Nigella's rocky road.

Ok, so it may be featured in my beloved recipe book Nigella Christmas, and I will be the first to admit that it is, sadly, no longer Christmas, but I am of the firm belief (and I hope that the domestic goddess herself would agree with me here) that rocky road is so gorgeously chocolatey and rich that it would be a crime not to consume it all year round. That, coupled with the fact that it is so simple even your half-blind arthritic grandma could whip it up no sweat, means this is a firm chocolatey favourite that I revisit religiously throughout the year. 

I've tweaked the recipe ever so slightly to make them a bit more accessible outside the month of December, but their pure decadence will always serve to associate them with the festive season of indulgence in my mind. Oh, and I only used milk chocolate - this is more of a personal preference, as I don't really like dark chocolate. If you like to frequent the dark side yourself, then feel free to substitute half, or even all, of the milk for dark. To be honest, you can change any number of ingredients in this recipe to suit your own personal preference - that's the beauty of it. I like to think of it as a big chocolatey melting pot which cools gradually to form bars of personalised yumminess, so feel free to go wild.

Nigella's (Christmas) rocky road:

Ingredients:

400g good quality milk chocolate

175g butter

4tbsp golden syrup

200g digestive biscuits 

150g nuts of your choice (I like peanuts)

150g glacé cherries

125g pink and white marshmallows

icing sugar (to decorate)

Method:

1. Chop up the chocolate and melt with the butter and syrup, either over a simmering pan or 

    (carefully!) in the microwave.

2. Bash the biscuits with a rolling pin (you may want to put them in a bag first...). Repeat with 

    the nuts.

3. Add the nuts, biscuits, cherries, and mini marshmallows into the chocolate mix, and stir 

    thoroughly until everything is coated.

4. Tip into a tray, smooth down, and put in the fridge until nice and firm and ready to slice - this 

    usually takes about 2 hours.

5. Arrange on a plate and sieve some icing sugar over the top. 

That's literally it. I like to think I indulge my inner child when I make this - she has a whale of a time melting chocolate and bunging sugary things into it, although I can imagine the waiting part gets a bit rocky (if you will excuse the pun). I know the twenty year old me can barely wait.