Cherry Mash Bars

NcMysteryShopper's Note:

This recipe makes delicious little fudge squares that would be excellent on a holiday cookie tray. They are SWEET but really flavorful. Perfect as small squares. If you like Chocolate and Cherries this recipe is for you. The candy bar was originally called Cherry Chase, and then Cherry Chaser, before becoming known as Cherry Mash. It can be found throughout the Midwest in most grocery and convenience stores and mass-merchandise outlets. I made them with pecans b/c I did not have peanuts and they were still delicious. I found the cherry chips at our Super Walmart next to the chocolate chips.

• Total Time: 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 40

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter (I used butter) or 2 tablespoons margarine (I used butter)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup half-and-half (I used 1/2 and 1/2 mixed with whole milk) or 1/3 cup undiluted evaporated milk (I used 1/2 and 1/2 mixed with whole milk)
• 1 cup miniature marshmallow
• 1 cup cherry chips
• 1 cup chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate about 3 1/2 ounces) or 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate about 3 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup salted peanuts

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, butter or margarine, salt and half and half in saucepan. Boil on high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in marshmallows and cherry chips.
2. Spread in 8 or 9" square pan which has been lined with parchment or wax paper.
3. Melt chocolate with peanut butter in a small pan over low heat, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in peanuts. Spread evenly over cherry layer.
5. Let set in refrigerator. Cut into 1" squares with warm sharp knife (hold under hot water and then dry before cutting).

Reviews

[gr82cook4fun]

I couldn't find cherry chips either so I used white chocolate and chopped up maraschino cherries and mixed them in. I let mine drain on a paper towel so they were dry. I put half of the chocolate layer down first then the cherry layer and microwaved the rest of the chocolate for a few seconds and spread it on the cherry layer. They came right out of the pan and I could put them on a platter. I love these! I hope you can get them to work for you this way.

[Fabspire]

Three tries later after lots of patience and failure I finally got these to work and they turned out pretty well. The first try it was a big cherry mess of goo and the second it got overdone. The third time a success.

Next.

I just have to respond to Feneant's "review." It was hardly a fair assessment of this recipe simply because you could not find the cherry chips, simply because you cannot find the ingredients or come up with an alternative doesn't make this a bad recipe.

[CrunkFrack]

The solution to the lack of availability of cherry chips is simple: mix 1 (10 oz) package of white chocolate chips with 1 oz of cherry extract. The cherry extract was right in Walmart. This made perfect Cherry Mash bars. I made these last year for Christmas and will be making them every year from now on. I made one batch with peanuts and one without (there are some picky people who don't like nuts in their confections), and found that the batch with the peanuts were both better tasting and a better consistency.