I want to start by saying, my family decided that Cast Iron S'mores Crumble was on their "Top 3 Best Desserts of All Time" list. It also made their "If I Had to Eat Only One Food for the Rest of My Life" list AND their "Death Row Last Request" list which is always pretty special. The recipe is from Southern Cast Iron- a magazine that has a beautiful, unique and thoughtful website.

There's just something about a cast iron skillet that I love. It think it's because it gives me that Laura-Ingalls-Wilder-all-I-have-is-this-one-pan-in-my-log-cabin-that-I-built-with-my-own-bare-hands kind of feeling. The pan, combined with s'mores, also gives me that cozy "we're camping" feeling.

I mean...who doesn't love to camp? It's fun, right? A chance to be outside...

enjoying nature....

...and all that it has to offer...

That looks fun....

Telling scary campfire stories...

Ok, maybe we need to be glad we're inside for this recipe. 

I gathered together 3/4 c. butter (softened), 1 c. firmly packed light brown sugar, 1 c. old-fashioned oats, 3/4 c. flour, 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 2 c. marshmallows (halved), 2 4-oz. chocolate bars (coarsely chopped), & chocolate for garnish. 

I sprayed my large skillet with cooking spray, preheated the oven to 350 degrees and told Alexa to crank some Burning Love. 

​I took the butter out of the fridge so it could soften a bit. I have to have everything chopped before I get started or all hell breaks loose. 

I cut the marshmallows in half. I ended up needing more than 2 cups in order to fill the pan better. 

I chopped the chocolate but reserved a bit for drizzling on top later. 

It's at this point that you will feel like you have done enough and you can't go on with this s'mores dessert. 

Take a little sip of your Diet Coke and watch this clip from The Great Outdoors with John Candy. It will perk you right up and it just might save your life one day! ​

I beat (I beated? I bit?) the butter and sugar in my shiny new Kitchen Aid mixer for 3-4 minutes on medium speed until it looked like the wet summer sand that has a tendency to get into places that you least expected. Like the bottom of your beach bag. What did you think I was going to say!? Moving on...

I stirred together the oats, flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, salt & cinnamon in a medium bowl. I then slowly added it to the sugar/butter mixture in the mixer on medium until it was blended. 

I pressed two-thirds of the mixture into the bottom of the skillet, just enough to fill the bottom of it.

I topped the crust with the marshmallows, chocolate and the rest of the crumble mixture. 

I let it bake for 24 minutes, even though the recipe recommends baking it for 20-24 minutes. I drizzled some melted chocolate over the top. They mean it when they say, "Let it cool for 10-15 minutes." I couldn't wait and now I'm permanently minus a few taste buds unfortunately.

I put it over a a scoop of ice cream. Pure heaven. What a great Summer/Fall dessert.  

Be sure to visit Southern Cast Iron's website- it will leave you inspired. It has a section called, "Cast Iron Stories," which is definitely worth a look. (I love a good story!) Also, check out "Our Best Recipes Using Iced Tea." Sweet Tea Fried Chicken anyone?

In the comments, let me know how it went when you tried this dessert..or if you happen to know the 2nd verse to Home on the Range. I would really like to know. Happy Cooking! See you on the trail...the one with the Blue Shadows. 

There are two special people in my life who have made desserts for family events for as long as I can remember- my sister and my husband. Even though they have never been competitive about it, we have been silently judging them for years and keeping track of the winners in our heads. I felt like it was time to publicly pit them against each other in a competition- "Trifle Wars 2020."

What's at stake- the contestants will be competing for a 10-day Hawaiian beach stay at a 5-star resort (airfare included), a shopping spree at Target (where else) and $5,000 in cash. Not really. We're talking about trifles here, people. The prizes are bragging rights for a year and.....

....a golden whisk! It's Luckywhisk's version of the Stanley Cup. Isn't it beautiful? Let's meet the contestants...but first a song. Get excited ya'll. It's about to go down. 

Shelly, a hotel executive...enjoys walking her three dogs and buying them specialty treats and hand-knit sweaters from Etsy.  

Contestant # 2: Jay, a medical professional...enjoys watching football and...watching football. He occasionally cries tears of joy when the Washington Huskies win a big game. Go Dawgs! 

Shelly chose to make "Cookie Dough Trifle" by Delish. I asked her to send me pics of her process but she said that she "forgot" and sent me the following pics after I complained: 

The Cookie Dough Trifle repeats 4 layers- cookie dough, whipped cream, crumbled cookies and chocolate pudding. It uses 10 ingredients-

for the cookie dough: butter, brown sugar, vanilla, graham crackers, salt, milk, mini chocolate chips
for the whipped cream layer: mini chocolate chips, whipped cream, 8-9 chocolate chip cookies 
for the chocolate pudding: instant chocolate pudding mix, milk 

The homemade cookie dough doesn't use eggs or flour so it's safe to eat. 

Onto Trifle # 2: 

Jay chose to make a Key Lime Trifle (Betty Crocker). 

The Key Lime Trifle uses 8 ingredients and repeats four layers- a lime-cream mixture, ground granola bars, chopped white chocolate and angel food cake pieces. The layers are then topped with a whipped cream and grated lime mixture.  

The recipe recommends that you make angel food cake first using the Betty Crocker mix, however, Jay just bought a cake to save time. He also substituted white chocolate morsels for "good quality, coarsely chopped white chocolate." Risky. 

It was at this stage of the process that Jay almost won immediately. The smell of the lime being grated was incredible and permeated the entire kitchen. 

​Judging

Despite the fact that both contestants were somewhat unwilling participants, I did not hold it against them in the final scoring. 

Cookie Dough Trifle: The Cookie Dough Trifle was beautiful in appearance. It had a great texture. The cookie dough bits tasted like actual cookie dough. It was slightly on the dense side, and rich, but not overly rich. If you are fan of anything cookie dough, you will absolutely love this trifle. 

Key Lime Trifle: The Key Lime Trifle had more of a plain appearance. Some added lime slices at the top would have helped in this department. The trifle was light and had a good texture. I loved how strongly the flavor of the lime came through in this dessert. The angel food cake layer makes it a great choice for summer. I think it might taste better with the coarsely chopped white chocolate as opposed to the chips, but they weren't a bad substitute. It was slightly dry, but nothing a scoop of ice cream couldn't fix. 

Results....drum roll please

The winner is....first I would like to thank everyone who participated. You worked hard and your trifles were proof of that. Well done. If I could give the golden whisk to both of you, I would. But I can't. There can only be one winner of the coveted golden whisk. 

And that winner is... Shelly! The Cookie Dough Trifle came out on top. Congratulations! You're simply the best! Now that you have won Trifle Wars 2020, what are you going to do? 

Just so you know, Luckywhisk will not be paying for that, Shelly.
​

What kinds of trifles have you made? What do you recommend? 

Triple Layer Cookie Bars- where chocolate meets peanut butter...only good can come from that combination. 

Do you remember the old 80s commercial where the guy is walking down the street eating a chocolate bar and runs into a woman eating from a jar of peanut butter? Who knew you could meet the love of your life while walking down the street eating from an open jar of peanut butter? 

You won't regret making this cookie bar recipe from Tracy Ybarra. It's rich, but not too rich. The peanut butter/chocolate layer compliments the coconut and buttery graham cracker crust perfectly.

I strongly advise that you don't make these cookie bars on an empty stomach because you have to smell them baking and you can't eat them immediately afterward. It has to set. This was a form of torture that I had not anticipated. You've been properly warned. 

For this recipe you will need: 1/2 c. of butter, 1 1/2 c. of graham cracker crumbs, 7 oz. flaked coconut, 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk (I could only find fat free but it turned out great anyway), 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate), 1/2 c. creamy peanut butter. 

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1/2 c. of butter and pour it in the bottom of your 13 x 9 casserole dish. 

Next, layer the graham cracker crumbs on top. Ever so gently. Little sprinkles. It's all in the wrist. 

Layer the coconut and sweetened condensed milk on top of the graham cracker.  Reserve a bit of the coconut to sprinkle on the bars when they are finished. Bake it for 25 min. at 350 degrees. Now let's dance! 

Put your chocolate chips and peanut butter into a small saucepan over low heat. Grab a whisk and stir. I forgot to use a whisk and used a fork. (I forgot to use a whisk???) Be careful, because it melts VERY quickly and will start spitting if you walk away from it. Don't wear your favorite cashmere sweater while making this, ok? Just don't. It's at this point that you are going to start thinking about what a pain it's going to be to clean the pan. Delegate, delegate, delegate!

Pour the creamy mixture on top of the baked layers. I let it cool for about an hour or so, and then I wrapped them and put them into the fridge overnight.

In the morning, I took the pan out of the fridge and let it defrost for 30 minutes so it would be easier to cut into squares. I then kept the bars stored in the fridge afterward because I think they taste better cold. 

The cookie bars taste great with a cold soda. But since we are on the subject of chocolate and peanut butter, it's worth mentioning that they might taste even better with a shot of peanut butter whiskey.

For a Triple Layer Cookie Bars recipe card, please click here. 

The bars would be a great treat after eating Mom's Apple Meatloaf for dinner. 

A question for the comments: What is the easiest/safest way to melt butter? Today's fun finds...*