(The Best) Rocky Road Brownies

A couple weeks ago, I was craving something really rich and chocolatey.  I also was eating those jet-puffed mini marshmallows by the handful and wanted to stop myself from eating all those empty Calories of sugar and gelatin. So I decided to instead empty sugar-laden Calories from marshmallows and chocolate.  This led to the creation of this super awesome and delicious Rocky Road Brownies.  I usually do not rave about my experiments in the kitchen, but these were some darn good brownies. 

As some of you may know, my and Mike's co-workers and friends reap (sometimes cringe at) the benefits of all my baking experiments.  My co-workers get the Tier 1 experiments (come on, I work with a bunch of Food Scientists, some of whom have superb palates) and Mike's co-workers receive the Tier 2 experiments.  I thought that these brownies were no question in the Tier 1 category and since I made a huge pan of them, Mike's co-workers got to sample them too.

Ingredients:
1 box brownie mix (for a 9x13"pan, chose the fudgy brownie option).
--I used a cheap box of Duncan Hines Brownie Mix. The kind that sells for $1 on sale.
1 lb of dark chocolate
--I used a mixture of Dove dark chocolate promises and Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chips
~2 cups of miniature marshmallows + an extra handful if you really like marshmallows
1.5 cups of crisp rice cereal (i.e. Rice Krispies)
1/2 peanuts (optional)
-I used slightly sugared peanuts that had a candy crunch on them

Recipe:
1. Mix and make the brownie mix according to the box's chewy brownie option. I always reduce my brownie cook time because I like fudgy moist brownies instead of dry brownies. If the box says "27-30 minutes" I usually set my timer for 22 minutes and check it with a toothpick.  If the toothpick come out goopy with wet batter, keep it in longer.
2.(you can skip this step, I just did it for fun). Shut off your oven heat, and with the remaining heat, throw some marshmallows on the top of the baked brownies and let the marshmallows heat up and expand. I did this only for a couple of minutes.
3. In a double boiler, melt your chocolate. (Or you can do it the "Lauren Lazy Way" and dump the chocolate in a pot, turn the heat on to a low temperature (the lowest setting), and constantly stir the chocolate with a heat resistant spatula. 
4.  Once all the chocolate has melted, dump in the remaining marshmallows, the nuts, and the crisp rice cereal.
5. Quickly stir everything together and then gently spread it atop the baked brownie.
6. Let the brownie sit at room temperature and then put it in the refrigerator to chill (Or by a window with chilly night air blowing through it).
7. Cut the brownies up into 1-1.5" pieces and serve or package them. 

This picture does not do the brownie justice. It has a rich chocolate fudge taste and is composed of a multitude of varying textures (crunchy, chewy, soft, gooey). This recipe definitely will make it into my "must keep" recipe book. I would like to make it at least one more time to verify that it wasn't just a fluke chance that these came out tasty.