These Mud Hen Bars are gooey, chewy and delicious chocolate marshmallow bars topped with brown sugar meringue! They’re some of the most delicious dessert bars ever!
Mud Hen Marshmallow Dessert Bars Recipe
Sometimes names can be deceiving.
Haven’t you ever met a person and been like, yeah…your parents SO should have named you Jan and not Heather? Or Brody and not Chuck? It happens.
Same thing happened with these bars. They’re called Mud Hen Bars. Which is basically the grossest name ever. Mud is not tasty…Hens are all pecky and whatnot… And the google told me a “Mud Hen” is a gross marsh bird that lives in swamps and other wetland-type areas.
Well, I am not a bird-fan in general. They scare me. I mean, they can fly. Think about it. AND Mud Hens are not only birds, they live in swamps. Swamp birds. Could there be a worse type?
But defying all laws of logic I made these Mud Hen Bars. They sound gross. But they aren’t. They’re exactly the opposite.
This Mud Hen Bars recipe is really easy.
What is a Mud Hen Bar?
The best way to describe Mud Hen Bars is they are is a kind-of cookie base, topped with chocolate chips and marshmallows with a yummy brown sugar meringue spread all over the top.
How to Make This S’mores Dessert
Just sprinkle your chips and marshmallows…
Then mix up your meringue, which is just brown sugar and egg whites…
Then spread that all over the top…
What you’ll get is a gooey cookie bar topped with a light, crunchy meringue topping.
They are really like nothing else I’ve ever had…
Such a cool combination of textures. They might not be pretty, but they are tasty.
Just forget that they’re called Mudhens 🙂
This Mud Hen Bar recipe was originally published on my site in 2012. I have since updated some of the pictures and slightly tweaked the recipe. Enjoy!
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Mud Hen Bars
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 24 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Mud Hen Bars are gooey, chewy and delicious chocolate marshmallow bars topped with brown sugar meringue! They’re some of the most delicious dessert bars ever!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 whole egg + 2 eggs, separated
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
Instructions
- Preheat 350°
- Spray a 9×13 baking pan lightly with cooking spray
- In a large bowl cream together butter, granulated sugar, 1 whole egg plus 2 yolks and vanilla until smooth.
- Add in flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined. Spread in prepared pan.
- Top with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.
- In a clean mixing bowl with whisk attachment on your mixer, beat the 2 remaining egg whites until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes on high.
- Fold in light brown sugar and stir until combined and there are no lumps.
- Spread on top of chocolate chips and marshmallows.
- Bake 30-35 minutes until top is golden brown.
- Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares
Notes
store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 179
- Sugar: 20.6 g
- Sodium: 61.4 mg
- Fat: 7.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.8 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
- Cholesterol: 33.4 mg
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These bars look delicious, but I have to disagree with you regarding mud hens! They are cute! We have them all over Florida waterways. 🙂
My son has a dairy allergy…do you think it would work to use coconut oil in place of the butter? These look amazing!
typically you can sub coconut oil for butter at a 1:1 ratio. Just make sure the coconut oil is in its solid state when you measure it!
A friend gave me this delicious recipe a good 40 years ago and yes it was called MudHen Bars even then. You cannot go wrong with these bars. Have made them many times and enjoy seeing this recipe again. Thank You!!
These are fabulous. Speaking of gross names for food, I make a cookie and we always called the “Cow Patties” when we were kids, the name has stuck through the the years.
These are amazing. Loved the crunch on top and chew underneath. I added white chips and MnMs to the cookie base since I had some to use up. Highly recommend!
So glad you liked them!
These were a hit! I followed the recipe exactly. Will definitely make again.
My kiddoes call them “mudslides” because the didn’t like the “mud hen” name. 🙂 They are delicious. I found them on your website a couple of years back. Thank you!
haha! Love that name!
Yes, I get the same reaction when I make my mother’s mud hen bars! “Wait, what are these called?”
Me: “forget the name, just eat one!”
The Toledo, Ohio,
minor league baseball team of the Detroit Tigers, are the MUD HENS. I’ll have to try these and take them to a game!!
I’ve never understood why these are called Mud Hens. We have a family recipe that is very similar but with a much better name. No marshmallows, mix of white and brown sugar in the cookie crust and mix the chocolate chips into the brown sugar meringue. We call them Sea Foam Chews. It was my Nana’s recipe. She would have been 124 this month, so its a pretty old, tried and true stand by in our family.
Love that name so much better!!