Lemonade Soul: Extra-Chocolatey Chocolate Euphoria Cookie Bars

Yes.

A thousand times yes.

Once I saw this in Joanne Fluke's Devil's Food Cake Murder, I was in love.

Completely in love with this recipe. Even the name screams CHOCOHOLIC!

Okay, in the original recipe, the frosting is just a suggestion at the end of the actual recipe. But HEAR ME OUT before you decide that it's too much chocolate!

One, the fudge frosting makes these look more like brownies and less like little cookie bars of death by chocolate chips.

Two, chocolate chips exposed to hot air (but not long enough to melt) taste sort of sketch.

Three, the frosting holds the whole cookie bar together and makes it look thicker.

Four, if you're only making a half-pan of this (8x8), then you'll have half a can of sweetened condensed milk leftover. And if you're like me, the temptation of plain sweetened condensed milk sitting in your refrigerator cannot be resisted, no matter how much you try. But if you make the frosting too, then you won't have any sweetened condensed milk leftover. This is a good thing.

Five, it's more chocolate. And that is never wrong.

So now you have my reasons.

I have made this twice so far. And both times it received standing ovations. Well, not really, but I got a lot of compliments, okay?

The first time I made the whole batch, with frosting. The second time I made a half-batch, again with frosting. I think the frosting adds a lot, though. It makes it seem like the whole bar is going to be smooth and then you hit the cereal and the Oreo crust and it's like CRUNCH.

What's that? Oreo crust? Cereal? What's in these things? Let me break it down for you. In order.

Oreo crust. Semisweet chocolate chips. Mini marshmallows. Sweetened condensed milk. White chocolate chips. Chocolate cereal. Milk chocolate chips. Optional but highly recommended fudge frosting.

Ohhhhh yes.

About the cereal. (Yes, I know, shut up already we want the recipe, but you might just want to pay attention to this.)

The original recipe calls for Cocoa Puffs or Cocoa Krispies. Now, I have grown up on Cheerios and Oatmeal Squares, and I have never had these - and for good reason. There is NOTHING healthy in them. Like absolutely zilch. And while these cookie bars are the opposite of healthy, I feel a lot better if I try to stick something half-healthy in there.

Chocolate Chex, baby. It exists, and it's good. And it's sort of healthy. And it has plain Rice Chex in there too - which gives the cookie bars some more contrasting color.

Also, it crunches really truly delightfully when you take a bite. It's an experience that you don't want to miss out on. I'm serious. That crunching noise it makes seriously has made my day. Really.

Oh, right, also - WARNING: You will become addicted to these bars. You will want to make lots and lots of them. You will become a chocoholic like meeee. *evil chuckle*

Chocolate Euphoria Cookie Bars - with Chocolate Frosting

2/3 package Oreos (approximately)

1 stick butter

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided

2 cups miniature marshmallows

2 14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk

1 cup white chocolate chips

2 cups Chocolate Chex

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9x13 inch pan.
Crush Oreos and measure out 1 1/2 cups.
Melt stick of butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Add crushed Oreos and combine thoroughly.
Spread Oreo mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle extra crushed Oreo over gaps if necessary.
Evenly sprinkle 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips over Oreo crust.
Evenly sprinkle miniature marshmallows over the semisweet chocolate chips.
Pour 1 can sweetened condensed milk over marshmallows as evenly as possible.
Sprinkle white chocolate chips over that as evenly as possible.
Sprinkle Chex over white chips as evenly as possible.
Sprinkle milk chocolate chips over Chex as evenly as possible.
Press down on layers with the back of a metal spatula.
Bake 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
While the bars cool, melt remaining 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.
Once melted, add remaining can of sweetened condensed milk to the chips and stir vigorously for about 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and immediately spread on fully-cooled bars.
Once the frosting on top has cooled, cut into bars and refrigerate covered. Makes 24 bars.