Chocolate Orange Gems

Today I have decided to make Chocolate Orange Gems with the recipe coming from the M&M's Fun Stuff Cookbook. The name of this tasty treat isn't very self explanatory so they are kind of like lemon bars but orange with frosting. Let's get started!
To make these non-lemon bars you will need:

• 2/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups M&M's candies
• 1/3 cup orange marmalade

Before doing any preparations to make the bar itself you will need to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Now we can start the fun stuff. to begin "In a large mixing bowl, cream [butter] and brown sugar until light and fluffy," (Weber 20). After the first two ingredients are creamed, beat in your egg, orange juice and orange peels. The orange peel and juice is used to make the flavor last in these scrumptious bars.

Next, in a separate, medium sized, mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. "Then, slowly add the dry mixture into the creamed mixture," (Weber 20). After both mixtures have been combined, add in the M&M's candies. Before adding all the dough into an ungreased pan, we are instructed to reserve one cup of it but then spread the rest of the dough evenly.

After that step has been completed, spread your orange marmalade evenly over the dough within a half inch of the edges. Then you want to take the reserved dough and, in teaspoons, randomly drop the scoops on top of the marmalade.

Finally, bake bars in your oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. While the bars are cooking you can make a vanilla glaze to go on top of them if desired.

To make this glaze you will need:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of warm water (to your desired consistency)

To place the glaze on the bars meticulously, put the glaze in a resealable plastic bag and cut the corner of it off. But be sure it is no more than 1/8 of an inch so it doesn't come out too fast.
Make sure the bag is sealed and drizzle the glaze over the bars, after they have completely cooled, into lines to get the perfect presentation for your pastry.

As you can see the glaze I made didn't turn out exactly as planned, it looks almost watery in this picture but it was thicker in person. This wasn't may favorite thing to make in the world but it didn't taste terrible. Hope you do better than I do when making this!

What is marmalade? How is it different from jam or jelly?