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  1. #1
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    My Famous Rocky Road

    And now for something completely different...

    At some point in my late teens or early twenties I had the good fortune to eat some great commercially produced rocky road. For me a great rocky road comprises chocolate, marshmallow, jelly and peanuts but there are quite a few variations, some with less ingredients, some more, and some different.

    I don't recall the detail of that event but do remember that until my mid-forties, I never found any rocky road that satisfied me. Then for whatever reason I decided I would make my own. Unfortunately I never photographed the ingredients back then but they were Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, Frys Turkish Delight, marshmallow, peanuts, glaced cherries, jellies/jelly babies and Golden Roughs (maybe only Aussies will know of those). I shared it at my work and it was an instant hit. I made many dozens of batches through 2007-08 before leaving.

    Next stop was living and working in Singapore from the end of 2009. After a while I started to make it there and share at work. Again an instant hit. Thankfully I did document the ingredients and process. By then I'd dropped the Golden Roughs, was doing 50/50 dark and semi-sweet chocolate and added preserved dried ginger and desiccated coconut. In the first picture I can see some Kit Kats. I've got no recollection of that so may have been a one-off although I do recall a few batches with Maltesers.

    My intention with this thread is to take your through the evolution of my recipe and solicit your input into recipes or great commercial rocky road you've encountered. Anyway, here are the first two pics on early Singapore versions.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide1-jpg
    My Famous Rocky Road-slide2-jpg

  2. #2
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    BoganInParasite's Avatar
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    In 2013 I moved to Dubai to live and work and was soon making a revised version. There was a need to go a bit sweeter in Dubai so dropped the semi-sweet chocolate and went back to dairy milk chocolate 50/50 with dark chocolate. The Frys Turkish Delight was replaced with actual Turkish Delight, although I think the turkish delight shown here was made locally in the UAE. I had also moved away from preserved dried ginger in favour of preserved stem ginger. It delivered a more refined type heat to the end result.

    I think it was in Dubai I calculated the average number of calories per piece was 120. Despite my carrying too much weight I ate only one or two pieces per batch and in the end I rarely ate any. We (my wife got into making it as well) made it for the enjoyment of others at work, and the accolades I guess.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide3-jpg

  3. #3
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    BoganInParasite's Avatar
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    It was in Dubai I replaced the glaced cherries with dried cranberries. We were looking to introduce a sour note to the overall taste. This proto is obviously from an Easter version, the Easter rabbit being slowly melted into the rest of the chocolate.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide4-jpg

  4. #4
    . Neverna's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoganInParasite View Post
    it was an instant hit.

    Again an instant hit.
    An instant sugar hit, methinks!

    Interesting, BiP, but a bit "over" for me.


  5. #5
    I am not a cat
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    That is interesting. UP to now the only times I heard about "Rocky Road" was in relation to the ice cream. Did not know it was originally a candy bar. Apparently originally developed in Australia in 1853.

    Every day learn something new.

    Cheers BiP.

  6. #6
    R.I.P. Luigi's Avatar
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    So it's basically melt down and chuck in a supermarket shelf's worth of chocolate bars and sweets. Then cool, and serve.


    Sounds Dilltastic.


    Also sounds like a Chitty dessert.


    Interesting thread, cheers.

  7. #7
    I am not a cat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Luigi View Post
    So it's basically melt down and chuck in a supermarket shelf's worth of chocolate bars and sweets. Then cool, and serve.

    .
    Looking around, it was originally a way to use chocolate that had been spoiled during shipment to australia. Remember it was first put together in 1850 something.

    Pretty cool stuff (although I doubt I could eat something that sweet nowadays!).

  8. #8
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    BiP, I'd happily pay for you to send the, ah...err...wife a slice. I'm watching my weight, after all.

    Looks good. I also thought Rocky Road was only an ice cream.

  9. #9
    In Uranus
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    Quote Originally Posted by nidhogg View Post
    UP to now the only times I heard about "Rocky Road" was in relation to the ice cream.
    Same here. In the states a popular flavor of ice cream.

  10. #10
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    ^ and ^^ Glad to hear I was not the only one!!!!!

  11. #11
    R.I.P. Luigi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nidhogg View Post
    I doubt I could eat something that sweet nowadays!).
    I toddled off to the fridge and had one square of fruit and nut.


    Partially because it was enough sugar.

    Partly because:




    Tango, whatever fokin brand that is, is absolutely fokin' cack.

  12. #12
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    ^ you are what you eat...a fruit and nuts....

  13. #13
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    Saw there was four hours of no comments after Neverna's comment and thought maybe I'd initiated a dud thread. Maybe not, will press on for a few more posts.

    It was in Dubai I started using flavoured dark chocolate. Best were chili flavoured and mint flavoured, particularly the mint. There was one experiment with salted caramel dark chocolate that yielded a sub-optimal result.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide5-jpg

  14. #14
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    An amusing episode from Singapore...was asked by someone from work to produce a white chocolate version. Gave it a go but just couldn't get the chocolate to melt using the normal bain-marie method. So transferred it into a large glass bowl and started using the microwave, gently at first. I can't remember the full sequence of events but as things were not moving allow I used progressively stronger and longer burst. End result was the cocoa butter/oil separated from the solid and burst into flame in the microwave. I sh#t you not, I had boiling oil on fire in the microwave. Managed to get everything calmed down but wasted $55 SGD of white chocolate. Never tried again.

    So after Dubai we headed to a new life in Brisbane. Only there six months and I think this was the only batch we made for my niece and sister-in-law I believe. Had some difficulty getting turkish delight and that box of it was quite expensive. And preserved stem ginger was not available so used glace ginger from just north of Brisbane.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide6-jpg

  15. #15
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    So one thing led to another and mid-2016 I ended up in Phoenix as a VP for a large travel related business. In terms of rocky road making a few things stood out. Couldn't locate turkish delight in Phoenix but some pretty good product was available online and delivered a couple of days after ordering. Had to initially go back to using preserved dried ginger for a while. And I made one disastrous batch that I added spice drops. I'd never tasted them before and certainly not something I'd seek out. Still, the Indians at work (Asian, not native) managed to work their way through it without complaint.

    Oh, and I had to use Hershey's milk chocolate, truly inferior. I eventually found Cadbury milk chocolate hiding in a remote part of my local supermarket.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide7-jpg

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Love a good rocky Road, chewy pieces of fruit soft pieces of marshmallow. Never realised it was An Aussie only thing.

  17. #17
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Wiki says that to disguise the fact that European confectionary had gone off, Aussies lumped it all together with local nuts and covered it in cheap chocolate.

    Sounds about right.

  18. #18
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    Will finish off my photo contributions to the thread. Here is a slightly later ingredients mix while in Phoenix.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide8-jpg
    Last edited by BoganInParasite; 28-09-2019 at 08:31 AM.

  19. #19
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    While still in Phoenix finally got a source of preserved stem ginger. Could buy it online but at $13 a small bottle so arranged for some UK based work colleagues to bring it on business trips. Also swapped to these small marshmallows as they had a little bit of bite resistance and were also chewy.

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide9-jpg

  20. #20
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    And the last photo. Made a number of batches at my sister's place at Tilba on the NSW south coast for her, my other sister and a few other hanger on more distant relatives. This was the last batch ever, don't intend to make any more. (And coincidentally the worst I ever weighted - 126.5kg there, the result of six months touring and living in hotels. Stripped 16 kgs quickly on moving to Thailand and still losing it.)

    My Famous Rocky Road-slide10-jpg

  21. #21
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    Interesting... Like the others, I only knew rocky road as an ice cream flavor. Won't mind having one piece - only one since I think it would be too sweet. Cheers & thanks for sharing!

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoganInParasite View Post
    ... at my sister's place at Tilba on the NSW south coast..
    We did some CSG (edit to clarify, that means Coal Seam Gas) exploration in the Tilba area many years ago, what a stunning part of the world that is!. There's a tv show called River Cottage that's filmed there if you didn't know, well worth watching.

    I'm not a huge chocolate fan but have really enjoyed reading this thread and your updates, thanks for sharing.

  23. #23
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    Agreed Headworx, I always enjoy a visit though if I were to ever live on the NSW coast I'd prefer somewhere in the northern rivers. The River Cottage farm is half-way between her place and Tilba. She is very much a greenie so if you don't mind I'd prefer to keep my distance. Regards, BiP

    PS! But I will share an amusing story. Her partner told her one Friday evening he had heard the local council were going to cut down a huge gum tree in the middle of a small car park in Tilba to expand the car park. She was enraged and called a few of her friends to arrange a protest. She turned up a sunrise with a chain to chain herself and others to the tree to stop it being cut down. A few hours later when no-one turned up to either protest or cut it down she realized she'd been had. He was a nice guy, not sure they ever found the body. Likely his last ever practical joke.

    Quote Originally Posted by Headworx View Post
    We did some CSG (edit to clarify, that means Coal Seam Gas) exploration in the Tilba area many years ago, what a stunning part of the world that is!. There's a tv show called River Cottage that's filmed there if you didn't know, well worth watching.

    I'm not a huge chocolate fan but have really enjoyed reading this thread and your updates, thanks for sharing.

  24. #24
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    ^LOL she'd have had a field-day around environmental rapists like a CSG exploration company hell-bent on drilling shallow gas wells in her backyard then!. We flew under the radar and at that time, the dangers were largely unknown.

  25. #25
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    You should go into business with that sweet goodness.. yum! Stomach is growling for some of that!

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