I’m not going to lie, it’s mildly disgusting the amount of chocolate we get from relatives around Easter. With this year’s hoard, I decided to make Rocky Road in the hopes of offloading onto work colleagues and school friends.
Ingredients
8 Chocolate Easter Bunny Figurines (or was it 10?) – this is approximately 1.2 kg of chocolate.
Note: The good thing about Rocky Road is it’s forgiving so it doesn’t have to be exact and this makes 2 huge blocks. The recipe can be halved.
1/4 packet chocolate coated Easter biscuits (or any sweet biscuit)
2 packets Marshmallows
1 Mars Bar cut into small pieces
1 cup shredded coconut
200g raw almond slivers
1/2 cup salted cashews
1 cup pretzels
1/2 cup diced dried apricot
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 Rice bubble bars (you just use rice puffs)
NOTE: I made two large rocky road trays from these ingredients.
Method
Step 1. Spray your tins with oil and line with baking paper.
Step 2. Add the almond slivers and shredded coconut into a fry pan and brown/roast it off, should only take a few minutes. Try not to burn, but you do want the coconut to brown off. Set aside to cool.
Step 3. Put the biscuits into a snap lock bag and crush/smash using a rolling pin. Add the biscuits to the almond and coconut to make a dry mix.
Step 4. Following the same process as Step 3, crush the salted cashews and add to dry mix. Divide the dry mix into half and spread in the base of both rocky road trays.
Step 5. Cut all the marshmallows in half and place in the trays.
Step 6. I split the remainder of my ingredients into two themes ‘Yum for Kids’ and ‘Fancy for Grown-ups’. In the ‘Yum for Kids’ tray, I added the mars bar, rice bubble bars (cut into pieces) and smarties that had come out of the middle of the various chocolates. In the ‘Fancy for Grown-ups’ tray, I added the apricots, cranberries, pretzels and fine confectionary chocolates (cut in half) that had been in one of the Easter Eggs. I spread the ingredients around the trays.
Step 7. Melting the chocolate. Due to the amount of chocolate I had to melt, I divided my mix into two even amounts. Using a 1/3 full saucepan of water, I turned the heat up to high and sat my chocolate in metal mixing bowl on top. Using cooking mittens or a towel, hold onto your bowl (it will be hot) and start stirring the mix with a metal spoon. It will take a little while, be patient and just keep mixing, making sure to blend the already melted chocolate with the rest. The secret to melting chocolate is CONSTANT STIRRING, otherwise your chocolate will split and be unusable. As this was rocky road, I left my melted chocolate mix with a few hardy lumps in it.
Step 8. Before the chocolate cooled, I poured the hot mix over the ingredients in the tray. Use a metal spoon to really mix the chocolate around and ensure that everything has a covering of chocolate. Cover with a plastic wrap and pop in the fridge to set!
Step 9. Repeat steps 7 & 8 for the second rocky road tray. Leave both trays in the fridge to set for 60 minutes.
Step 10. Now the rocky road is set, it’s time to cut into serving sizes. Wriggle the baking paper to release the rocky road from the base of the tray. Place on a clean, dry cutting board. It’s much easier to cut Rocky Road if your using a nice wide knife, something you can comfortable place the palm of your hand on. If you find it particularly difficult to cut, pop your knife in hot water for a few seconds to heat up, this will make cutting much easier.
Serve with coffee or tea.
For someone who has never made Rocky Road before, I was astonished at how easy it was. My husband, who isn’t a great sweet tooth, told me he can’t stop eating it and my work colleagues advised I could bring it in anytime. Even the kids at family day care loved it!
So next time you have a surplus of chocolate from Easter or even lollies and nuts at Christmas, considering whipping together a Rocky Road.
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