The beauty of food blogs is that you can hear about someone else's experience with a recipe and, in most cases, see a picture. For the majority of things I make off of other food blogs, I have expectations based on what I've read, and those expectations are typically met. But, as these s'mores granola bars proved, that isn't always the case. When I saw the s'mores granola bars on Fake Ginger, I was so excited. We love anything s'mores flavored (remember how big of a hit these bars were?!) and so I knew I'd love these.

I did love them. So much so, in fact, that I will absolutely make them again. However, while Amanda's bars came out looking like actual granola bars, my result was more of a s'mores...crumble. I'm not complaining, Ryan and I loved the crumble. Less than twenty-four hours after making these, the two of us managed to finish off the entire pan. We at first ate it with forks out of bowls; though I had sliced it into bars, they completely fell apart when I tried to remove them. We weren't complaining...I even wished we had some ice cream to crumble the crumble over!

After the bars rested a little longer, some of them came out more like bars, but there was still a lot of crumbly topping falling off. I did think the topping and crust didn't seem to have enough liquid, but Amanda said her version came out just fine. Next time maybe I'll use fewer dry ingredients, or up the maple syrup amount...or I'll just make it as crumble again, and pair it warm with some ice cream!



S'Mores Granola Bars (or crumble, if you're me!)
from Fake Ginger


Ingredients:
-6 tbsp unsalted butter
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-6 tbsp maple syrup
-2 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup graham cracker crumbs
-1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
-1 1/4 cups mini marshmallows

Directions:
1. Over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan, melt butter with sugar and syrup. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Add oats, flour, salt, and graham cracker crumbs, stirring to combine.
3. Press half of the oat mixture into a greased 9 x 9 inch pan and allow to cool. Preheat oven to 350F.
4. Top crust with chocolate chips, followed by the marshmallows. Spoon remaining crust mixture over the top.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes before cutting into bars.