We have made it to day two in the 12 days of holiday baking and are going with an Easy Rocky Road Chocolate Bark. This is an easy recipe for a Rocky Road flavored chocolate bark made with rich chocolate and filled with marshmallows, graham crackers, and almonds. It’s just like Rocky Road ice cream only in bark form. If you missed yesterday’s recipe, it was an old classic called Special K Bars. These go great with your coffee in the morning. It’s almost like a bowl of cereal, covered with chocolate. Ok…maybe not… Just accept that it’s a piece of candy with your coffee and enjoy it guilt free.

“As we give presents at Christmas, we need to recognize that sharing our time and ourselves is such an important part of giving” – Gordon B Hinckley

Some Time At America’s Test Kitchen

Last year at this time, I was in Boston freezing off my you know what, working at America’s Test Kitchen. It was not a permanent position with them, so I decided to rent a furnished studio basement apartment and keep all my belongings at home. My kitchen was almost nonexistent. I had a hot plate, microwave, bed, chair, and T.V. I didn’t even have a car. It was definitely quite different than the lifestyle I had come from.

It was that experience that reminded me how wonderful it could be to share our time and ourselves. I didn’t have anything else to give. I also wasn’t used to the kitchen shutting down at 5:00pm. It had been 20 years since I was done working at 5:00pm on a daily basis. Wow, did I ever have time! I made some of the best friends there. It’s amazing what happens when we have time and share it with others. It seems in today’s world of electronics, we pretty much don’t need anyone, and there is almost no need to ever actually speak to someone. I can now just text them, email them, or Skype them. Wow how times have changed and it’s so easy to forget to share our time and ourselves.

It felt right to whip up a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen this year to share with others. So I pulled out a special interest publication from them on holiday baking. I’m a big fan of holiday barks. They had a nice rocky road bark. So I figured why not. Looks good and who doesn’t love chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows? This Rocky Road Chocolate Bark was so simple and is easy to give for holiday presents.

Ingredients

Graham Crackers
Unsalted Butter
Brown sugar
Salt
Milk Chocolate Chips
Mini Marshmallows
Pecans, Walnuts, or Almonds

How to Make Rocky Road Chocolate Bark

First, move your oven rack to the center position and preheat to 375°F. Line an 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil. Tuck in the foil to the corners and leave at least a one inch overhang of foil on the top of the pan. Line the bottom of the pan with graham crackers in a single layer. Break them up if needed to make them fully cover the bottom of the pan.

In a small saucepan on low heat combine butter, brown sugar, and salt. Stir constantly until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Pour the butter-sugar mixture onto the layer of graham crackers. Smooth with a small spatula to fully cover the crackers. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the caramel is bubbling.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle an even layer of chocolate chips. Place the pan back in the oven for 2 minutes to soften the chocolate. Remove from the oven and use a rubber spatula to smooth the chocolate into an even layer.

Next, sprinkle marshmallows and nuts over the chocolate. Lightly press with your fingertips to adhere the marshmallows and nuts to the chocolate. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then freeze for about 30 minutes until the chocolate hardens. When it’s ready, grab the foil overhang and lift the bark from the pan onto a cutting board. Use a knife to cut the bark into 2 inch squares. Layer pieces between sheets of waxed paper and store in an airtight container. You can refrigerate this bark for up to one week.

Add Ins

Next time I try this, I’ll fancy it up a bit. We made graham crackers a while back for a cheesecake. Those would be great for this bark. And we made a homemade marshmallow during Valentines and that would be great instead of the mass produced mini marshmallows that come in a bag. You could replace the freeze dried strawberries in that recipe with ground up peppermint candy for this recipe. If you don’t have almonds you can replace with pecans, walnuts, or even peanuts.

Rocky Road Chocolate Bark Tips

Keep this Rocky Road Chocolate Bark stored in the refrigerator.
Traditional rocky road used almonds. This is what I prefer but you could use any other kind of nut that you like. Walnuts, peanuts, or pistachios would all be nice.
Ghirardelli or Guittard make a nice chocolate chip for this recipe. If you have nicer chocolate bars at home, you could also use those and just cut them up.

I hope you enjoy the bark, and don’t forget to save some for yourself.

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