Yeah, dude…no bake.

Here’s one of those days where, again, I don’t have a plan.  My solution is to throw everything into a bowl and hope for the best.

Actually, I did put SOME thought into it.

My friend Steve was talking about Doo Doo Cookies…I always called them Dookie Cookies.  You know, those no-bake cookies with oatmeal, chocolate and peanut butter?  Kinda look like Dookie?

I can remember eating Dookie Cookies at slumber parties before they set up, so I was thinking about making those in a pan and calling them a brownie.  That would certainly work.

Then…tragedy struck.  I didn’t have any peanut butter.  Or oatmeal….yikes, someone needs to haul her happy self to the grocery.

But I did have Marshmallows.  Hmmm.

And I found a bag of pretzels.  Saaaayyyy….

I wonder if that would work?  Wow, we can sit around talking about it all day, or we could try it and see what happens.

So I drug all this out of the pantry:

Pretzels, chocolate chunks, sweetened condensed milk, pecan pieces, and marshmallows.

If everything is good on it’s own, of course it will be good together, right?  Right?

Ok, so let’s start with the chocolate…into a bowl with the sweetened condensed milk…

I swear to butter I could bathe in that stuff.

Microwave until smooth.  I did about 1 minute, then stirred.  Then another 30 seconds and stirred.

Meanwhile…crush the pretzels.

Mine were pretzel rods, so I smashed them and then broke them into 1/2″ pieces.  Or so.

I add about 1/2 of the bag of marshmallows, and I had about 1/2 cup of pecan pieces….

Mixed that all together…

Bring out the chocolate…

Oh, yeah.  Smoooooooooooth.

Pour the chocolate into the pretzel mixture, and stir.

Lube up a pan…or a pyrex…

Press the chocolate and pretzel mixture firmly into the pan.

That’s key…firmly.  Press, then press again.  If it’s not pressed into the pan well, it will be difficult to cut cleanly.

Refrigerate.  Or freeze, for the impatient viewers.  Like me.

And cut with a sharp knife.

Well, that shot didn’t come out well, did it?

Let’s try…

Better.  But…

There we go.  That’s about the best I’ve got.

Is there a photographer that would like a job that pays in food?

These are really good…they remind me of slumber parties in the 80s.  I went to many.

No Bake Everythings

1 large bag pretzels

1/2 cup pecan pieces

1 pkg chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 bag mini marshmallows

In a microwave safe container, melt the chocolate with the sweetened condensed milk, about 1 minute. Stir and continue to microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth.

Meanwhile, break up the pretzels into bite size pieces.  Mix the marshmallows and the pecans with the pretzel pieces.  Pour the chocolate mixture over the pretzel mixture, stir until completely coated.

Pour the chocolate pretzel mixture into a well-greased baking pan, press firmly.  Refrigerate until completely cooled, cut with a sharp knife.

Holy frijoles, these are great.  It’s pretty fun to stir up a bunch of stuff and make something awesome.  I like to play with my food.  But you knew that already.