Don't Make This Recipe

I've had this recipe card for almost thirty years. My friend Tina gave me the recipe, and then about fifteen years later, my daughter decided to illustrate it with smiley faces. Awwwww. 

If you're trying to eat healthily by reducing fat and refined sugars in your diet, DO NOT READ THIS POST. 

Don't say I didn't warn you. 

So I offered to bake some cookie bars for my friend Susan's upcoming party. Today was baking day, and I decided to get out one of my favorite really-horribly-bad-for-you recipes: salted nut roll bars. It's basically a very large candy bar in a 9x13 inch pan and mmmmm, mmmmm good. 

You start by mixing a dry yellow cake mix, an egg, and some softened butter together. Pat in a cake pan and bake until lightly browned.

Take the pan out of the oven and cover cake layer with a bag of miniature marshmallows. Return to the oven until the marshmallows are puffed, about five minutes or so. 

Let the cake and marshmallow layer cool. Meanwhile, melt together corn syrup, peanut butter chips, butter, and vanilla in a saucepan. Stir in peanuts and crispy rice cereal. 

Drop by teaspoonfuls over cooled marshmallow layer until evenly covered. Chill. 

Cover pan with foil and run - don't walk - over to your neighbor's house with these cookie bars. Do not attempt to cut into them unless you want to find yourself eating the entire pan. You think I'm kidding? There's a good reason why there is not a picture of a piece of these cookie bars cut and arranged enticingly on a pretty plate in this post. 

Dangerously good. Here's the recipe - but whip up a batch of these at your own risk.

Tina's Salted Nut Roll Bars

• One box dry yellow cake mix
• One egg
• 1/3 cup softened butter

Mix together and pat into a 9x13 inch cake pan. (If you look closely at the picture of Tina's recipe card, she calls for a larger pan, but my family likes them a bit thicker.) Bake at 350 degrees f. for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. 

• One large bag miniature marshmallows

Sprinkle marshmallows over baked crust. Return to oven and bake until marshmallows are puffed but not browned, about five minutes.

• 12 oz. peanut butter chips
• 2/3 cup white corn syrup
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Melt over low heat until blended. 

• 2 cups salted peanuts
• 2 cups crispy rice cereal

Stir cereal and peanuts into peanut butter mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cooled marshmallow layer until surface is evenly covered. Chill. Cut into bite sized pieces.