Butterscotch Marshmallow Bars

Time has come around to make another bar and what better way to satisfy my sweet tooth with butterscotch and marshmallow all wrapped together in a gooey chewy bar.

Lined my tin with greaseproof paper, it is the tin that is now always used for bars as it is deeper but slightly smaller than the dimensions given in the cook book. Always worked out well previously and don't have another choice really.

Firstly the dough base is to be made. This is just icing sugar to give it a sweet edge plus flour and butter, rubbed together with your fingertips until the dough starts to form. Press it into the tray, making sure to go up the sides a little to hold the mixture in. Bakes for just over 20 minutes until the edges are brown but the middle is pale still. The marshmallows are then just sprinkled on top of the cooling base. This is also the only oven part of the recipe, the rest is all hob and cooling.

Next it to make the butterscotch part, which seems the longest bit of all. Two types of sugar (light brown and caster) are added into a saucepan with golden syrup and water. You let it boil away until it gets to the soft ball stage. This seemed to take forever but I thought we had finally got there so moved onto the next stage of stirring in the butter and then letting it boil for a few more minutes.

The rest of the ingredients are added to this mixture off the heat so in goes the crunchy peanut butter, double cream and vanilla essence. I was stirring and stirring away to get it all melted together but it didn't seem to look right. Put it down to the peanut chunks in it so carried on pouring it over the marshmallows on the base. This is then left for a few hours or overnight to set. We left it for ages but it didn't seem to be setting very well. The marshmallows hadn't quite been covered so much as melted and formed a layer on the top also. I decided to pop it in the fridge for an hour just to try and firm it up a little more. This didn't seem to work much either so I bite the bullet and cut a slice out.

It was difficult to cut as the melted marshmallows had formed a thick layer on top and the bars were still rather squishy themselves. Once I had a cut away section I could see that the butterscotch part and the peanut butter seemed to have separated and all the butterscotch then seeped into the available gap from the missing piece. It was too sickly once I tasted it so safe to say I made a complete hash of it. I guess I didn't leave the butterscotch on the hob long enough after all. Might not be attempting this recipe in a hurry again.