This tiramisu Nutella rocky road is all sorts of gloriousness in one! The chocolate base is enriched with Nutella and studded with hazelnuts, marshmallows and Kahlua, marsala and coffee dipped savoiardi. It's the perfect edible Christmas gift to give to loved ones and this is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.
Every year for Christmas I make rocky road. I don't think it's an item traditionally associated with Christmas but it is at our house. It's a great edible gift to give to friends and family and you can make it weeks ahead of time so that you have a bit more time during the chaos of Christmas. Rocky road is pretty much the perfect recipe for the ratio of reward to effort. It just involves little more than melting and mixing but I promise when you eat it or give people this tiramisu rocky road, just watch their eyes light up with excitement!
What Makes This Tiramisu Nutella Rocky Road SO Delicious:
1 - I love making chocolates using a mix of 50% dark or bittersweet chocolate and 50% milk chocolate. To me, that gives the perfect balance of flavours!
2 - Adding both the Kahlua and the marsala wine to the coffee makes this out of the world delicious. It's a tip I learned from One.more chocolates who make an amazing tiramisu gelato and told me the secret to its amazing flavour!
3 - The crunch actually comes from the hazelnuts while the savoiardi biscuits are there to add the liqueur and coffee flavours rather than crunch. You can add the savoiardi biscuits without dipping them but I find them to be quite thick and dry. If you want to use them dry, slice them horizontally and halve or quarter them before adding them to the chocolate mixture.
4 - I add a sprinkle of coffee powder on top just to make the coffee flavour more pronounced but this is optional.
5 - Can I make a half batch of this rocky road? Sure! Just use a loaf tin that measures around 20x10cms or 8x4 inches.
6 - Make sure to use skinless hazelnuts. If your hazelnuts have skin on them, roast them (180C/350 for 8-10 minutes) and then rub the skins off with paper towels or in a tea towel. You don't want the skins in the rocky road as they taste bitter and will affect the texture and mouthfeel.
7- Make sure to layer the biscuits as detailed in the recipe, otherwise the dipped savoiardi will become mushy and melt into the chocolate.
8 - I sometimes make this with decaf coffee so that people can eat it any time of the day.
9 - This rocky road is best stored in the fridge.
I'm giving a batch of this rocky road to all of my friends. The first people I'll give them to are Monica and Marco to get the Italian tick of approval. Marco is a massive sweet enthusiast and is often the beneficiary of many of the sweets that I make. When we went away on holiday he told Monica that we can't go away because he missed the desserts. While Mr NQN loves sweet things, he's more than happy to give Marco the cakes because he doesn't like cake. Other than that the two men are very similar.
Last weekend we all did an escape room together. It was our first in many years ever since COVID and we've never done one together, nor have Monica and Marco done an escape room. We figured that we have played so many detective games together that it would be fine. The escape room had us pairing up into two teams in two different rooms. At first we thought that we should split off as a couple but Mr NQN thought that it might be good to split up as they hadn't done an escape room before. Marco and Mr NQN's strengths are maths and an analytical way of thinking and Monica and my strength is communication. "We have to get out!" I told everyone because I didn't want to break my winning streak before adding, "No presh!"
"Who wants to go into the elevator?" they asked us and Monica and I got up but once we got into the cramped elevator the claustrophobia started kicking in. We spoke on walkie talkies to each other trying to tell each other what we were seeing. The voice of the games person was reminding us how much time we had left. At the hour mark he came in and told us our time was up. "How far were we?" I asked hopefully. He explained everything that we had yet to do and Dear Reader, we weren't anywhere near finished. In fact we were only half way through!
Marco was fascinated by the inner workings of how it was done and asked lots of questions. So while I have unfortunately broken my winning streak we have awakened an absolute love of escape rooms in Monica and Marco and this won't be our last!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried an escape room? What foods do you associate with Christmas?
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