Cookies are a beautiful thing, don’t you think?
So are butterflies. And rainbows! And puppies. All very beautiful.
And these beautiful things were exactly what I was thinking about when I came home yesterday and found my house flooded.
Why? Because I’m a lady.
That’s right.
My mother and my grandmothers taught me well, and I engage in ladylike behavior at all times.
It doesn’t matter that your dishwasher, washing machine and kitchen sink all decided to simultaneously explode all over your house. No.
A lady at all times!
And as a lady, you would certainly never curse. It wouldn’t even occur to you!
So there’s no way that, as you watch poor little B. sail into the bedroom on a stack of cooking magazines, you would unleash a torrent of profanities that would make Charles Barkley blush.
Never.
And because you’re a lady, you’d never even think an unpleasant thought about another person. No, sir!
So it just couldn’t be that you would spend hours telling A. how you’re going to track down that Maytag Man, kick him in the shins, punch him in the face, and then laugh while cries.
Nope. Not you, lady.
And, of course, an important part of being a lady is maintaining that ladylike-ness.
So when Plumberman shows up 6 hours late, you greet him with a smile! You offer him a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade!
And you keep smiling as he spends 3 hours bent over your washing machine.
You certainly never think a single nasty thought as you’re subjected to eyefuls of more bum than you’d ever catch on any Brazilian beach.
I’m smiling!
I’m whistling!
I’m skipping in to the kitchen to refresh Plumberman’s glass of lemonade!
Why? Because
So, you know, the next time you have a total disaster on your hands, follow my lead.
Keep it cool. Keep it classy. Keep it ladylike.
It’s just the right thing to do.
Another good thing to do? Make these Sweet Potato Cookie Bars.
They’re perfect for the season, they’re simple to assemble, and they taste like a dream!
Of course, since I’m a lady, I used my cookie cutter to cut the bars into ladylike little circles. Adorbs.
I hope you have a fantastic day.
I hope you make some Sweet Potato Cookie Bars for someone you love.
And I hope that you remember to always be a @$?%!&# lady.
Sweet Potato Cookie Bars
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
2 c. dark brown sugar, tightly packed
3 c. all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 1/2 c. sweet potato puree (I used fresh sweet potatoes and began with 2 large ones. You can easily substitute canned sweet potato puree. If you do opt for fresh, please see below for instructions on preparing your sweet potatoes.)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ancho chile, ground
1 tsp. canela, ground (ground cinnamon may be substituted)
1- 10.5 oz. bag of mini marshmallows
cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease 2- 8″x8″ baking pans and set aside.
To prepare the sweet potato puree, peel the potatoes and cut each into 6-8 smaller pieces (chopping the potatoes reduces your cooking time significantly). Place potato pieces in a large pot of boiling water (you’ll need at least enough water to cover the pieces) and boil for approximately 20 minutes or until fork tender. Remove cooked potato pieces from heat, drain, and set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and continue mixing as you add the cinnamon, salt, ancho, and finally the flour. Mix just until a uniform batter forms.
As soon as the sweet potato pieces are cool enough to handle, mash with a fork and fold the puree into the batter. Pour the batter into your prepared pans and bake for 28-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cookie bars comes out clean. Remove the baked bars and top with the marshmallows.
Turn on your oven’s broiler to its highest setting – creating the toasted marshmallow topping for this dessert is simple to do, it just requires some attention so that your bars don’t burn. Once your broiler is on, put your marshmallow-topped bars on a rack under the broiler but at the bottom of the oven so that there is at least a foot of space between the bars and the broiler flame. Keep the oven door cracked so that you can watch the marshmallows toast and, if your oven is anything like mine, you will likely need to carefully rotate the pans as the marshmallows toast so that they toast evenly. My oven has a few ‘hot spots’ and if I don’t dishes that I’m broiling, one small area will scorch. You want the marshmallows to be a dark golden brown on top – as soon as they’re the color you like, remove the pans to cool.
If you opt to cut circle bars like I did, you can carefully remove the bars to the freezer for 5 minutes so that they’ll cool quickly and harden slightly. I used a 2″ fluted metal cookie cutter that I ran under a little warm water before I started cutting. Once your bars have cooled slightly, simply press down firmly with your cutter until you reach the bottom of the pan. Rotate the cutter slightly and pull it straight out – it should come out holding the bar that you’ve just cut out. Push the bar out onto your serving piece and cut another. You’ll likely want to wash your cutter after every 3 bars or so, just so that you can keep cutting neat bars. Of course, the scraps between the circles are for the chef.
YIELD: approximately 12-14 circle cookie bars or 18 square cookie bars
Just stumbled on your blog through pinterest. This post made me laugh out loud – and your food looks pretty darn good too
Hilarious post! I hope today is better for you. Thanks for sharing this unique recipe. I’ll be trying it out soon!
Sweet potatoes and marshmallows sound like a delicious combination, awesome photos! And you are one very cool lady, Merry Christmas!
More amazing takes on sweet potatoes and marshmallows!? It must be getting close to Christmas! These look AMAZING!
How long will these last?
About a week in a sealed, airtight container.
I know I’m late to the game, but these look amazing. I can’t wait to make them for Thanksgiving! Also, I can’t help but laugh out loud at this post – I felt like I was there with you. Thanks for giving me a laugh during a long day at the office.
Ooooooooh, these look SO delicious! Wow – definitely need to try these sometime soon!
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Your mama raised you right! These are totally lady like cookie bars… and I’d like to have a tray right now!
Meagan you are funny, clever and this recipe calls to me (despite my early life trauma from sweet potatoes and marshmallows)! Love the photo of the cut out; would have never guessed that is how you made them. Thanks so much for sharing this on the TG LinkUp! You’ll make many people very happy!
Adorbs is right! Being a lady is tough sometimes and isn’t it grand that no one can literally read our minds. These cookie bars are sensational. I know I would have made myself sick eating the cutout leftovers, in a very lady-like fashion.
Cute. Charming. Adorable. Lady-like. That goes double for the cookie bars. The hit of ancho chile is brilliant.
GREAT post! I hope the repairs went smoothly….these are amazing cookie/bars!
these look amazing! and very ladylike
These look sooo cute and sooo insanely good. I love anything with sweet potatoes but sweet potato casserole cookie bars?! YUM!!
I am so in love with your blog by the way.
Meagan, these look incredible! I just love your blog, and I may camp out here for the night.
My oven s#*ks (lady like insert) and the broiler is at the bottom, so no way I can get a foot of space between the marshmellows and the flame. Can I use a torch instead? Like with creme brulee?
Absolutely! You’ll actually have a lot more control and probably get a more even toast by using a torch in place of a conventional broiler.
Wow these look delicious! Love the flavors. Yum!
Lady, that is the BEST blog post I have ever read; the marshmallow sentence made me fall off my chair (but that IS what us @$?%!&# ladies do at work, right?………..). I am going home to bake these right now!
I’m not a big sweet potato fan, but even a gentleman would like these!
I only have one 8×8 pan, is there another bigger size that would work?
Hi Nan! Your best bet would probably be to simply halve the recipe and use your single 8″ x 8″ pan – these cookie bars are actually quite rich and I make half-batches all the time. Alternatively, you could keep the recipe intact and use a 9″ x 13″ dish – do you have one of those? If you go the 9″ x 13″ route, just note that you may need to bake them a little longer, like maybe 32-35 minutes instead of 28-30. I would check for doneness at 25, 30, and 35 minutes to be totally safe. I hope this helps!
Those look soooooo delicious! And cutting them out the way you did for that presentation on a plate is awesome. Very creative!
YUM! I LOVE sweet potato casserole. With lots of marshmallows.
I also love Charles Barkley. And I hope you did kick that plumber in the shins — while wearing pointy heels. Totally ladylike that way.
I bet these are all kinds of amazing.
I give you some major props for maintaining your ladylike-ness. I probably would have had a meltdown! And these cookie bars are awesome! What a great idea!
Oh no! We had a flood this week too! Your cookie bars look amazing. And your writing is very funny and charming.
Oh horrible! I’ve been dealing with dirty river water for the past week – thankfully not my house, tho.
I did not bake beautiful cookie bars, I did not hand lemonade to the rest of the clean up team, I did not behave in a ladylike fashion – I may even have invented new swear words. I shall pin this post up so that next time I’m called out on flood relief, I shall know how to behave.
OMG! Seriously laughting -SNORTING outloud at my desk at work! Too hilarious and (soooo very like me…the #^%&*@^ lady part)
These look amazing too! Way to handle a crisis!
Absolutely beautiful! The recipe is so simple too.
Amazing! I absolutely love these and haven’t seen anything like them. Love the play on this as it reminds me of the staple Thanksgiving dish. Bookmarked!
I so need these in my life. That is all.
#1 This cookie bars look amazing.
#2 I’m so sorry that you had to deal with such a fiasco.
#3 Congrats on maintaining ladylike behavior.
These are so fun! Love this idea.
Woah! What a lovely way to use sweet potatoes! Lovely pictures!
#%*@ing right girl. I have to admit I was taught that too but man once I’m mad I turn into a sailor big time. I try to hold back but it just seeps out. Luckily my kids are older so I’m not traumatizing them. Well, not with that anyway. These look so good. I love that you did them in little circles with the cookie cutter. Total bleeping adorable.
what a fantastic way to use sweet potatoes!
I’m in love with these! Great idea..way to go!!
These look amazing! So little and cute, I love it
It’s a very creative and fun idea, something everyone will enjoy, especially for the upcoming holidays!
You crack me up! Awesome looking recipe, can’t wait to try it. Glad I found your blog
The sweet potato casserole bars look great! Enjoyed reading your story!
omg what a fantastic idea!
I am a lady 110% of the time. I hope tomorrow goes better for you. These little cookies look like a piece of heaven. As a lady, I would eat them all before anyone else had a chance to sample right?
Is it also ladylike to scoop up the little bits and pieces that don’t quite fit into those cookie cutters with your fingers. And eat them. All of them. With your hands.
I hope so.
Cause that’s what I’ll be doing.
And you are a funny lady too! Not only was it a great story, (that must have been very cathartic to write!) but I am dying to make this recipe, great photos!
I love these! I’ve never had sweet potato cookies before…very intriguing.
those look super yummy…i love all things sweet potato
Im totally making these. Really original idea that they are cookies. Brilliant. And my favorite part of this post is the last @$?%!&# line.
Sweet potato casserole bars, what an awesome idea.
I’ll bet you were making them while the plumber was smiling at you with that cute little sideways smile of his!
Wow! These look amazing. I wouldn’t be very lady-like at all, because I’d be eating that whole pan up! I just know it!
As a sweet potato casserole lover, this immediately got printed out. And I of course did it all wearing high heels and pearls. Because I’m a lady.
This is a really fantastic post, I passed it along to someone today as an example of the perfect post—it’s funny, to the point, gorgeously photographed, with a great recipe to boot. It was fun to read…now I have to get making these bars.
Thank you so much, Sue! You’re so sweet! It was a very cathartic post to put together.
Nice job maintaining your lady-ness during all of your woes.
These bars will be made and eaten very very soon! Look delicious.
Question about the sweet potato puree…would putting them in the food processor until they’re smooth be okay, or is it best just to mash them?
You can absolutely use the food processor to make your puree!
I will figure out how to fix your dishwasher in exchange for a pan of these. Don’t know how, but I will.
Genius idea, and they look amazing!
Deal.
Wow, you had me at the title! This sounds absolutely to die for, I’d take the entire pan off your hands!
Ha-I know that ladylike stuff is just an inner mechanism that turns on full blast the more irritated you get. Sorry about the flood. Hope things are back to normal soon.
These cookie bars look wonderful, especially with the ladylike way you cut them, but in the end it is all about taste. Believe me I want a taste-yum!
You are so adorable… I mean lady like. And these look scrumptious.