Really Good Rocky Road.

This is just basically all of my favourite things in some chocolate, disguised as rocky road. I set out to make this gluten free as I have a good friend with coeliac disease. If you want to make sure yours is coeliac safe - double check that your marshmallows and rice puffs/bubbles are properly gluten free and don't contain any traces! If you're not going for the no gluten thing, then just get yourself some regular marshmallows and rice bubbles and away you go. You can endlessly edit and customise this recipe to include your favourite things. You could swap the rice puffs/bubbles for some of your favourite biscuits, chopped up. Use your favourite nuts instead of pistachios and macadamias. Some people like to add lollies to their rocky road, like red liquorice, but I prefer dried sour cherries or similar (dried cranberries work well too) and freeze dried raspberries - both add a good tart punch to this recipe which the sweet white chocolate needs in my opinion. A little pinch of flaky salt scattered over the top before it sets is really yummy too, and helps to balance out all of that sugar.  

A note on chocolate choice: remember that caramelised white chocolate will not give you that white look so if that's important to you, go for classic white chocolate. 

This batch makes 12 decent sized bars of rocky road and is designed for a dish that is 33cm x 23cm.
 

Ingredients:

1080g white chocolate
100g rice puffs or rice bubbles
250g pink marshmallows
100g pistachios
80g macadamias 
100g dried sour red cherries
20g freeze dried raspberries

To top:
4-5 freeze dried raspberries, reserved from above qty
A small pinch of flaky salt
A good pinch of dried calendula petals (optional)
A good pinch of dried rose petals (optional)

Method.

Firstly, grease and line a 33cm x 23cm rectangular slice or cake pan with baking paper. Make sure you properly cover any gaps with the baking paper.

Take 4-5 freeze dried raspberries from your 20g packet and in a mortar and pestle, gently crush them to create a powder. Set this aside with your dried flower petals.

Break up the chocolate into chunks no bigger than 2 squares each in a large heat safe bowl. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler while stirring or in the microwave for 30 second bursts, stirring between each one, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.

In a large bowl, combine all other ingredients except for the 'to top' section. Pour chocolate into this bowl and using a spatula, combine everything well so that all ingredients are generously coated in the melted chocolate.  

Pour contents out into the prepared tin and use the spatula to help it evenly distribute. It's dense and does need some encouraging. 

Scatter over the crushed freeze dried raspberries and the calendula and rose petals evenly and then give a light scattering of flaky salt.

Place into the fridge to set for 4-6 hours.

After this time, remove from fridge and let it come down to room temperature for 1-2 hours or so before cutting. This will prevent it crumbling too much when you cut into it.

When you're ready to cut, use the baking paper to help you get the slab out of the tin and place onto a large chopping board. Cut into four quarters and then each quarter into 3 bars. 

Store in airtight container for up to four weeks. 

If using as gifts, wrap each bar up tightly in baking paper and tie.