So, a couple of weeks ago, I made and blogged the recipe for ‘Not-So Rocky Road’ – a twist on the old favourite with gummy bears and popping candy. Now it seems lots of you liked that one – I think a lot of that had to do with how deceptively simple it is to make. I’ve since had a couple of requests for more Rocky Road ideas, and thought I’d start with this one. More for grown-ups than kidlets, this one is super-rich and rather decadent…

What You Need:

For the Chocolate fudge:

• 400g of dark chocolate. Use the best quality (with the highest cocoa percentage) that you can, chopped finely. I used a mix of 100g of Lindt and 300g of Nestle Plaistowe.
• 50g butter, cubed (don’t use margarine *shudder*)
• 1 x 385ml can of condensed milk. I used the skim version this time, only because that’s all I had in the pantry (also, ‘skim’ is not skim when it comes to condensed milk. The calorie count is still obscene. May as well use the real stuff!)

For the rocky in the road:

• 1 cup of marshmallows
• ½ cup of shelled walnuts
• ½ cup of salted pistachios, shelled
• ½ cup of glace cherries

Grease and line a slice tin – aprox 18cm x 18cm – and randomly place around half of your nuts, marshmallows and cherries. Then, to make fudge, in a medium saucepan over a very low heat, melt butter into the condensed milk.

Stir continuously as it can stick to the bottom. Once the butter has melted, add all the chocolate at once, stirring vigorously. It gets thick very quickly, so use your muscles! Add fudge to the slice tin, as well as remaining nuts, cherries and marshmallows.

Use the back of a dessert spoon or a knife to smooth as much as possible. Refrigerate for at least an hour, then using a super-sharp knife, cut into pieces. Because this one is so rich, I cut it into smaller pieces than I normally would.

Ruth Cohen tried out a recipe (courtesy of Kathy Knudsen) for these individual sticky date puddings. A perfect winter’s night dessert that looks delish!

Ingredients

• Melted butter, to grease
• 285g (1 3/4 cups) pitted dates, halved
• 250ml (1 cup) boiling water
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 80g butter, at room temperature
• 100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 115g (3/4 cup) self-raising flour, sifted
• 75g (1/2 cup) plain flour, sifted
• 185ml (3/4 cup) pouring cream
• 160g (1 cup, lightly packed) brown sugar
• 60g unsalted butter, chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush six 185ml (3/4-cup) non-stick muffin pans with melted
butter to lightly grease. Line the bases with non-stick baking paper. (I use silicon muffin trays
which require no greasing or paper though)

Combine the dates, water and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes to
soften. Use a fork to coarsely mash. (The consistency should look like a chunky jam with fruit bits)

Use an electric beater to beat the butter and caster sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy.
Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the date mixture and the
combined flour. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans and smooth the surfaces.

Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until the surfaces spring back when lightly tapped. Set
aside in the pans for 5 minutes to stand before turning onto a wire rack to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, place the pouring cream, brown sugar and unsalted butter in a saucepan over
medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until smooth.

Serve with your choice of custard, ice-cream, or double cream 🙂

The Escape Club likes to share recipes that our friends and Marianne’s readers have made, so that you know that they work. Ruth Cohen, who wrote some of our cosplay blogs, and her  lovely mum, Loretta, teamed up on this recipe from RedOnline, and the result looks amazing! Salted caramel deliciouso macarons!

Brisbane author, Alison Mather made this delicious pie for her family recently. The recipe is by Trish Deseine from the ABC Delicious magazine, Issue 114. Alison said that she waited ’til she had people coming over,  to make it, because it is so DISASTROUSLY moreish!

20 oreos (or similar) (I used Glutino GF ones)

175g unsalted butter

400g crunchy peanut butter

175g icing sugar, sifted

200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

Finely crush biscuits in a good processor. Melt 75g butter and combine with biscuits. Press into the base and sides of a 24 cm loose-bottomed tart pan and chill for 30 minutes until firm.

Combine peanut butter and icing sugar in a bowl and spread in the tart base.

Place chocolate and remaining 100g butter in a clean bowl over a pan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water). Stir until melted, then cool slightly. Spread over the peanut butter layer and chill for 30 minutes until firm.

Enjoy it, I command you!

Rachel Loffler, one of our readers, tried out an Escape Club recipe, and doesn’t it look fine!

Rachel loved the look of Mandy’s Chocolate Box birthday cake and made one for her fourteen year old son. The result is fantastic. You can find the recipe here. Mandy’s Chocolate box is becoming quite famous, as it’s also featured on The Whoot.