluff

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat the peanut butter and butter until smooth.
2. Add in powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time until the mixture is sturdy.
3. Using a tablespoon measure, scoop the mixture and form into balls, then press into a coin shape the diameter of a quarter. Refrigerate to set up dough cookies, at least 1 hour.
4. To make bites, dip peanut butter coins in melted chocolate then toss in graham cracker crumbs until coated.
5. Arrange the coated coins on a wire rack or wax paper and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set.
6. Add the marshmallow fluff to a pastry bag or plastic bag and cut the tip.
7. Remove the coins from the refrigerator and squeeze about 1 teaspoon of marshmallow fluff into the center of half of the coins.
8. Then top each half with another coin to make a sandwich and place return to the refrigerator to set, about 1 hour.