Thursday, May 17, 2012

Rocky Road

I'm off to an 18th birthday BBQ this evening for a boy I used to babysit when he was just a cute little bean. He's now a 6ft string bean.

His mum asked me to make some nougat to make the table pretty, but I'm head down in the writing cave at the moment, so I took the quick way out and made my friend, Mel Scott's rocky road instead. Not quite as pretty as nougat, but I think it'll go fast enough.
Mel's recipe is what she calls "infinitely variable" -- so I varied it.
This is it part of the way through — snipped up marshmallows, and crushed Crunchie bar (honey comb). Then I added toasted slivered almonds, snipped up fruit jellies, some actual dried berries (in an attempt to  make it vaguely healthy) and baby M&M's to make it look festive. At this stage it looks much prettier than the final result, which tastes a lot better than it looks.


The final step is to mix in melted chocolate, then pack it into a flat tray and let it set. Dead easy.
The end result isn't nearly as pretty as the nougat my friend wanted, but this still looks a little bit festive with the M&Ms and it tastes yummy. This is it before I cut it up — well, part way through the cutting up process — I almost forgot to take a pic.
It's hard to believe this boy is eighteen. I've known him since before he was born, and I love him dearly.
Happy eighteenth, Charlie.