Rocky Road Fudge Bars

This afternoon my daughter and I were trying to come up with a fun dessert to make.  She was hoping for something along the line of s'mores, but I didn't have any graham crackers on hand.  So I started to brainstorm about what we could make that would be almost as good as s'mores and this is what I came up with.  The base of the recipe is very similar to my chocolate haystacks, however, instead of adding peanuts and chow mein noodles, this time I added peanuts and marshmallows.  The whole family gave this recipe a big thumbs up and I do, too, based on the ease of making it as well as the taste!

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter
1 c. peanut butter
2 c. chocolate chips
1 c. salted peanuts (I used cocktail peanuts)
2 c. marshmallows (mini marshmallows are best/easiest)

Refrigeration time: 1-2 hours; the chocolate melts on your fingers a bit faster if you only refrigerate them for one hour.

Start out by placing the butter, peanut butter, and chocolate chips in a medium-size saucepan over low heat.

At this point (see photo below), I remove the pan from the heat.  You want to heat up the mixture so that the chocolate chips melt, but not too much that you end up melting the marshmallows.

Continue to stir until mixture is smooth.

Next, add in the peanuts and marshmallows.  A special note about the marshmallows: mini marshmallows would be the best to work with.  However, if you only have large marshmallows on hand, as I did, I would suggest quartering the marshmallows and coating the sticky sides lightly in powdered sugar.

Once the peanuts and marshmallows have a nice coating of chocolate on them, pour them into a glass 9x13" (or slightly smaller) pan.  I used my 8 1/2 x 11" pan because I wanted thicker bars.  Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, cut into bars, and serve!  Don't forget the napkins! ;)