Food Friday ~ Rocky Road

Friday, February 3, 2012

Hello everyone…Happy Friday! :o)  Kylie here with a sweet little Food Friday post.  An easy homemade treat that I think is just perfect for Valentine’s Day (or any day, really!!)…Rocky Road…YUM!

Chocolate, marshmallow, nuts and a few lollies thrown into the mix…what a yummy combo!!  Oh, and in Australia, yes, we say lolly…in the US you say candy, and I think in the UK you say sweet…am I right??  Any which way you say it, it’s delicious!!  This recipe is soooo simple to make (no baking required) and you can play around with the combination of ingredients too… always lots of fun!!

Ingredients

• 600g (approx 21oz) Milk Chocolate, melted
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 150g (5oz) marshmallows, chopped
• 1 cup of mixed soft lollies/candies/sweets (your choice)
• 1/4 cup of chopped nuts (optional)
• sprinkles (optional)

Directions

• Grease and line a brownie/slice pan or similar.  Have the baking paper overhang the pan edges so that you can lift out the rocky road after it has been refrigerated
• Combine all ingredients, except for sprinkles, in large bowl and stir well.  Enough to coat all the ingredients with the melted chocolate
• Press mixture into pan and tap, several times, on work area to help remove any air bubbles
• Scatter sprinkles over the top
•  Refrigerate until firm ~ approximately 3-4 hours
• Use a heart cookie cutter to carefully press out shapes or use a sharp knife to cut into square pieces or long strips
• Enjoy!

More information and tips

• Chocolate ~ I used 3 x 200g blocks of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate for my batch of rocky road…so any store bought eating chocolate is fine.  You can use baking or cooking chocolate instead – white, milk or dark…your preference.  And you can even mix the milk and dark chocolate 50/50 for a darker look that isn’t as strong in taste as straight dark.  Melt your chocolate by your preferred method…it just needs to be runny enough to coat all the other ingredients, but not too hot as to start melting the marshmallows.
• Marshmallow ~ I used some large marshmallows I had on hand and got my nieces to chop them into smaller pieces (an easy job for school-age kids) but you can also purchase mini marshmallows which don’t need any chopping and work perfectly, especially if you want an end result that isn’t too high in the pan.  Experiment with different flavours too!  I had the standard vanilla and raspberry but these days there are all sorts of marshmallow flavours/colours.
• Candy ~ chocolate, marshmallow, nuts are the general rocky road ingredients but you can pretty much throw in anything you want…and for Valentine’s Day it’s nice to add a little extra sweetness.  I chose some raspberry jellies/jubes and cut them into smaller pieces.  So any jube type candy, the softer the better – otherwise cutting your shapes becomes difficult, jelly beans, turkish delight or chocolate button candy like m&m’s; all work well.
• Nuts ~ I decided not to use nuts this time as my nieces aren’t big fans.  And if you are giving these treats as gifts it is important to know whether or not any of the recipients have a nut allergy (or any allergies, for that matter!).  If you want to add nuts, then chopped peanuts or slivered almonds are perfect…so are shelled/peeled pistachios – for a gorgeous hint of green…cashews or macadamia nuts work nicely in white chocolate rocky road too.
• Other ingredients ~ don’t be afraid to add other ingredients…just not too many all at once as the combination of flavours might get a little crazy ;o)  Some other ingredients you might like to try adding:  flaked or shredded coconut, dried cranberries, glace cherries, biscuit (not the US ‘scone’ biscuit)/cookie pieces, sultanas or raisins.
• Cutting out shapes ~ after refrigeration, take out of fridge and allow to sit for about 30 minutes, or so, to make it easier to cut through.  Using a sharp knife to cut squares is the easiest by far and you get a nice finish.  If you use a cookie cutter, like a heart, make sure it is a metal one with a sturdy handle and not a plastic cutter, as it takes a bit of effort to cut through…the marshmallow and jubes like to ‘stick’ to the sides.  I like my rocky road pieces nice and high (about 4 cm or 1 1/2 inches) but if you use a wider pan to start with you’ll end up with a flatter layer of rocky road and it will be easier to cut through…so just keep that in mind.  I also find it easier, when using a shaped cookie cutter to press through the mix and then to remove the rocky road from the cutter, press the rocky road piece from the bottom and up through the cutter…if that makes sense.  Pushing from the top down just cracks the chocolatey top and damages the sprinkles.
• Left-over pieces ~ after cutting out your heart shapes you’ll be left with all those little off-cuts.  So what can you do with those?…chop them up and add them to ice cream, or to a chocolate muffin, cupcake or cake mix, or just eat them!!

To give out my rocky road as gifts this Valentine’s Day I wandered over to the Shabby Shoppe and had a look around at all the inspiration.  Last Valentine’s I had fun with the gorgeous, gorgeous XOXO confection collection…a must have!!  But this year I wanted to do something a little different and actually decided to use the outside layers of the cute little bloom box albums (Clementine and Sprout).  They were so quick and easy to print out and assemble.  I wrapped the rocky road hearts in some cellophane and popped one in each box and tied it all up with some curling ribbon.

And finally…here is a little 4×6 recipe card I created as a FREE download.  I used a Shabby Shoppe French Toast recipe card template and the Sweetie Pie kit (see the TOU, in your download, for font details etc).

Just click on the image below to download (or click HERE)!

THANKS for joing me today!  We’ll see you back here on Monday with our LOTW… until then have a wonderfully “sweet” weekend! Enjoy!! :o)

KylieFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 8 Comments