Several moons ago in my life, I used to work as a General Manager of an upmarket shoe store in Sydney that had 5 store branches, including the Bruno Magli store in Chifley Tower, and each day I would travel to each one to see how things were going. If there’s anything that will cure you of an addition, it’s working in a store that sells the temptation in question. When I started working there I had over 120 pairs of shoes. People called me Imelda and I answered. I thought nothing of buying the same shoe in every shade.
Now I’d say in the several years that have ensued I am up to about 135 pairs (15 shoes over several years is pretty good) and mostly wear ballet flats and thongs in summer. So whilst the job was hard, it did cure me of my shoe obsession. I recall reading about a supermodel who did the same in high school and worked at a donut shop-she said that she never wanted to see a donut again so that’s my next challenge I suppose, working in a pastry and cake shop.
The stores that I looked forward to visiting most were the Chifley Tower store as it was quieter and they had good sushi upstairs and the Double Bay store because of the pastries and sweets nearby. I didn’t know the name of the shop that sold this upmarket version of Rocky Road as the store manager would purchase it, but I remember thinking that it was the best Rocky Road I had ever tasted with marshmallows, macadamias, shredded coconut and Turkish Delight chunks ensconced within the white chocolate.
The store manager is gone, as is the store itself, so I have no-one to ask. So what choice do I have but to try and recreate it at home? And what better time that to do it than at Christmas as a gift. I usually beg off making Christmas gifts but the time was right, I had most of the ingredients to hand and people seemed to expect me to make them something to eat for Christmas. I did a bit of guestimating along with plenty of sampling and what I ended up with was in my humble opinion better than the stuff I was thinking of.
And if you’ve never tried Turkish Delight in Rocky Road, you simply must do so, it’s toothsomely luscious. The Rocky Road is richer than rich so a little goes a long way which is never bad when eating chocolate. I always feel that small amount of chocolate is better for you than gorging on lots of really bad chocolate and the fact that this is chock full with other things means that you can only have a small slice. Which is a good thing you do see. However you may notice that I’m conveniently omitting how moreish it is…
Luxurious Rocky Road
An original recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Makes 20 pieces
- 500g white chocolate (or milk or dark if you like)
- 175g honey coated macadamias (if not available, just substitute this quantity with regular macadamias)
- 1 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
- 250g Turkish Delight cut into thirds or quarters depending on size
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
1. Line a 21×21cms square cake tin with foil.
2. Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave in a large bowl until melted.
3. Stir in the rest of the ingredients until combined and spoon into foil lined tin.
4. Refrigerate until firm and when set cut into slices using a large, sharp knife.
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40 Comments | Add your own
All my favourite things in one! One thing I have taken for granted til now is all the effort that you put into displaying your goods! Maybe your next career should be creative food director? I’m sure there is a professional title for such a job. This message is for all those glossy magazines out there!
I would love to know what brand of white chocolate did you use?
Oh how I wish I was one of the characters in that christmas wonderland!
I’ve never tasted Turkish Delight. It looks delicious though! What a cute train!
That looks absolutely heavenly. I think I will make some soon xx
yummmy…this will be my “sweet” dish that I will provide this Christmas. I just loove Rocky road. And definitely a fun way to display it!
I love your snow scene. Edible snow beats cotton wool every time!
I think I would have to take a ticket on this gorgeous rocky road train – I think the white chocolate sounds a little sweet for me but I couldn’t resist a taste of such flavours!
I remember now! The official title is food stylist. AWW eat your heart out
Shoes are my weakness, although I try not to buy too many! Chocolate, I only have occassional cravings for. This sounds really good and I was amazed it was so simple.
Hee hee I don’t think I can get of any food addiction even if I worked in the environment and yummy rocky road ^^!
Hi Maria-Aww thankyou so much for noticing!
I’ve become something of a hoarder of random trinkets muttering to myself “this will look good in a pic”. It’s nice to have that noticed! 
I have some Lindt Couverture that I use.
Hi Cappucino-You could always ask Santa for a wish!
Hi Barbara-Really? You must, it’s absolutely divine stuff
I always wanted to try it after reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Hi Vita-Please do-it’s so good, I thoroughly recommend it
Hi Jules-You’ll be the most popular person at the party! Plus I love any excuse to use Christmas ornaments
Hi Arwen-Thankyou! I thoroughly agree!
Hi Johanna-You can also do it with dark chocolate (although it won’t quite be the pretty Winter scene then) but you could do a forest scene with it!
Hi Maria-Haha indeed they can!
Hi Holler-I can definitely recommend working in a shoe store then
I loved how easy it was but still so delicious 
Hi FFichiban-Haha ok not all, I don’t think you could get over a Zumbo addiction by working there. I think it would only fuel it!
This recipe looks divine! Turkish Delight is a favorite and I just finished the bag with the help of my children. Where might I find the turkish delight that you used for this recipe? The only TD that I have found does not look as good as this one.
Merry Christmas!
Wow, that’s like the Cadillac (or I guess these days that would be Lexus) of Rocky Roads. Nicely done!
Gorgeous display, and this recipe sounds so tempting! (Now, if only white chocolate didn’t upset my stomach so much, or if I could only figure out the reason why it does, perhaps I could find a way to make (and partake in) this decadent treat myself!)
each and every one of those ingredients makes my heart sing. what a glorious concoction.
Rocky Road and Turkish Delight – two of my favourite things! I love your photos – so cute. I had big plans for photographing my Christmas treats, but once I got to the stage of doing this, I was over the whole process, and I took my usual “cookies on a platter” photo – the food styling gene bypassed me.
Yum! So much better than regular rocky road! Cranberries and turkish delight are two of my favourites, and macadamias are always such an indulgence!
Hi Brenda-Thankyou!
I find that some Turkish Delights are wonderful whilst others are not as good. If you’re nearish Auburn, RT Turkish Delight is fantastic 
http://www.realturkishdelight.com.au/
They’re also sold at David Jones stores Australia wide.
Hi Marc-I like that comparison! Thankyou!
Hi Sandie-Oh no, what a pity! But you could definitely do this with milk or dark chocolate too
Hi grace-Thankyou so much! I love the components separately and together
Hi Caklaw-Thanks so much
It is a rather big production to do sometimes so I don’t blame you, it’s much easier to put it on a plate and it still looks nice! 
Hi Annie-Yep, I like to think that it’s not your every day Rocky Road!
I love love love your photos. The rocky road looks delicious… except for the turkish delights…. I had some in Greece last year, and to me it just tasted like a chewy bar of soap.
I love it! You pics are just perfect.
I’m afraid I don’t think working with pastries and cakes will put you off them for life. Certainly hasn’t worked for me!
Great looking RR! I like mine with a mix of dark and milk chocolate, and always with cranberries or sour cherries.
Oh how pretty! A wintry delight, thoroughly charming and I am sure very tasty too!
Oh I just made it using a mix of dark and milk- (white choc looks delicious but too sweet for me)
Well it tastes absolutely sensational… but i feel a bit guilty cos it was sooo damn easy. Have also stolen your tip of bagging it for colleagues! Used the cutest little red bags with white polka dots I found in a 100Y store in Japan. Thanks for your beautiful recipes and photography!
I’ve just made these and they taste and look incredible! I made 3 batches: one of each in white, milk and dark choc and the white choc ones were definitely the best (then again I do like my sweets sweet…) I added some pistachio nuts for colour and they look very festive! Have put them in little glass storage jars to give away as xmas presents
Thanks so much for the recipe!!!!!
Hi howtoeatacupcake-Thankyou! Ah ok so perhaps you don’t like the rose flavour as that can sometimes be soapy. There’s other flavours too like lemon and pistachio so you could substitute with that
Hi morgana-Thankyou so very much!
Hi Y-Aw I didn’t want to hear that!
Are they dried sour cherries or wet bottled ones? I haven’t seen dried sour cherries, only the bottled ones and they don’t sound like they’d last. White chocolate is definitely best for this though from my experience, plus it looks like snow! Even my hardened dark chocolate lover friend loves it 
Hi pink bowl baker-Thankyou so much!
Hi K-YAY so glad that you liked it and found it easy
You have nothing to feel guilty about though, it’s not like the ingredients are inexpensive so you have definitely splurged on the ingredients if not time (and who doesn’t like it that way 
). Those 100Y stores are so fabulous!
Hi Nessie-Wow, so glad that you tried it too! Yep I have to say whilst I like all chocolate (I am an equal opportunity choc eater) the white is my favourite. YAY for easy Christmas presents and you’re more than welcome!
I get dried sour cherries from Simon Johnson – you can purchase them by weight, if I remember correctly. They’ve got a lovely tang to them. Like dried cranberries, but even better!
Hi Y-Ahh hang on I’ve seen dried cherries but not dried sour cherries. Have you tried both and are they very different? The dried cherries were to die for.
I was fortunate enough to receive some of NQN’s Rocky Road as a gift and it is truly delicious, sadly I’ve eaten all mine now so will have to try and make it myself. Well done and if you make another batch you know who to call
Hi Teena-So glad that you liked it dahlink! xxx
having recently discovered the joys (and ease) of rocky road, but not having much experience in making it (2 experimental batches so far. so far, so good – mine have been based on Nigella’s Xmas rocky road recipe, which includes crushed biscuits). I’m thinking of adding chopped nougat to a batch, but have not found anything on google to indicate whether that’s a good or bad idea. I like fiddling with recipes and can seldom stick to the original, no matter how tried and tested. Any suggestions on adding nougat? Your’s looks delicious.
Hi Kaliman-Ah yes I saw her Rocky Road recipe in Nigella Christmas. It looks very good indeed
Hmm I’d say the nougat has to be cut into small pieces and if it’s that hard nougat it could be like nuts or if it’s the soft it might be like marshmallow. Definitely worth an experiment though! Let me know how it turns out and good luck! 
Hi NQN, OK, so I made some, shall I say…unusual rocky road tonight. (there is a strong link between this and work avoidance, I should probably mention). It’s cooling down now, so haven’t tasted the final product, although I’m feeling a bit queasy from tasting too much (not a fan of sugar, but like making sweets for others, so no sugar tolerance at all). What I did: 1 small batch (200g dark choc, butter, condensed milk) with chopped glace cherries, roasted almonds, toasted coconut, put into small paper cupcake thingies. Was a bit stressful trying to get it all into the cupcake thingies before it went hard.
1 bigger batch of dark choc (400g) with toasted macadamia, almond, some crushed ginger biscuits, dried cranberry and chopped nougat, also a grating of dried ginger. I left out the marshmallow as i think the nougat is similar. No measuring was involved, just eyeballing, so that also added an element of stress! (that should teach me to follow recipes..but, alas…) The ’sauce’ part of things consisted of dark choc and some butter, melted together, and then condensed milk added off the heat (based on a generalization of several recipes seen on the ‘net – I was hoping to ’stretch’ the choccie out a bit to go further). I see that neither you nor the ‘real’ Nigella adds this. I think that is wise – as soon as I added the condensed milk, the melted chocolate seemed to sieze/stiffen, which was not what I wanted and made the mini cupcake attempt particularly difficult.
The nougat did not seem to want to melt like the marshmallows did on one of my previous attempts – which I consider a good thing (or is it supposed to melt?).
I will let you know what the verdict is re taste, as soon as I can find a test bunny. no more sugar for me for a while.
p.s. is there some kind of secret to keep the chocolate nice and shiny after heating?
Hi Kaliman-Interesting! I haven’t seen recipes using condensed milk but seizing is not good at all. I think regular milk will definitely make the chocolate seize perhaps due to the water content but condensed milk even though it has some water removed might still have some?
The marshmallows I used didn’t really melt much and they kept their shape on the most part.
If you use couverture chocolate you need to temper it to make sure that it is shiny and has a nice snap when broken. Tempering is essentially heating it twice at a certain temperature. If you do a quick google search there should be some good guides to tempering choc
How did it taste in the end?
MMMmm that rocky road sure does look deeeeliscious!
along with those adorable figurines!
Hi Carolyn-Thankyou so much!
I love those little wooden figures, they were always my favourite on the tree 
I really shouldn’t have read this post, because you know… dieting, but I couldn’t resist. Turkish delight in rocky road? Absolute genius and I love the idea of cranberries with it.
Gorgeous photography/styling, too!
Hi Angela-Thankyou so much! After trying the turkish delight in it I’m amazed that they don’t use this more. It’s one of the best “bits”!
i aplogise for the very overdue feedback that i promised. it took a while to get test bunnies (i.e. i gave it away for xmas and hoped for comments). I did not get any feedback at all!! (which makes me think maybe something was amiss, or i have ill-mannered family members). both scenarios are possible. I tasted the small coconut numbers, and they were a bit too coconutty and dense to my taste. My father, at least, devoured the larger nougat numbers, but i’m not sure how good a judge he is. but i love him for it. so i guess that was feedback in a sense (he didn’t say anything). and the others ate all theirs, so maybe it was ok. i won’t do the condensed milk thing again, but i also doubt whether i will bother doing any of it again (simply due to my lack of sweet tooth and the rather disappointing lack of comments). But i’m grateful for your recipe, it was quite fun doing it. and apologies again for the late report.
hiya, i made this taste bud tantalising rocky road for my hubby for father’s day and he is now addicted! we’re off to england- my homeland- for christmas and will be giving this for pressies – but i’m keeping the recipe to myself!
(not that it ain’t half obvious wot’s in it!)
you’re a legend nqn – i wish i’d discovered your website AGES AGO! ta muchly carole:):):)
Hi Kaliman-Interesting, well I like my original recipe but that’s good that it made you experiment with different flavours. Adding condensed milk does sound like it would make perhaps a bit too sweet?
Hi Carole-I’m so glad to hear that! Hehe I know, it’s a great gift isn’t it
Aww you are too kind! 
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