Christmas Rocky Road
When I was living in the UK, I joined a book club with a great bunch of people who quickly became good friends. We’d pick a book. Meet every six weeks or so. Talk about the book. Our likes and dislikes. And when we were finished, we’d rate the book out of five. The evenings always encouraged interesting conversation, and were always accompanied by nibbles and wine. If you’re in a book club, or have been previously, then I suspect what I’m describing isn’t particularly unique. That’s the great thing about them. They work, and provided you enjoy reading, they’re a refreshing change from a night out in the pub.
And so I was very excited when a friend of mine suggested forming a book club here in Sydney and even more excited when we met for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The evening was a great success and I can’t wait for our next book club gathering in the New Year.
But today’s post isn’t actually about book club. Well, only loosely. It’s actually about a very delicious Christmas Rocky Road!
Confused? Sorry about that. Even for me that was a bit of a leap. I forgot to mention that our first book club had a Christmas theme, given its proximity to the holiday season. It was a lot of fun and we all brought a dish for the evening. I was blown away by the effort everyone had gone to and how delicious everything was.
This Christmas Rocky Road in particular was so good that I had to force myself to stop eating it. I think I drew the line at about 3 pieces, but I’ll confess, I also took a couple more with me at the end of the night! Donna was kind enough to share her recipe with everyone in our new little book club, and I’m pleased to be able to extend the favour. Trust me, even if you don’t have a particularly sweet tooth, you are going to have to try this!
Donna’s Christmas Rocky Road, with pistachios and cranberries…
I was just a little bit excited about sharing this recipe and this is my first attempt. Unfortunately my white chocolate didn’t melt very well so I didn’t really achieve the marbled swirl, but otherwise the results were as good as I remembered!
- 200g milk (or dark) chocolate
- 200g block white chocolate
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 175g marshmallows*
- 2/3 – 1 cup dried cranberry
- 2/3 – 1 cup shelled pistachios
- 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
- Line a slice pan with baking paper.
- Melt the milk chocolate in heatproof bowl over simmering water. Once melted stir in 1 tsp of oil until combined.
- Set aside to cool.
- Repeat with the white chocolate.
- To the bowl containing the milk (or dark) chocolate, stir in the marshmallows and coconut.
- To the bowl containing the white chocolate, stir in the cranberries and pistachios.
- Alternating between the white chocolate mix and milk (or dark) chocolate mix, dollop spoonfulls of each mixture into the tin.
- Once all of the mixture is in the tin, swirl the two chocolates around each other a little and spread evenly across the pan so that it is marbled.
- Chill for an hour or 2 before turning out and cutting into pieces.
- *Donna suggested using Pascall’s Mallow Bites Berry swrils for this recipe.
- I used a 27 cm x 17cm x 4 cm tin to make this, but something of similar size should be fine.
Rachel
16/12/2013 at 12:49 pm (11 years ago)Hi Jenni, how could I talk about BC and not mention our lovely one back in London! I miss you guys and hope you’ve had a few good reads this year! Glad to hear you gave the boiled chocolate cake a try – its so simple isn’t it? I’m not a big fan of rum, so haven’t planned on making any rum balls. I’ll keep my eye out for a good recipe though and point you in the right direction. Will mail you my new address. xx
Jenni Sivertsen-Harding
14/12/2013 at 6:30 pm (11 years ago)Dear Rach, how sweet of you to give Bookclub a mention… so glad you joined another. The Rocky Road looks scrumptious, can’t wait to try it. Your boiled chocolate cake went down a storm at our Carol Service on Tuesday night. Look forward to your rum balls recipe.. mine never quite tastes the same as it did in Oz…much love Jen and Johnno ps don’t have an address for you for a Xmas card, please send!