In this 8-month preggo gal’s opinion, it’s never too early to prepare for the holidays, and Grandma Galdin’s signature rocky road is easily the most popular item requested of The Galdin clan every holiday season.  Maybe September is a bit early to start referring to the “holiday season” but when you’re pregnant, you can make the dang Christmas candy whenenver your heart desires.  The thing about this candy is that once you’ve found a way to source an awkwardly large milk chocolate bar, and seriously we’re talking really awkwardly large, you’re basically halfway there.  The rest is simple – just good stuff, melted together, in mouthful-sized-hunks that you literally won’t be able to resist… pregnant or not.

Grandma Galdin’s Rocky Road

Ingredients:

2.5 Pounds High-Quality Chocolate (Grandma always used enormous Ghirardelli chocolate bars)
1 C. Chopped Walnuts
1 C. Roasted Almonds, Chopped
1 Package Large Kraft  Jet-Puffed Marshmallows

Instructions:

Start by toasting your whole almonds – this is somewhat of an art, as simple as it may sound… bake the almonds at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  Watch them at the end, when they start to smell toasty, they’re ready.

Let the almonds cool and then give them a rough chop – keep the pieces big, no smaller than in halves or thirds.

You can buy chopped walnuts or chop them yourself – but measure out a generous cup-full!

Cut each marshmallow in half.  Momma always uses the kitchen shears to do this… but you can use whatever tool you have handy that you don’t mind getting sticky.  It’s a messy job, but someone has to do it.

All that goodness gets thrown in a huge heatproof bowl (glass is perfect) – make sure its a monster bowl so you have lots of space for stirring.

Chop your massive chocolate bar into hunks and either throw it in a glass bowl (shown here) or a double boiler.  For this batch I bought a huge 4 pound milk chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s during the holidays and stashed it away like a chocolate-fiending packrat.

Usually I’m not one for extra fuss, but I do actually melt the chocolate in a double boiller or on the stove instead of in the microwave… if the stove was good enough for Grandma, who am I to argue?  If you don’t have a double boiler, a glass bowl, over a pot filled with water (pictured here), also works fine.

Once your chocolate is melted, add it back into your bowl of goodies and stir.

Line a 13×9 dish with wax paper and then pour in the mixture.

Throw another piece of wax paper on the top, and then press the mixture into the corners so you don’t have air bubbles.

Let the rocky road cool overnight in a cool dry place.  Do not put the rocky road in the refrigerator as you’ll get that terrible chocolate chalk thing happening.

Once cool, cut into perfect happy little pieces and try not to eat every piece in a single sitting.

Mangia!