Rocky Road

Hurray H is coming home for Christmas on Sunday and so I've made a batch of her favourite Rocky Road. I feel a bit of a cheat saying I made them because this recipe involves absolutely no baking. It's really a case of a little bit of weighing, a smidgen of melting, a tad of chopping and then a spot of mixing.

This is a great recipe to make if you have any little people who want to help out. They can do the weighing and breaking biscuits.

For twelve pieces you will need:

100g shortbread biscuits (it's also nice made with Malted Milk biscuits)

25g of mini marshmallows or normal size ones cut into quarters

25g natural glace cherries

225g milk chocolate (H loves this made with Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate)

75g of butter

Prepare a 19cm square baking tin or dish with baking parchment so the Rocky Road is easy to remove when set.

Chop or break up your biscuits into small pieces. Halve the cherries and cut the marshmallows into quarters if using regular size not mini ones. I find it's useful to use a sprinkling of icing sugar to prevent the marshmallow quarters from sticking together. Place all these ingredients in a bowl.

Break up the chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. I used my porringer which was great for this. Add the butter and heat gently until both are melted. Stir thoroughly.

Pour the chocolaty mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well to combine everything together.

Put the mixture into the prepared dish spreading it evenly over the base and into the corners.

Cover and chill in fridge until firm and then cut into even sized bars.

NB For a vegetarian version you can make your own gelatine free marshmallow. You can link to the recipe here but you do need a product called Genutine Vegetarian Gelatine which you can buy in online in the UK from here and I'm sure other substitutes made from Agar-agar are available too.