Welcome to the first page of The Picnic Blanket Book, my virtual cookbook of my favourite recipes!
Disclaimer: I’m not a foodie. You can’t comprehend how very much I’m not a foodie unless you know me in real life. It’s beyond laughable that I’m starting a food series, let alone calling it a cookbook. Cookbook just works as a series label, that’s all.
These recipes are mostly going to be either my favourite “stick ’em in my pockets for snacking on a long hike” or “Guide camp favourites” or something along those lines. There will be no meals here and there will be a lot of chocolate. So, without further ado..
Juliet’s Rocky Road
This was originally my boss’s recipe but he hasn’t made it since about 2009 and I’ve perfected it in the meantime. Now when I take (half) a batch to work, it’s my special Rocky Road.
Ingredients – makes a lot
2 bars supermarket brand milk chocolate (~200g each)
2 bars supermarket brand dark chocolate (~200g each)
1 packet shortbread biscuits
1 large bag Maltesers (~90g)
1 bag marshmallows (~200g)
Method
With scissors, cut the marshmallows in quarters. This is a horrible sticky job – a knife isn’t up to it and you’ll need to wash the scissors at least once as you go along. Put the resulting sticky pile in a big mixing bowl.
Cut the Maltesers in half. A small serrated knife will do the job just fine but it’s difficult because they’re small and spherical and smooth. Be very careful of your fingers. Put the halved Maltesers in the bowl with the marshmallows.
Break up the biscuits – not all of them, enough to make a pile about the size of the Malteser pile. I generally use about a quarter of the packet. Break them into small pieces but try not to reduce them to crumbs. You want to be able to taste biscuit chunks. Add the pieces to your bowl.
Break up all the chocolate into a glass bowl. Yes, even if you don’t like dark chocolate. It results in a richer blend than just milk and a creamier one than just dark. Boil some water in a pan and set the glass bowl on top, so the water doesn’t touch the bowl.
Keep the water boiling and stir until the chocolate is all melted.
Turn off the heat, try to dry the bottom of the glass bowl and tip the chocolate into your mixing bowl of dry ingredients. Mix it all together quickly until everything is coated.
Tip the mixture out into a baking tray, lined with foil if yours are as rusty as mine. Spread it out so it’s as flat on too as you can get it.
Leave it to set overnight. The next day, take your biggest, heaviest knife and hack it into edible-sized pieces. For the amount you’ve just made, I recommend putting at least half of it in an old Quality Street tub and taking it to work. Or whatever. Eat it on your picnic blanket.
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