Ripe's Rocky Richmond Road Slice

Summer is the season for slices.

Slices are the perfect picnic treat. They can be packed up in plastic containers and safely make their journey to a favourite picnic spot. In my family that picnic spot is anywhere that has sand (much to the annoyance of Dad) and an ocean.



Slices are durable and sharable. They don't need fancy plates, forks or accompaniments, just fingers and a mouth.

We often make up slices and pop most of them in the freezer so that the next time we head off for a day at the beach we can put out a slab, chop a bit off and go.

In the case of this slice, half went into the freezer and the other half I took on up to Nana's for morning tea :).



The one problem with Summer is the heat. Most slices have butter in them which means as the temperature rises they start to become soft and sometimes even melted. Unfortunately with this slice, it needs to be transported in the presence of a couple of ice packs. Then again, how many of us go to the beach without ice packs in our chilly bags/bins anyway.



This recipe comes from the Ripe Recipes book by Angela Redfern. It contains all the recipes for the delicious treats that can be found at the Ripe Deli on Richmond Road (hence why this is called Richmond rocky road slice) in Auckland. Out of all Mum's recipe books, this is the one that she has used the most and made the most things out of. Every week or so there is a new surprise coming out of the kitchen which had its origins in this book.

This isn't your typical rocky road, it is more of a fridge set biscuit slice. Actually, it is a biscuit fridge set slice. The only point of difference is the presence of malt biscuits and marshmallows. It doesn't involve actual chocolate either, just cocoa, butter and sugar which makes it a cheaper option that the traditional chocolate laden rocky roads out there.

This is great if you have some built up tension that needs to be worked out as you get to bash the crap out of a poor little bag of biscuits with a rolling pin. Make sure the bag is double lined or else it might split, resulting in more stress and a whole lotta mess!


Rocky Richmond Road Slice
Adapted form the Ripe Recipe's cookbook by Angela Redfern

250g malt biscuits, crushed
250g super wine or arrowroot biscuits, crushed
250g marshmallows, roughly chopped
200g butter
1 cup caster sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

icing:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
50g butter, meted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup threaded coconut


In a saucepan, melt together the butter, caster sugar and cocoa until smooth. Add the lightly beaten eggs whilst stirring briskly and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes.





Meanwhile, crush the biscuits in a large snap lock bag or a double lined plastic shopping bag using a rolling pin. Crush until the average fragment size is around 2cm or less.





Mix the crushed biscuits in with the chopped marshmallows.



Line a 20x30cm baking tin with baking paper.

Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl of biscuits and marshmallows and stir until evenly combined.




Using damp hands, press the mixture into the prepared tin.


Refrigerate the slice for two hours before icing.

To make the icing, mix the ingredients (minus the coconut) together using a bit of hot water to loosen the mixture until it is pourable but still thick.

Spread the icing over the slice then sprinkle over the coconut.




Return to the fridge for another hour or so before slicing.


Enjoy at your next beach picnic!







Festive White Chocolate Rocky Road

This is festive if you live in the Northern hemisphere where in Winter at Christmas your roads are actually white.



I saw the idea for white chocolate rocky road on Instagram and Pinterest a while back and I really liked the way it looked. It made the nuts and other fillings you add to it really stand out against the white. Especially the cranberries and the pistachios.



The normal rocky road my Mum makes involves melting butter into the chocolate. I couldn't really be bothered to do that and so took the easy road out and just used straight white melting chocolate with nothing else added to it. This ensures that it sets nice and hard so that it can be cut into nicely defined pieces.



Now the beauty of this recipe is that you can add anything you want! (Well within reason I guess).



One of my best friends, Cara, was up in Auckland for the week (for her Med interview! Smartie pants!) and we found ourselves in need of something to do. So we scoured the Pak n Save bulk bins for some exciting treats to pave our road with.



With this rocky road, try and look for ingredients that will have an interesting cross section against the white chocolate. So really the more colourful the better. I love the way jube lollies look when they are cut in half. Same with pistachios, the vibrant green is really cool!



If you find yourself with a lot of filling ingredients, you may need a bit more chocolate to coat everything in. We found ourselves increasing our chocolate amount to 500g from 400g to ensure everything was well cemented together.

Use this recipe here as a guideline for your own Christmas road!



Cara and Sophie's White Chocolate Rocky Road
Makes a 20 x 30cm trays worth

500g white chocolate melts
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dried strawberries
5 dried figs, chopped into chunks
1 1/2 cups jubes
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup natural macadamia nuts
1/2 cup pistachios
3 cups marshmallows (130g)
1/2 cup natural almonds

In a double boiler (a bowl above a saucepan of simmering water) melt the chocolate slowly. Make sure no water gets into the chocolate or else it will seize. Also make sure the water is not touching the base of the bowl.

Chop all the larger ingredients into smaller pieces. Place them in a large mixing bowl and mix them around.

Line a 20 x 30cm slice tin with baking paper.

Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl of chopped filling and mix to coat everything.

Transfer into the lined tin and press down to form a nice even slice.

Leave to cool in the fridge for an hour before slicing into nice chunky pieces.








Personally, I found the strawberries and the blueberries not very economical choices of ingredients. I would add in a few more jubes and cranberries instead if I were you.


Enjoy! x