Rocky Road

A perfect picnic

The thing with your everyday, common-or-garden rocky road is that any old goose can melt chocolate and stir in marshmallows, that’s not an overly taxing task. And to throw in a few nuts or glacé cherries, well whoopdeedo! The Hummingbird Bakery version, which I sampled at their Portobello Road store in December, is startlingly creative but so obvious you’ll wish you had thought of it first.

There’s only one problem with most rocky road recipes and that is that they include far too much chocolate. This makes them a bit neater looks-wise, but that advantage will be counteracted by the fact that it will be nearly impossible to cut. The Hummingbird book wants you to use 1.4kg of chocolate, and what with all the other ingredients I just can’t justify that kind of extravagance for myself, even in the face of debilitating cravings. The good news is that you don’t actually need that much chocolate, try to see it as just the glue holding things together. Here’s my take on the original;

400g of dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled (I don’t go for all that double-boiler nonsense, I just put the chocolate in a saucepan on a very low heat and stand vigilantly over it, taking it off when there are still a few small lumps floating around in the mix.)

200g Maltesers

250g marshmallows

200g Mars bars, chopped

100g dried apricots, chopped

100g raisins

100g cornflakes

chocolate sprinkles for decoration

Stir all ingredients together, except the sprinkles, with grim determination until everything is coated in chocolate. It will feel as if it’s never going to work but stick with it and you will be rewarded. Spread onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper. Less chocolate sticks to baking paper and we want as much as possible of our ingredients available for consumption in the end product!

While it’s still a bit melty, decorate with chocolate sprinkles. These seem like an unnecessary garnish but they cover a myriad of sins and act as a fabulous distraction from the otherwise, let’s face it, not-altogether-appealing look of the rocky road. Pop it in the fridge for a few hours and then chop up and serve to unsuspecting guests. Don’t brag, just wait for them to discover all the treats on their own.