For this rocky road recipe, we've made our own liquorice from scratch but around 250 gm of good shop-bought will do nicely. We've also added roasted almonds and freeze-dried raspberries, but feel free to improvise with other rocky-road-friendly ingredients.
Dark-chocolate liquorice rocky road
A sophisticated take on the classic chocolate creation.
- 5 mins preparation
- 15 mins cooking plus chilling, setting
- Serves 6
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Ingredients
- 500 gm dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids) coarsely chopped
- 200 gm vanilla marshmallows, roughly chopped
- 150 gm almonds, roasted and coarsely chopped
- 20 gm freeze-dried raspberries, plus extra for scattering (see note)
Liquorice
- 120 gm butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
- 220 gm (1 cup) caster sugar
- 185 gm (½ cup) dark corn syrup (see note)
- 180 gm (½ cup) sweetened condensed milk
- 90 gm (¼ cup) blackstrap molasses
- 2 tbsp anise extract (see note)
- 2 tsp black food colouring
- 120 gm (¾ cup) plain flour
Method
- 1To make liquorice, line a 20cm square cake tin with lightly buttered baking paper. Combine butter, sugar, corn syrup, condensed milk, molasses, anise, food colouring and a pinch of fine salt in a saucepan over low-medium heat, then bring to the boil and cook until the mixture reaches 120C on a sugar thermometer. Remove from heat, add flour and stir to incorporate. Pour into cake tin and refrigerate until chilled and firm (about 2 hours). Invert onto a board and cut into lengths about 2cm wide then cut into roughly 2cm-square pieces. Transfer to a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate to chill (about 1½-2 hours).
- 2Grease and line a 25cm x 16cm cake tin with baking paper, allowing the sides to overhang (for easy removal). Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally with a metal spoon, until smooth (2-3 minutes).
- 3Combine marshmallows, almonds, raspberries and liquorice in a bowl, pour chocolate over and stir to coat well. Spread mixture evenly over baking tin, scatter with freeze-dried raspberries and set aside until firm (about 2 hours). Turn out onto a clean surface and, using a hot knife, cut into chunks. Store rocky road in an airtight container in the pantry for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
Note Freeze-dried raspberries are available from select grocers and delicatessens or at fresh-as.com. Anise extract and dark corn syrup are available from select delicatessens and The Essential Ingredient.