Espresso S’More Bars

Directions

1. 1
   Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a 8x8 square baking dish with foil or parchment paper.
2. 2
   In a medium-sized bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Pour in melted butter and stir to combine. Press mixture evenly in pan (I like to use the bottom of a measuring cup for even spreading). Bake for 5 minutes, or until crust is firm.
3. 3
   Place pan on a cooling rack and let crust cool completely. While crust is cooling, make ganache.
4. 4
   Place chopped chocolate and espresso powder in a medium-sized bowl.
5. 5
   Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan until almost simmering. Pour over chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes.
6. 6
   Whisk until completely smooth. Cover bowl (I used a kitchen towel) and let sit at room temperature for about 1 hour, stirring with a rubber spatula every 15 minutes.
7. 7
   Pour ganache over crust, cover pan and transfer to fridge. Chill for 1 hour, or until ganache is firm.
8. 8
   For the meringue:
9. 9
   In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together egg whites and sugar. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water (make sure bowl does not touch water). Whisk until mixture reaches a temperature of 160°F. or until sugar is completely dissolved and egg whites are warm to the touch, about 3-5 minutes.
10. 10
    Transfer bowl to stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form and mixture is thick, glossy, and marshmallow-like in texture, about 5 minutes.
11. 11
    Remove pan from fridge. Pull bars out from pan and carefully slide off of foil and onto desired serving platter. Spread meringue evenly over top of bars. Using a kitchen torch, toast meringue to desired toastiness. Serve immediately or return to fridge until ready to serve.
12. 12
    Leftover bars (what are those?) can be stored in fridge.
13. 13
    Notes:
14. 14
    1. For the ganache, I used a combination of bittersweet and semisweet chocolate (1 cup chopped bittersweet and 1/2 cup chopped semisweet or chips). I highly recommend this combination but you can use whatever type of chocolate you desire! For my bittersweet chocolate, I used Trader Joe's 72% cacao dark chocolate-super yummy (in cookies too)!
15. 15
    2. For measuring purposes, my measuring cup was a heaping 1 1/2 cups of chocolate, so don't worry too much about getting a perfectly even measure.