Festive gluten-free and vegetarian rocky road

You may think this is an odd dish to claim the gluten-free and vegetarian qualities but there are some quite specific ingredients that take the rocky road from regular to festive. With many guests now being gluten intolerant and vegetarian, I’ve had to find alternatives. The amaretti biscuits are by Orgran (and are divine) and the mashmallows (which yes, are made with gelatine!) are from Freedom Mallows, which are free from quite a few nasties and are also rather lovely.

METHOD
Break both the chocolates into small chunks and then put into a heavy-based pan to melt along with the butter and syrup over a gentle heat.

Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin to get big and little-sized crumbs; you want some pieces to crunch and others finer, then do the same with the nuts. Place these into a large bowl along with the fried fruit, marshmallows and nuts.

Take the pan off the heat, and pour the melted liquid onto the other ingredients and carefully fold the whole lot together to coat everything with syrupy chocolate.

Tip into a foil tray (I use one 236mm x 296mm / 9¼ x 12 inches), smoothing the top as best you can, although it will look bumpy.

Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1½–2 hours. Then take the set block of rocky road out of the foil tray ready to cut.

Push the icing sugar through a small sieve to dust the top of the rocky road. Then, if you like, add a sprinkling of edible glitter for some festive sparkle. With the long side in front of you, cut into it six slices down and four across, so that you have twenty-four almost-squares.

Eat and of course, enjoy!

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