Michelle Darmody: How to make Easter rocky road with mini chocolate eggs

It is an easy recipe to get children involved in making

It is the time of year when most houses are overflowing with chocolate and sweets and all the other trappings of Easter.

Easter eggs seem to become more abundant every year.

They are now sold in multiples, which makes it more likely that people have more than one chocolate egg, and there are leftovers in the house.

Instead of nibbling away at them for weeks to come, or feeling ill by eating them in one fell swoop, you can make a Rocky Road and pop it into the freezer for when a chocolate treat will be more appreciated.

Rocky Road is a close cousin to a chocolate biscuit cake except that it is made in a flat slab that you slice up, as you would brownies.

You can add a variety of marshmallows, or chocolate sweets, or any of the other bits and pieces you find inside your chocolate eggs.

It is an easy recipe to get children involved in making. In my experience, they love smashing up the biscuits.

I add them to a freezer bag and allow children to roll this with a rolling pin or hit it against the side of a counter.

They can also stir the biscuit bits and other ingredients through the cooled chocolate mixture and scoop it into the tin.

Easter Rocky Road

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

You can add a variety of marshmallows, or chocolate sweets, or any of the other bits and pieces you find inside your chocolate eggs.

Servings

12

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 15 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 200g dark chocolate, broken into even sized pieces

• 2 tbsp honey

• 130g soft butter

• 200g biscuits, crushed

• 100g mini chocolate eggs, marshmallows or other leftover sweets

Method

1. Line an 8-inch square tin with parchment.

2. Melt the chocolate, honey and buttertogether over a low heat.

3. Stir the pieces of crushed biscuits into the melted chocolate.

4. Stir in your choice of sweets.

5. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin.

6. Once it has cooled to room temperature place the tin into the fridge.

7. Allow the Rocky Road to firm up until solid, it will take at least three hours.

8. Once completely chilled remove from the tin.

9. Slice it into whatever size suits you.

Baker's tips

If the chocolate gets overheated and seizes while melting it will lead to very crumbly Rocky Road slices. You will know if the chocolate has seized when it goes grainy in texture. To prevent this, it is best to stir constantly when melting the chocolate, honey and butter together. Place the saucepan over a low heat and stir until there are almost no more lumps of chocolate. Then remove the saucepan from the heat straight away and allow it to cool for 8-10 minutes before adding the other ingredients.

You can use any biscuits you wish, digestive or rich tea are popular choices, but I also like shortcake. Again,this is a good recipe for using leftovers so you could use a mixture of biscuits that you have in the house.

When breaking up the biscuits, it is nice to have a variety of sizes; you do not need to make a complete crumble as you would for the base of a cheesecake. I like to have some pieces that are larger than a one euro coin so that they add texture to the Rocky Road.

Stir the other ingredients into the chocolate mixture until they are completely covered, otherwise the slab will not stick together.

Use the edges of parchment to help you pull the slab of Rocky Road out of the tin.

Dip a long sharp knife into hot water before cutting to get a nice even slice.

If your Rocky Road is very crumbly when cutting, it might be too cold. If you try and slice it straight from the fridge it can shatter or break more easily. Once warmed up, even slightly, it will cut easier.

The Rocky Road, or chocolate refrigerator cake, as it is often called, can be made in advance, and stored in the fridge until you want to serve it. It will store well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.

The bars also freeze very well. I layer them in an airtight, freezer-proof container, and add a piece of parchment between each layer. You can also freeze the whole slab if you like. Wrap it in parchment then place into a large freezer bag. Defrost overnight in a cool place before slicing it with a hot knife.

Two delicious variations

Popcorn and ginger

Add ginger biscuits instead of a plainer version. Mix in 120g of ginger biscuits roughly chopped and 10g of chopped stem ginger, 20g of golden raisins, and a handful of popped popcorn. After you melt the chocolate with the honey and butter stir the rest of the ingredients through.

Amaretti

I use a mixture of chopped roasted almonds and amaretti biscuits. Lightly roast 100g of almonds on a tray under a grill and allow them to cool. Roughly chop them as well as chopping 100g of amaretti biscuits. Stir both through the chocolate mixture and decorate with slivered almonds on top if you wish.