Rocky Road

Mrs. Bollom here! Matt tasked me with coming up with a new ice cream flavor to make. After scrolling HEB’s app for some of their flavors, I came across rocky road, a timeless flavor that I hadn’t thought to suggest to Matt before. Thinking about how much I love the chocolate ice cream base that we make and knowing that we would make the marshmallows from scratch, I thought it would be a great suggestion! It definitely didn’t disappoint! I have a hard time picking favorites because I have had some really good flavors since I first had a scoop of Matt’s ice cream, but the rocky road is definitely up there as a favorite of mine! The chocolate base combined with the marshmallows and almonds is such a great combination. There is something about homemade marshmallows compared to the store bought ones that doesn’t compare in flavor in my opinion.

We started by making the marshmallows. This was the first time I have helped make marshmallows. We started by blooming the gelatin and then cooked that and water until the gelatin melted. We then put that in a stand mixer to whip. Next we made the syrup using sugar, glucose, salt, and water by cooking those ingredients until the syrup started to melt and then cooked it until it reached 250 degrees. We poured the syrup into the bowl with the gelatin and whipped that mixture until it became fluffy. I loved seeing (and tasting) that in the mixer once it was finished! We added vanilla to the mixture until it was mixed in. We then transferred the marshmallows to an oiled pan and covered them in plastic. We let them sit out overnight. The next day we sifted confectioners sugar and cornstarch together and dusted the marshmallows in that. We then cut them into pieces to eventually add to the ice cream!

Next, we made the almonds. We bought some slivered almonds for this. I tend to like nuts in ice cream, but sometimes they can be too crunchy when they are too big. The slivered almonds were a good purchase for this reason! We spread the almonds on a baking sheet and combined sugar and water in a skillet until it boiled. We then coated the almonds in the sugar and water mixture. We baked those for 20 minutes and then let them cool. They were very easy to make and tasted very good!

It was then time to make the chocolate ice cream base! It is called Blue Ribbon Chocolate Ice Cream in the book “Hello, My Name is Ice Cream.” I truly believe it has that name for a reason because of how good this base is. One of my favorite parts of making this ice cream is chopping up the chocolate and then melting it using a double boiler. When Matt and I were newly dating, I was helping him with a recipe that called for a double boiler. I had never used one before and I almost managed to mess up the mixture. Matt fixed it for me, but we tend to joke about what happened each time we use a double boiler now. I can now successfully use the double boiler and love to see the chocolate melt now that I know what I am doing!

We melted the dark chocolate, milk chocolate, cocoa powder, and salt and set it aside. We then boiled cream, milk, and glucose until it came to a boil. Then we whisked in milk powder and sugar into the pot and let that simmer for a couple of minutes. Next we whisked part of the hot base into the bowl of melted chocolate and then added the rest of the hot base in two more additions and whisked it until fully combined. We chilled the mixture, then strained it, and let it sit overnight until the next morning when we churned it. 

We layered the chocolate ice cream, marshmallows, and almonds until our container was full. The final product turned out so great! The combination of the three ingredients was a winner and I definitely give it five scoops! 

Rating: 5 scoops