Cookies on Friday: Rocky Road Fudge Bars

This is another one of my favorite Pillsbury BakeOff recipes. It also uses up the extra miniature marshmallows that I have left over from last week’s Salted Peanut Chews. I guess we just don’t drink enough hot chocolate in my household to use them up before they get stale! The Pacific Northwest is finally getting some summer-like weather; too bad we had to wait until September for the sun to come out. It’s not exactly been hot chocolate weather.

This is a great fudgy bar cookie; very substantial. You’ll use up many mixing bowls and saucepans in the preparation for this recipe, but I think it is worth it. Be careful when melting the chocolate (in the base and for the frosting) that you don’t leave it on the heat too long and scorch the chocolate. I’m a little more carefully usually but I guess I was trying to do too make things at once when I was making these! Oh well, there’s always another saucepan and some more chocolate that I can use.

Since these cookies contain cream cheese, they do best stored in the refrigerator. They’re a little too soft otherwise. When I’ve taken these to work and other places, they never really last long enough for them to get soft, so maybe you won’t need to worry about that!

Base
½ cup butter
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
¾ cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Filling
8 oz. cream cheese, reserve 2 oz. for frosting
¼ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
¼ cup chopped nuts (pecans)
1 cup chocolate chips

Frosting
2 cups miniature marshmallows
Reserved 2 oz. cream cheese
¼ cup butter
¼ cup milk
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” x 13” pan.
In a small saucepan, combine ½ cup butter and 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, stir until melted. Transfer this mixture to a large mixing bowl and add the remaining base ingredients. Spread into prepared pan.

In another mixing bowl, combine 6 oz. cream cheese, ¼ cup butter sugar, vanilla and egg. Mix until smooth. Stir in the nuts and spread this mixture over the base. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and bake for 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Immediately sprinkle the marshmallows on top of the base and filling; bake an additional 2 minutes.

To make the frosting, combine the reserved cream cheese, butter, milk and unsweetened chocolate in a large saucepan. Stir over medium low heat until melted together and smooth. Remove from the heat and wisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla until you have a smooth frosting. Spoon the warm frosting over the marshmallows.

Cool completely in the refrigerator before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe originally from Mary Wilson, 1972 Pillsbury BakeOff. The Pillsbury BakeOff Cookbook.