Snack Bars – And A Confession
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Oh, y’all. I have a big confession to make. You see, I am…I’m…well…I’m the world’s biggest dork. No, really, I am. I pretend I’m just a girl with a blog who knows how to cook, when in reality, I’m just a big dork. You see, a year or so ago I discovered the beauty of wax paper. I believe I first saw it used for lining cake pans. And, you know, it works perfectly for lining cake pans. It’s also perfect for brownies or basically anything where the wax paper is covered completely by the food. You know what wax paper is not good for? Baking cookies.
I have been baking cookies on wax paper (and recommending that you do so, too!) for the last year and I’m only now realizing that you aren’t supposed to do that. The exposed wax paper smokes! Some even say that it leaves a waxy taste on your food, but I’ve never had a problem with that. However, I was thisclose to buying a new oven over the summer because it was smoking so bad when I used it! Well, surprise! The wax paper was what was smoking! Not the oven itself! Let’s just say, my husband is so happy that I ultimately decided to upgrade my camera instead of my (perfectly fine) oven. (And, yes, I did choose a camera over an oven even though I totally thought something was wrong with my oven. Priorities! I have them!)
So, there you have it. I am a complete dork who doesn’t even know how to use an oven. Also, stop using wax paper to bake your cookies.
In honor of my lack of oven skills, I thought I’d share a no bake dessert with you today. I promise, nothing will smoke. Unless you burn your marshmallows, but you can’t blame me for that if you do!
I honestly don’t even have the words to describe these little snack mix bars. They are just beyond delicious. In fact, I have been trying to watch what I eat and I’ve been doing good! I’ve just been shipping all my goodies off to work with my husband, but these little guys? No way. They are staying here with mama.
These little treats have the sweet salty thing going on. The snack mix is made up of rice chex cereal, pretzel sticks, and lots of m&ms. I used a mixture of plain, peanut, and peanut butter m&ms, because I’m wild and crazy, but you can use whatever type of m&ms you like best. I also stirred in a few chocolate chips, just for fun.
The goo that holds these bars together is made of marshmallows, butter, and peanut butter. Could there be a tastier combination of ingredients? I think not.
I would like to note that I didn’t press my mixture together firmly enough in the pan, so the bars fell apart a bit. Next time I will get out a piece of (un-bakeable) wax paper and lay it over the tops of the bars and really press it all together.
Please, if you take anything away from this blog, let it be these two things: 1. Don’t bake wax paper unless it is completely covered by food, and 2. These snack bars are so delicious they will destroy your desire to diet, so proceed with caution.
Snack Mix Bars
Adapted from Inn Cuisine
- 3 cups pretzel sticks, snapped in half
- 2 1/3 cups chex cereal (I used rice, you can use what you like best)
- 2 cups m&ms (use whichever you like best, I did a mixture of plain, peanut, and peanut butter)
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips (any kind)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 5 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
In a large bowl, combine pretzels, cereal, m&ms, and chocolate chips. Set aside.
In a large sauce pan, melt together the butter and peanut butter over low heat. Stir in the marshmallows and continue to cook over low heat until the marshmallows are melted.Pour over the snack mix and toss to coat.
Press mixture into a 9×13 pan lined with wax or parchment paper. Firmly press mixture together to ensure that the bars stick together when they have cooled. Refrigerate until the mixture is completely cool and firm. Cut into bars and serve.
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can I use big marshmallows?
What a great recipe! This would be great for kids, too! Yum! Sorry you didn’t know about not using wax paper in the oven. But now you do! All your goodies will come out even more beautiful now.
Genesis,
I’m not sure if 5 1/2 cups of large marshmallows will equal the same as 5 1/2 cups of mini marshmallows when melted. You might end up with less melted marshmallow, if that makes sense. You can certainly try if you want, though! I used almost an entire regular sized bag of mini’s to equal the 5 1/2 cups if that helps any.
Karly
You are not alone! I too recently found out wax paper is not meant for baking!!
I bake my cookies on parchment paper. I <3 parchment paper!
These look AWESOME! I love no bake desserts and cannot wait to try these!
ps. I once tried to microwave metal….so your wax paper flaw is NOTHING
Here’s how much of a dork *I* am: I didn’t even know you could use wax paper for baking!! HAHAHA. I figured the wax would, well, melt. So I’ve always used parchment paper for baking and freezer paper for iron-on stencils… and wax paper? I don’t think I have any in the house.
Clearly, I do not understand the uses of wax paper~
Too funny. I was always afraid to put wax paper in the oven because I thought there would be a pool of melted wax all over the place.
I wanted to ask you, if you don’t mind sharing, what kind of camera you upgraded to and what kind of camera did you have before? Do you love your new one? I’ve been wanting to upgrade forever and can’t make up my mind. . .
oh karly. thanks for the confession–it’s good to know that others make silly blunders too. you more than make up for it with these bars though–they look amazing!
Natalie,
I don’t mind sharing at all. In fact, I tend to over-share about my camera. People ask me and then they get a looooong paragraph about all my likes and dislikes and this lens and that lens and, oh Lord, I bore people to tears. So, I’ll keep it simple. I used to have a Nikon D40 and I adored it. I upgraded to the D90, which I am falling in love with, but still have a lot to learn! It is a definite change and I don’t normally like change, but we’ll get there.
And, because keeping it simple really isn’t how I roll, I’ll also add that I only upgraded because the D40 didn’t have the autofocus built into the camera and my favorite lens (the 50mm 1.8) had to be manually focused on it and I am not very good at manual focus and oh, are those tears I see? Regretting asking me about my cameras?
Sorry ’bout that!
Karly
If you want to bake your cookies on something you should give parchment paper a try. No smoking or waxy taste or anything like that. I use it occasionally and it’s always worked fine.
Don’t worry about mistakes: everyone makes some
By the way, your bars sound delicious! thanks for sharing.
You want to use parchment paper when you’re baking cookies!
you’re cracking me up with the wax paper!!
I am so making these…but maybe I should wait until Saturday which is my “cheat” day, because they sound good and I am a sucker for the sweet/salty.
Holy moly these look good. My problem is I would probably eat the whole batch myself!
Yikes! Sounds like a “put it all in” marshmallow treat! I mean, whatever you have left in the snack and sweet dept. could certainly go into these. I have GOT to stay away from this recipe!
I do have wax paper in the house. There are a lot of things I use it for. But not cookies. Parchment paper for cookies. I have some cake recipes that say to line the pan with wax paper and it is great to roll up refrigerator cookie batter or a couple puff pastry recipes I have that need to be rolled up and refrigerated.
And lucky you! A new camera! I need one so badly….I’m major envious.
Waxed paper, no. Parchment paper, big enthusiastic yes!
I *think* I have all the ingredients for these at home. At least, I am HOPING I do – if not, looks like Mads and I will be heading to the store when I get home from work.
I agree with others about parchment paper, its awesome. All the benefits of wax paper – a nice lining, saves on clean up, makes cookies easier to remove – but none of the downsides. The one issue is it can be expensive. I reuse mine, especially when I am doing lots of baking all in one day. You can bake it a few times, maybe four? I throw it away when it starts to look too burnt, but until then, it’s just a liner so it works fine to reuse.
I use parchment paper, too, and I keep hinting to my hubby that he needs to get me some of those fancy Silpat baking sheets. Hasn’t gotten the hint, yet, though! Apparantly I need to be less subtle!
Use parchment paper from now on. Not only can you bake on it, quite often it’s recommended. I love your recipes! Happy baking!!!
why is it that I want to make almost everything you post?? I have big plans for these…they’re so cute and portable and i bet they taste great.
And don’t feel dumb – I never had any idea if you could use wax paper in the oven or not, so I just avoided it haha.
I just found your blog and I LOVE it. Thanks for all your great ideas. Can’t wait to try them!
Nice snack bar! Love the colours
Bless your heart! Don’t worry about that. I bet most people figured you meant parchment paper. We all have those little brain freezes sometimes.
Your recipes are so delicious looking! I am going to make one this afternoon (the cinnamon and pecan one you made for breakfast).
I wanted you to know also, that I featured your blog today as a Beautiful Blog at http://beautifulblogdesigns.com
Those look yummy! I’ll have to try those next time I need an easy take-along dessert or snack.
And, give parchment paper a try…you can bake cookies and pretty much anything else on it and it won’t burn or smoke. And you can even reuse it several times before tossing it!
Oh these look dangerous indeed!! I’ll have to make them when I can share them. Love the addition of chocolate chips in there too. I’ve had the wax paper smoking incident occur before. Not fun! Now I use Silpats for cookies, which are wonderful.
I worked in subway when i was 18 and they used dry wax paper to bake their cookies…….the bottoms were gross….why would anyone ruin delicious cookies like that…….buy silicone mats! They last soooo long! they wash off so easily! no more overly brown cookie bottoms! i’m tellin you i could go on all day ! i bought jelly roll pans and mats from amazon a few years back ,one pan and mat was about the same price you’d pay for one of those so called non stick baking sets…..which suck! I use the same kind of baking pans my great grandma swore by …..i have some of hers and they still look like brand new even though they are over 30 years old some of them. martha stewart had dome a segment about 10 years ago on the mats …..she recomends silpat….thats the brand…i found cheaper versions that worked just as good…i’m telling you you’ll save big time….
sorry forgot to mention that i have drooled all over my desk reading you recipe…….omg!
These bars look wonderful! So kid friendly too. A perfect lunch bar treat.
I second Jenn’s recommendation of silicone mats. I recently picked up a silpat mat to go with my half-sheet baking pan, and I’ve turned out the best cookies ever!
It’s also great for browning things like eggplant in the oven without having to worry about greasing the baking sheet.
But the cookies… Nothing does it better. ^_^