Rocky Road Brownies

Oddly enough I made rocky road brownies tonight and they truly seem fitting as tomorrow will be the end of my current rocky road.  My company was acquired by Oracle and at sunrise tomorrow all the US employees find out their fate.  This has been a rocky road for me because we found out Oracle was acquiring us over 9 months ago.  I never thought it would take this long to reach an outcome but, I guess when you have a company with 90K employees taking on a company with 30K employees things can be tricky.  Rocky road is over one way or another tomorrow and a new path will begin.

My hubby LOVES brownies.  He is truly a brownie snob.  They can not be cakey and dry.  They have to be slightly undercooked and have a very gooey fudgey center.  When he saw these brownies he was skeptical thinking they were just going to be a vehicle for the marshmallows, chips and nuts but, one bite in he exclaimed these are really good brownies.  Yeah!  C-Bean loves topping so immediately he ate the top and then finished off with the base.  He was slightly disappointed that my recipe required me to use some of the ammo for his marshmallow gun.  I like the addition of the salty peanut with the sweet chocolate.  I think all in all it was a win for all of us.  Cookie looked on with envy as we enjoyed as I spooned peas and carrots in her mouth.  I told her only 6 more months and you get brownies too. 

Rocky Road Brownies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

Makes 16

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
• 1 bag (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch-square baking pan. Line bottom with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides; butter paper.
2. In a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of simmering water, combine butter and 1 cup chocolate chips. Heat, stirring occasionally, just until melted, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Remove mixture from heat; stir in sugars and salt, then eggs, and finally flour, stirring just until combined. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips, then marshmallows and nuts. Bake until chocolate is shiny and marshmallows are puffed, about 5 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Using paper overhang, lift cake onto a work surface; cut into 16 squares.