Chewy Monkey Bars

The bars in the Hummingbird book all look so fun and tasty but after much deliberation I decided i'd make these ones as they reminded me of the 'Kellogg's Rice Krispies Squares', which I never really grew out of. Packed full of sugar, these bars really are for those with a sweet tooth, but they hit the spot with me and my friends. 

The bars or squares contain mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, peanut butter, honey, mixed nuts and coconut so there are flavours coming out left right and centre. The good thing about these bars is that you can kind of change them into what you want, for example I didn't use cherries, but I added more nuts to compensate, I also used pink and white marshmallows which changed the colour slightly but the taste remained the same. They are also ridiculously simple to make and require no baking, if you don't want to make something too complex or time consuming then these are perfect.

Iwas happy with how they turned out, (even though they aren't the prettiest things in the world) but the only thing was, was that they didn't hold their shape very well even after leaving them for longer than the recommended time, luckily however this didn't affect the taste. I'm not sure if the problem was that there wasn't enough honey or extras to 'glue' it together, or the opposite and there was too much, does anyone have any ideas?  

Recipe(Cake Days - The Hummingbird Bakery)

Makes 12 bars

Ingredients:
          120g (4oz) runny honey
          60g (2oz) unsalted butter
          60g (2oz) crunchy peanut butter
          160g (5.5oz) white mini marshmallows
          1 tsp vanilla essence
          100g (3.5oz) rolled oats
          175g (6oz) puffed rice cereal
          175g (6oz) desiccated coconut 
          40g (1.5oz) roasted unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
          40g (1.5oz) glace cherries, roughly chopped
          100g (3.5oz) dark chocolate chips
          50g (13/4oz) chopped mixed nuts

One 22 x 31cm (9 x 12.5in) baking tray

Method:

• Line the tray with baking parchment. Place the honey in a saucepan with the butter, peanut butter, marshmallows and vanilla essence and melt together over a low heat. 
• In a bowl, mix together the oats, rice cereal, coconut peanuts, cherries and 70g (2.5oz) of the chocolate chips. Pour the warm, melted ingredients over this dry mixture, stirring together thoroughly to make sure all of the dry ingredients are evenly coated. Press the mixture into the prepared baking tray.
• Melt the remaining chocolate chips in the microwave or in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the monkey bar mixture and sprinkle with the chopped mixed nuts, then leave in the fridge for about 1 hour to set. Once the mixture has set, it can be turned out on to a chopping board and sliced into 12 bars. 

Thank you for reading,

Naomi ♥