Rocky Road Bars

I have confessed this in past how hooked I am to Nigella shows! And that confession is bound to come with a couple of recipes that I picked from hers'. This Rocky Road Bar is one of my favorite pick.

These Rocky Road Bars take me back to our adventurous trip to Goa earlier this year. Late evening in Goa, we headed to the 'Night Market' near Anjuna beach. It left us amazed as we were surprised to see so many foreigners flaunt that place. Almost gave us a feeling that we were in a different country all together. Foreigners selling and buying various stuffs, ranging from art to sculptures, gowns to bikinis, cowboy hats to shoes, handicraft bags to pouches... and many other stuffs.

Food here had cuisines from almost all over the world (disappointed to see mostly non-veg, but I guess the food catered mostly to their needs!). Indian, Mediterranean, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Italian, French, etc, etc, etc. It was here that we first got to enjoy the true chocolatey seduction of Belgium hot chocolate! Our chocolate affair continued with Rocky Road Bars and it was served with scoops of some melted warm Belgium dark chocolate. It was heck of an evening that we had and we would love to go back to this place again.

These Rocky Road Bars had been lingering in my thoughts since long, especially after I last tasted them in Goa. I haven't been able to get good quality marshmallows in Bangalore. So I generally get my pick on trips to hill stations like Ooty, Munnar, Kodaikanal. Our recent trip to Kodaikanal helped me pick up a good batch of homemade marshmallows in a couple of flavors. I got them with an intention of using in a few recipes. But, they were fresh and so good that we almost finished them and there was hardly any left for few recipes, but just 'one lucky' recipe :) And that was saved for these Rocky Road Bars.

Rocky Road Bars

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups best-quality dark chocolate (160g)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp soft unsalted butter (60g)
1 cup rich tea biscuits (100g)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp mini marshmallows (60g)
1 tsp icing sugar, to dust

DIRECTIONS

Break the chocolate into pieces for ease in melting. Heat the butter and chocolate in a saucepan over a gentle heat till the chocolate begins to melt. Remove from the heat and stir the melted chocolate well. Scoop out a big dollop (approximately 60 ml) of the melted mixture and set aside in a bowl.

Place the biscuits into a zip lock bag and crush them with a rolling pin until we have some have biscuit crumbs and some bite sized pieces. If you don't manage to get mini marshmallows, then tear the bigger ones to smaller chunks like I did.

Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, then add the marshmallows.

Transfer the mixture into a square baking tin. Smooth the top with a spatula. Pour over the reserved melted chocolate and smooth the top again. Refrigerate for about two hours or overnight. To serve, cut into square or rectangular fingers and dust with icing sugar.

The original recipe calls for the use of golden syrup, but I skipped it. This recipe itself was too sweet and adding more sweetness would have ruined it's taste. I did not use warm chocolate for topping, but it's a great addition for a party dessert. We thoroughly enjoyed the crisp biscuits dunked in fudgy chocolate, highlighted by the pillow soft marshmallows. Heavenly!

Believe me, these were so good that as chocolatey aromas wafted through, I completely ran out of patience to photograph them. So all you see here is a little left over bit, which is not my way otherwise! This recipe is a keeper for sure and I'll be making more of this in future, least I have the next batch of marshmallows at hand!

Nithu Bala of Nithu's Kitchen tagged me with a "Tag Award". Thanks Nithu. This award comes with set of rules... The rules are,

1. I should pass it on to 7 friends (This is the toughest job for me! Looking out for new bloggers to be felicitated is a challenge for me!!!)
2. I should post a favorite picture/pictures.

I'm passing this award to 7 of my blogger friends,

1. Suma
2. Sarah Naveen
3. Panchpakwan
4. Madhuri
5. SS
6. Pari
7. Tina

I would also like to share 2 of my favorite photographs.

From my collection, I've posted my favorite picture from our trip to Innovative Film City, Bidadi. This is one amazing place where you can spend an entire day with family and friends.

And another one here... Have you ever been with a tiger so close? This was shot at the Tavarekoppa sanctuary, a few kms away from Shimoga, Karnataka. The place plays a host to few tigers, lions, deers and few other animals. We got to see the Tigers and Lions so closely that it was stunning! I have never been this close to a wild animal (Gosh! I am scared to the love of my life!), that we captured every movement of the tigers on our camera.