Random rocky road

It was one of those Saturday afternoons when I wanted to make something delicious and sweet, but all I had in my fridge was houmous and wine. Hmph. (Could I be bothered to walk five minutes to the supermarket? That would involve taking off my slippers so I think not.)

What could I make that required next to no fresh ingredients?

Why, rocky road of course!

It was a case of rummaging through my kitchen cupboard, chucking some things together, improvving, and - amazingly - creating something really rather damn scrummy.

Enter, random rocky road. For a random mix of things it is.

But boy, am I pleased with my creation.

Whereas your traditional rocky road would probably contain biscuits and raisins, mine is bursting with granola, M&Ms and meringue. The textures are rather wonderful - each mouthful is crunchy, chewy and crumbly. Mega yums.

It's also nutty and tinged with chocolate orange flavour, which I rather love.

Melting chocolate can be a bit of a faff - there's the glass bowl over a pan on the hob method, but with that you have to be really careful not to let the bowl touch the water or else you're in trouble. And trying to melt chocolate in a normal microwave often ends in burnt chocolate which is just one of the saddest things in the world.

Fortunately, I have had a v shiny v fancy Panasonic NN-DS596B microwave to play with of late and I can tell you it is a dream for melting choc. It's epic as it's a microwave and an oven and a steamer and a bajillion other things at once.

It's also incredibly silent which makes an amazing change to the microwave in my flat.

Anyway chums, I hope you enjoy these - they're ridiculously easy to make and you can totally mix up the ingredients depending on what you have. Go wild. Life's too short to stick to recipes. Let this be your guide and be free.

I mean, these barely warrant a recipe, but here it is anyway. Makes 16 squares of deliciousness.


Ingredients

200g chocolate - I used half milk and half dark
2 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp chocolate orange Choc Shot
100g granola
1 tbsp M&Ms
1 tbsp mini marshmallows
4 mini meringue nests, crumbled
1 tbsp almonds
a pinch of salt


Method

1. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt slowly on a low heat, stopping to stir every 30 seconds or so. Mix in the agave, peanut butter and choc shot until smooth.

2. Stir in the granola, M&Ms, marshmallows, meringues, almonds and salt.

3. Pour into a 9 x 9 inch baking tray, lined with baking parchment.

4. Pop into the fridge for a couple of hours to set before slicing into 16 squares. Enjoy!

This post is sponsored by Panasonic as part of their #ExperienceFresh campaign.