Easy Rocky Road Candy for Holiday Gifts

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, my mom started a job for the first time. She worked at a small chocolatier in Hilo, where all the candies were made by hand.

She learned to roast macadamia nuts, temper chocolate, dip whole nuts in melted chocolate, retrieve the nuts with a metal loop tool, and drop them neatly on waxed-paper lined sheets, making a beautiful swirl across the top of each piece of candy.

After she quit that job, mom continued to make chocolate candies at home, especially around holiday time when she packaged them for Christmas gifts. These confections surprised and delighted family and friends—they looked every bit as beautiful and as professional as the kind from the candy shop. She packed them in silver or gold foil gift boxes, each candy nestled in its own candy cup and the box sealed in cellophane.

The owner of the candy shop had told my mom that these hand-dipped chocolates couldn’t be made at home. It required air conditioning to keep the factory chilled to the right temperature for chocolate making, and a special dipping tool, among other challenges.

Undaunted my mom learned that she could “air condition” her house by starting early in the morning when it was pitch black outside, opening all the windows. She got a machinist friend to make the tools she would need. She bought an industrial-size bolt of cellophane and an electric sealing iron and purchased high-quality chocolate and cocoa butter. It was quite a feat for someone living in a small town in Hawaii in those days before the Internet. And she proved her boss wrong.

After creating the beautiful macadamia nut candy, mom would then add miniature marshmallows and leftover nut pieces to the remaining chocolate to make Rocky Road, which she spread out into a slab and cut into squares.

I was thinking of my mom, her resourcefulness and her talent, as I made a batch of simple Rocky Road candy for a holiday gift. While mom heated her chocolate over a double boiler, I do it the easy way, using a microwave oven.

You can make this candy in about 15 minutes, start to finish; plus a couple of hours of waiting time for the chocolate to harden.

Rocky Road
15 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate chips (60% cacao), about 2 ¾ cups
1 1/4 cups roasted and skinned hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
2 cups miniature marshmallows

Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with foil. Put chocolate in large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute. (Use medium power if yours has a power setting.) Stir with a fork, and if chocolate is not melted, microwave for 30 seconds more. Continue to stir and microwave 30 seconds at a time until chocolate is completely melted. Total time should be about 2 ½ to 3 minutes. (Chocolate chips are designed to hold their shape even when heated so you won’t be able to tell when they are melted just by looking.) Do not overheat or chocolate will scorch.

When chocolate is completely smooth, stir well then add the nuts; stir to combine. Add marshmallows and stir to combine. Pour chocolate into prepared pan. Smooth top. Let set about 1 to 2 hours or until chocolate is firm but not completely hard. Turn out the candy onto a cutting board. Carefully peel off foil. Cut into 16 squares with a heavy, sharp knife. Cool until completely hardened. Makes 16 pieces.

Notes:

• Buy hazelnuts that are pre-roasted and skinned. (I bought mine from Trader Joe’s). If you can’t find them, you can roast hazelnuts yourself and remove the brown skins by rubbing them in a kitchen towel. Here’s a demo to show you how.
• You can substitute other nuts, such as walnuts or almonds. To toast: Put nuts in a single layer in a microwave-safe dish. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stir and microwave for another minute. Continue to stir and microwave a minute at a time, until nuts are just lightly brown and beginning to smell fragrant. Nuts will continue to cook from the residual heat after they are removed from the microwave so be careful not to burn them. Cool thoroughly. Nuts will not crisp until cooled.
• For uniform Rocky Road squares, use a ruler to measure cutting lines and mark by lightly scoring with a paring knife, before using a heavy-duty knife to cut the squares.

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