Getting Creative with Enjoy Life Soft Baked Bars

Oh it was creativity’s finest hour last night!  After weeks of being tortured by Enjoy Life’s Decadent Bars sitting in my closet, calling out be eaten, I was able to bake with them!  Yes, bake.  I was a lucky girl to receive samples from the Decadent Bar line to taste.  Thank you Enjoy Life Foods (sidebar:  Enjoy Life did not pay me or ask me to write anything nice, they wanted me to try them out).  My kids dove in first and decided the Smores was their absolute favorite hands down.  But…even though they liked the other bars, they felt they needed to be eaten with something else.   Of course, my mind went straight to soy ice cream or sorbet.  I promised them I could get creative soon.  Soon turned into weeks as life and the start of school got in the way of baking.  Finally, I had the time last night!

 Vegan banana muffins topped with baked marshmallow and chopped Cinnamon Bun Enjoy Life Decadent bar

I wanted to try out at least two flavors as a muffin topping.  A pantry search yielded ripe bananas and marshmallows that were never toasted this summer.  Alas, the marriage was born and I baked Vegan banana muffins(this batch used wheat flour) topped with a marshmallow and chopped Cinnamon Bun or Cherry Cobbler Decadent Bars!  I used a wheat flour recipe, but of course, based on your allergens, use your favorite basic muffin or cupcake recipe.

The Vegan banana muffin recipe is a standard in our household as it calls for honey instead of sugar and handles bananas that are too ripe for lunch boxes.  The other Enjoy Life Decadent Bar flavors are Smores (my kid’s all time favorite) and Chocolate Sunbutter (I have an idea for that bar for next week).  I had to hide the bars in my closet so my kid’s wouldn’t eat them all.

First, I chopped up the Cinnamon  Bun Decadent Bar and the marshmallows.  I used the super large size for campfires and cut each one into four pieces.  Therefore, if you are using the normal large size marshmallows, cut in half.  To make this recipe truly vegan, purchase Vegan Marshmallows.

 The marshmallows puffed up slightly after the two minute baking.

Two minutes before the muffins were done, I pulled them out of the oven and placed one marshmallow on top of each muffin.  I then returned the muffin pan to the oven for the final two minutes of baking and “toasting” of the marshmallows.

I took this photo at sunset since the wind had blown away the smoke from the Yosemite fire and we had a real sunset!

Immediately after you remove the marshmallow topped muffins from the oven, while hot, top the marshmallows with the chopped Enjoy Life Cinnamon Decadent bar.  One bar was enough to top 12 muffins.

Enjoy Life Berry Cobbler Decadent Bars sliced on top of baked marshmallow Vegan Banana Muffin

I tried getting fancy and added slices of the Cherry Cobbler Bars to the second batch, which I LOVED, but my kids gave it the thumbs down.  I thought the slices made the muffins look like a fancy dessert.  The only problem I hit was I somehow forgot my son has braces!  Oh ya, his first bite was ugly.  Otherwise, I couldn’t have been more pleased with last night’s baking.
Update as of late Friday Night (Sep 5, 2013):  You have to check out the links below from Nutrimom to see what fun she created with some of the Enjoy Life Foods:
http://allergyphoods.blogspot.com/2012/03/plenty-of-plentils-to-go-around-enjoy.html
http://allergyphoods.blogspot.com/2012/01/enjoying-life-with-enjoy-life-foods.html
http://allergyphoods.blogspot.com/2011/11/enjoy-life-foods-each-time-gets-better.html
http://allergyphoods.blogspot.com/2011/11/enjoy-life-foods-chocolate-granola-and.html
 

Have you tried these tasty Enjoy Life Decadent Bars and have you used them in other recipes?