Comments on: Christmas Wonderland Rocky Road

By: kate

kate — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:20:30 +0000

You may well be becoming a Xmas tradition for me NQN! Last year your Rum & Craisin Ice-cream Puddings were a hit and this year I have your white winter rocky roads setting in the fridge for tomorrow. Hope they turn out right! Much thanks, and wishing you a happy xmas a great 2010.

By: Not Quite Nigella

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:10:54 +0000

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!

By: carole

carole — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:11:55 +0000

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:):):)

By: Kaliman

Kaliman — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:46:13 +0000

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.

By: Not Quite Nigella

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:32:43 +0000

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”!

By: Angela

Angela — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:32:45 +0000

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!

By: Not Quite Nigella

Not Quite Nigella — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:24:42 +0000

Hi Carolyn-Thankyou so much! I love those little wooden figures, they were always my favourite on the tree

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:26:49 +0000

MMMmm that rocky road sure does look deeeeliscious! along with those adorable figurines!

By: Not Quite Nigella

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:23:27 +0000

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?

By: Kaliman

Kaliman — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:22:04 +0000

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?