Rocky Road Fudge Bars

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. Dang Olympics are eating into my blogging time!

Anyway, I've recently become an Angel Baker which is a program that sends home baked treats to our soldiers abroad. It's an amazing program and my first "assignment" was great. You should check it out.

So I made these bars as part of my package. I figured if anyone could use some sweet, layered, chocolaty goodness it was soldiers! I'm not sure if they qualify for "true" rocky road bars since I used peanuts instead of walnuts (it's normally walnuts, right?), but they're good either way. They are sweet, so small bars (which are not normally my style) are great.

Enjoy!


Base
1/2 cup butter
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup chopped nuts

Filling
6 oz cream cheese, soft
1/4 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups mini marshmallows

Frosting
2 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup mil
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

For base:

• Preheat oven to 350. Line a 13x9 inch pan with parchment (or grease and flour, if that's your thing).
• Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in remaining base ingredients.
• Spread into pan

For filling:

• Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and egg until smooth and fluffy. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
• Spread over base.

• Bake 25-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. On a side note, I had some issues with this since I managed to stick my toothpick into about 14 different spots before I hit an area that was chocolate chip free. So be warned, the toothpick may come out wet, but only wet with melted chocolate. Keep stabbing!
• Top with marshmallows and cook 2 more minutes.

For frosting:

• While the base and filling are baking, cook cream cheese, butter, milk, and chocolate on low heat until blended and smooth.
  
• Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla.
  
• Pour over warm, puffed marshmallows and swirl with a knife to marble. Two things here: 1) I did this too early to keep the frosting from crusting a bit so I just whipped it for a second to remove the crunchy bits and 2) mine didn't marble, but they still tasted great!
• Refrigerate until firm.

I found this recipe in Best of the Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookies and Bars