I love a good Rocky Road. I love the heftiness and endless versatility. Though, unsurprisingly, I have views on what makes a good one! Ratios matter. So here’s my Rocky Road recipe. It’s easy. And it’s oh-so-good.
Rocky Road opinions
Rocky Road is about as simple as candy recipes get. Melt chocolate. Stir in add-ins of choice. Marshmallows, raspberries and peanuts are classic. Coconut is my must-have extra.
In other countries around the world (I’m in Australia, BTW!), cookies and dried fruit are common. And I’ve seen glacé cherries instead of raspberries.
No judgement. Rocky Road is a recipe to make your own!
The only firm view I have is to make sure there is enough add-ins. Rocky Road has heft to it, it’s not a thin, wimpy piece of candy. It’s a thick slab. Nobody wants to bite into an enormous block of plain chocolate. We want to sink our teeth into a delightful medley of textures – soft marshmallow, chewy raspberry, nutty crunch of peanuts.
So don’t skimp on add-ins!!
What you need for Rocky Road
Here’s what you need to make my Rocky Road.
Chocolate – EASY OPTION
Use chips or melts for an easy option. Upgrade to block chocolate for premium. I use a combination of dark and milk chocolate to get the best of both worlds: chocolate flavour intensity plus creaminess of milk chocolate!
Chocolate melts and chips are the easy option because there’s no chopping involved and they are made for easy melting. Equal amounts of both dark (US: semi-sweet) and milk chocolate is my favourite. You get the best of each type of chocolate: good chocolate flavour from the dark chocolate plus the creaminess of milk chocolate.
But feel free to use the combination you want!
PREMIUM CHOCOLATE
If you want to upgrade, for example, if you’re gifting or making to impress, use block chocolate instead. Lindt is my premium pick before moving into couverture (higher grade chocolate used by fine patisseries, chocolatiers etc), for flavour, quality and also it’s shiny because it’s tempered.
Plaistowe is probably the “best” in the baking aisle followed by Cadbury. And a couple of good US brands: Ghirardelli and Baker’s brand.
As with the chips, I will typically use a combination of dark and milk chocolate though if using Lindt, I usually stick with just one type. For the sake of purity! 70% for grown ups, milk chocolate for all-rounder crowd pleaser.
If using chocolate block, you’ll need to chop it up before melting. The finer you chop, the easier it melts.
Note: Lindt is not cheap and you need 5 blocks. I stock up when they are steeply discounted. It happens every now and then!
⚠️ Eating vs cooking chocolate
Whatever chocolate you choose, it is safest to source the chocolate from the baking aisle which is made for melting and cooking. Some chocolate from the confectionary aisle (ie for eating) is actually made to prevent it melting easily if, say, it’s sitting in a warm pantry, your car or handbag.. So they will not necessarily melt smoothly. They are also more prone to problems like seizing and burning if you use the microwave rather than a bain-marie (bowl over simmering water).
It’s not the end of the world for Rocky Road because we re-set the chocolate anyway, but it’d be highly risky to use in things like Chocolate Mousse. So if you know of eating chocolate brands that melt perfectly / you’ve nailed the art of melting Cadbury Milk Chocolate blocks, feel free to use it! But just be aware that chocolate from the baking aisle is safer for use in cooking!
The only exception is Lindt. This can be sourced from the chocolate confectionary aisle. It melts 100% perfectly. And did you know Lindt is already tempered so it’s natural shiny? Lindt is special! 🙂
rocky road add-ins
And for the add-ins! Here’s what goes in mine. Classic Aussie Rocky Road – marshmallows, chewy raspberries and peanuts. Plus coconut. Reminiscent of retro Golden Rough (chocolate coconut candy here in Australia). Coconut isn’t always present in Rocky Road, but for me it’s a must!
How to make Rocky Road
Hot contender for the world’s easiest candy recipe!
Melt chocolate in 30 second bursts, stirring in between.
Stir until smooth. (Hot tip – use a chopstick during the initial stirring phases. Easier – and less surface area for chocolate to stick to. Switch to rubber spatula towards the end).
Stir through add-ins.
Spread in a 20cm/8″ paper lined square pan.
Refrigerate for 3 hours (or overnight, or days!) until fully firm.
Cut – Remove from the fridge 30 minutes prior to cutting into pieces. I cut into 5 bars, then into smaller pieces if serving to eat, and larger pieces if gifting.
Tell me your Gold Standard Rocky Road!
Thinking back, I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of the time I make Rocky Road is for gifting. Which is not surprising. Rocky Road is a sizeable piece of candy. There’s no such thing as a small nibble. Even breaking off a “small” hunk is a decent mouthful! Unlike, for example, my current favourite small-form candy to have around the house which allows me to take a small guilt-free nibble when the craving hits. (Never mind that I go back to the jar 10 times a day).
What about you? Is Rocky Road a gifting recipe? For parties? Or are you a committed candy monster who will make this for yourself?
But more importantly – SHARE YOUR GOLD STANDARD ROCKY ROAD add-ins!! I bet you make a killer Rocky Road! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Rocky Road
Ingredients
Chocolate (read Note 1!):
- 225 – 250g / 8 oz dark chocolate melts or chips (1 1/2 cups) or block, chopped (US: semi-sweet chips)
- 225 – 250g / 8 oz milk chocolate melts or chips (1 1/2 cups) or block, chopped (or more dark choc)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil or any plain flavoured oil (prevents cracking, adds bit of sheen, Note 2)
Nagi’s Rocky Road Add-ins (Note 3):
- 3 cups marshmallows, pink and white , most cut in half (firmly pack the cups!)
- 3/4 cup raspberry lollies , halved
- 1/3 cup desiccated coconut (or flakes), unsweetened
- 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts , very roughly chopped (ie almost just halved)
Instructions
- Line a 20cm/8" square pan with baking paper (parchment paper).
- Melt chocolate – Place chocolate and oil in a bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.
- Add-ins – Stir the Add-ins into the chocolate. Pour into pan, spreading out evenly.
- Refrigerate for 3 hours or until fully cool.
- Cut – Remove from the fridge 30 minutes prior to cutting. I cut into 5 lines, then into chunks for eating or larger pieces for gifting!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Back to the vet for another check up with ongoing tummy issues. 😢 Clearly he’s gotten into something he shouldn’t have – again! It’s been over a week now, so I’m a little worried so I took him to the vet again. He’s had various blood tests and all have come back clear.
Here he is, wondering if the bandage is edible (the bandage was for the blood test patch).
For now he’s on a strict gastro-intestinal dog food diet. No treats, no taste testing, not even a drizzle of canned fish juices to make the dry food more interesting.
He’s so unimpressed with this new diet! Hopefully it won’t be for too long and he’ll bounce back to his normal self.
Love & hugs to Dozer 🐾🩵 Thanks for your amazing inspirations as always. Just wanted to share my ‘magic’ ingredient according to my kids, “strawberries & cream” lollies. Next level 😉
Hi Nagi. Sorry Dozer has tummy problems. We stopped the dried food years ago. Our collies only have cooked mince,rice and vegetables, water and oil. Twice a day
I have the recipe book and just love the qr codes. funny thing is when you remind us of a recipe in the book it looks so delicious reading it on the screen and I think I havent seen that one. Its all brilliant. thankyou
Hi Nagi. Sorry Dozer has tummy problems. We stopped the dried food years ago. Our collies only have cooked mince,rice and vegetables, water and oil.
Hi Nagi – love everything you and dozer do! I have made your lemon cheesecake and have it in the fridge but am I supposed to cover it as it is getting bubbles all over it (like sweating?) when I try to wipe it off it smudges and makes the curd messy looking. Please help. Thank you
Nagi, I feel bad for Dozer. We had a golden that lived 15 years and the last 4 years .his belly had problems so I made his food. I put chicken breasts in water with onion and celery to cook on stove till chicken was thouroughly done, made rice and processed the two with some of the chicken broth into a canned type dog food. He loved it and so did all the neighborhood dogs. Will keep a few days in fridge.
Hi all. Good on Chris for homemaking such lovely dog dinners but just FYI, onions (in fact, all alliums) are toxic to dogs and can cause potentially life-threatening anaemia, so never put them into dog food.
I sometimes add crystalised ginger as well as the turkish delight to mine which my friends enjoy
Fabulous, easy, rave reviews. Could only find multi-coloured marshmallows (Canada) and used Dare Real Fruit medley. Thank you, I have never had Rocky Road candy.
Hi didn’t have marshmallows so used chopped up Eskimos. 😁
Best rocky road ever! What a genius idea to put chewy sweets in it!
Lemon Cheesecake comment: Recipes are but guides, and I found the timings provided in this recipe to be off in [a] whisking the filling with a stand mixer; [b] bubbles appearing in the lemon curd proces; [c] removing cheesecake from the oven [suggested 40 minutes, I added 10 more]. I also doubled the lemon zest amount in the filling. But hey, it could be a combination of Canadian weather, South African lemons, and 730 feet above Sydney’s sea level.
Love your recipe Nagi, it’s great to get your proportions – I usually make mine by guesswork. Mine is almost the same, but sometimes I use salted peanuts to counteract the sweetness.
My best variation is ‘Snowy Road’ – I use white chocolate, pistachio nuts, white marshmallows, shredded coconut and Turkish delight.
It is divine and makes a lovely special gift.
You need to use good quality white chocolate – it is a bit harder to work with, but worth the effort.
Has to be Whittakers. 1 bar Dark Almond and 1 bar milk choc. Secret family recipe!
I must give this a try, looks so tasty! I’m in Ireland and there’s nearly always biscuits in rocky road here, I’ve never seen it with jellies!! Look at a website called Odlums dot ie (an Irish flour and porridge maker) and see their tiffin in the wedding section, that’s my go to recipe normally!
Mmmm I dunno about raspberry whatevers in Rocky Road, but I can say the the lemon cheesecake was out of this world. There were leftovers, but when my son left I discovered that they did, also…
Hi Nagi
Rocky Road is a Christmas must in my house. A friend gave me a recipe for RR that has Turkish Delight instead of Raspberries and for me that is the ultimate. I also use Cadbury Milk Chocolate from the confectionery aisle which works beautifully if you melt it carefully. Love your recipes, thank you
Hearing a LOT about Turkish Delight!! I have to give that a go 🙂 N x
I use the dark cooking chocolate from Aldi and like the result
Proper Turkish Delight from your favourite Middle Eastern grocer and macadamia nut (with the marshmallow etc still) makes a delicious Rocky Road
Add freeze dried raspberries or strawberries for more intense flavour without additional sweetness.
Oooh I love that idea! Thanks Simone – N x
Hi Nagi, I need to correct you on one of your comments “it keeps for weeks and weeks”. Not in this house it doesn’t!
I don’t understand what is meant by raspberry lollies? I thought lolly meant frozen treat on a stick? Could you please clarify?
Steve, in Australia they’re called lollies, in the US they’re candy, in the UK they’re sweets. The rasperries referred to here are raspberry flavoured gummy lollies, a bit chewier and denser than gummy bears. Google “allen’s raspberry lollies” (there’s others but Allen’s is a large confectionery brand here)
HA HA HA!!!
We make rocky road as a snack for the kids (and us) from time to time, sometimes using the mini marshmallows instead of the big ones. Other additions we’ve tried successfully are (all chopped up of course): snakes (in place of raspberries), Cadbury Clinkers (small pieces!), fruit sticks (those fruit versions of musk sticks if you can find them – google “fruit sticks lollies”), honeycomb.
We’ve also tried popcorn which has more down sides than benefits. The taste is good but it condenses and goes chewy (not necessarily bad) and the hard skin and uncooked kernel pieces make it unpleasant to deal with and just not worth it unless you do some painstaking prep beforehand. Which kind of defeats the purpose of an easy to make snack! 🙂
Thinking about it now I’m wondering what Whittaker’s chocolate (It’s an NZ brand, well known for excellent quality and taste) might be like to use. Maybe their Hokey Pokey block? Other considerations: musk stick pieces but the flavour might be too much for everything else.
Also I’m thinking about a mint variant with Peppermint Crisp (broken up and added in, not in place of the chocolate) and Mint Patties for the difference in texture. Not sure what else would go with them though. The mint would definitely drown out most typical ingredients. Hmm, more experimenting to do. What a shame 😉
PS I’m sure more Peppermint Crisps are sold to be broken up and used in and on desserts than just to eat!
Thanks for clarifying.
Never made a mint one – must change that!!! N xx
Hi Nagi. We’ve taken our dog of dry food. Just has cooked kangaroo meat, BBQ chicken (brought cold from deli because real cheap), rice and frozen veg. We found the dry food didn’t agree with her digestion. Not sure if that will solve your problems but I’m sure dozer will love it.
Simply delicious! As all recipes from you! Your book is amazing, the best book in my kitchen, alongside Gordon, Jamie, Matt Preston and Hugh Fernly Wittingstall ❤️
Lots of love to Dozer, hope he is better and back to his normal, wonderful self. 💙