Peanut Butter Marbled Rocky Road Brownie bars

Five half pence (two and a half pence?) to the first person who can guess what the above picture is of. No cheating and reading the title before hand!

Oops, probably too late for that, isn't it? So these are tasty, decadent, rich, happy little things. Like many things the recipe I am posting isn't exactly what I did. So first I will post the recipe I originally intended to go with... And then I will have a discussion about my dance

with these bars...

Peanut Butter Marbled Rocky Roads

• 2 1/4 c vegan graham cracker crumbs
• 2 T firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2/3 c butter sub*
• 15 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 light corn syrup
• 1 c soyatoo cream or cashew cream**
• 20 halved vegan marshmallows***
• 1/2 C whole, salted peannuts****
• 1/2 C to 1 C smooth peanut butter

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Grease the sides and bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar, then add the butter sub. Stir gently until combined. Pour and evenly distribute into the prepared baking pan, pressing down with your hands along the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

Bake the crust for 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Remove the plan, let cool on a rack.

Set up a double boiler. In the large heatproof bowl, toss the chocolate together with the corn syrup. Place over double boiler, add "cream" of choice. Cook, stirring, until everything is melted. Fold in the marshmallows and whole peanuts. Pour the mixture into the pan and spread as evenly as possible (using an off-set spatula helps).

Now lay down horizontal 'stripes' of peanut butter on the oozy yummy top, then drag a knife up and down vertically to create a marbling effect.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or until set. Cut into triangles and serve. The bars freeze well, and will keep for about 3 days.

Asterix!

So my notes... I hate letting food go to waste, so a few things I did to illustrate alternative uses for things...

So...

*Butter sub. I used a mix of canola oil, coconut oil, and about 15% water. There was no need to use more expensive vegan butter for the task at hand.

** I used a failed cashew-based raw ice cream with touches of cinnamon and raisen for the cream. It had decent flavor, was good, rich, but didn't quite click right as an ice cream.

*** I used a failed batch of vegan marshmallows and swirled it in the chocolate mix, rather than getting some vegan marshmallows. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again. I try not to get fairly narrow-use ingredients, especially if they are unnecessarily expensive.

**** Other nuts are usable. I tossed some yummy walnuts in there!