Monday, September 5, 2011

Rocky Road: Take 1

So, I have a confession to make. I have a bit of an obsession with Rocky Road at the moment. The thing is, it is not an obsession about making Rocky Road (found a great recipe for that at Christmas thanks to Better Homes and Gardens) but more a distinct desire to make a dessert which is a bit of a play on Rocky Road and therefore, what constitutes the most delicious or perhaps the most well known Rocky Road.

My favourite version of Rocky Road has rosewater Turkish delight, roasted almonds and vanilla marshmallows coated in white chocolate (or dark for that matter) and topped with a crisp layer of roasted almond brittle. It is really, really sweet so just a little is more than enough. It's also not overly traditional. I do like the version that a colleague used to make with Allen's raspberries, macadamias and marshmallows as well. It is certainly not as decadent as the Lindt variety sold at some delicatessans. Then there is Darrell Lea 'Rocklea Road' - despite the toasted coconutty goodness of thisversion, the remainder of that particular product disappoints me.

So what on earth am I wafflling on with this all for? Well I really, really want to know what goes in a traditional Rocky Road... What do you put in your Rocky Road or what is in your favourite type to eat?

So far my thoughts are running to a rich, dutch cocoa chocolate steamed pudding, with rosewater marshmallow, raspberry sorbet and roasted almond brittle and perhaps some vanilla creme anglaise. At the same time though, I could see Nigella Lawson's chocolate raspberry pudding cake with rosewater macaroons, toasted coconut and almond icecream with praline dust working well also. What I can say doesn't work well though is placing marshmallows in a chocolate steamed pudding mix and microwaving it in the special microwave pudding steamer - they swell up, pop and then dissolve and don't do anything much at all! Back to the drawing board - no quick dessert fix there!

So now that I've let you all in on my slight Rocky Road obsession, I shall have to write another post sometime soon with my next take on 'Rocky Road Pudding' and what I can find out about the traditional recipe.

I would love to hear what you put into your Rocky Road!