This homemade rocky road ice cream is a creamy and delicious rich chocolate ice cream with chunks of crunchy almonds, mini marshmallows, and chopped chocolate pieces.
There is something about the soft marshmallow pieces, mixed with the crunchy toasted almond pieces all in the middle of the perfect creamy chocolate ice cream. It’s a delicious flavor and texture combination. And this homemade rocky road ice cream is a flavor everyone will love!
It’s so much better than you’ll get from the store or your favorite ice cream shop. And who doesn’t love the fun of making homemade ice cream at home?!
This version is extra chunky to make sure you get delicious bites of chunky almonds, gooey marshmallows, and sweet chocolate pieces in practically every bite.
This rocky road ice cream is delicious served on it’s own in a big bowl, or cone on a hot day. It’s also delicious served over a warm brownie, and topped with some hot fudge and caramel sauce.
This is a custard based ice cream, which means it has eggs in the recipe, making it extra rich and creamy. It’s the perfect rich chocolate flavored base!
What flavor is Rocky Road Ice Cream?
Rocky road is a chocolate based ice cream flavor mixed with toasted and chopped almonds and marshmallows throughout.
The name Rocky road comes from the year 1929 when William Dreyer added cut up marshmallows and walnuts to chocolate ice cream. Later that year the stock market crashed and the name Rocky Road was given, “to give folks something to smile about”.
Ingredients Needed:
- heavy cream
- whole milk
- cocoa powder
- granulated sugar
- semi sweet chocolate
- egg yolks
- vanilla extract
- salt
- almonds
- mini marshmallows
How to make Rocky Road Ice Cream?
Add your heavy cream, milk, cocoa powder, and sugar to a large sauce pan and stir it all together. Heat over medium high until the mixture starts to bubble.
Add in the semi sweet chocolate and stir it until the chocolate is melted and can be stirred smoothly into the mixture.
In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks.
Scoop some of the chocolate cream mixture into the egg yolks and whisk them together quickly. Then another large scoopful, and another. Once it’s combined pour the egg mixture back into the sauce pan with the remaining chocolate cream mixture.
Heat on the stove again until the mixture starts to thicken a bit, then remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
Pour the mixture into a large bowl and put the bowl over a larger bowl of ice, and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Then place the bowl into the fridge to chill for another hour, or two.
When ready to churn, pour the cooled ice cream into the prepared and running ice cream and let it churn until it’s nice and thick.
Add in your almonds, marshmallows, and chocolate pieces and let it run for another few minutes until they’re mixed throughout.
Scoop the ice cream into a 2 quart pan and cover it, and place it in the freezer for at least 6 hours, even better is overnight.
Tips and Tricks:
- Don’t forget to put your 2qt ice cream maker bowl in the freezer at least 12 hours before you want to churn the ice cream.
- Don’t skimp on the fat if you want an extra creamy ice cream. Use heavy cream and whole milk for the ice cream base as called for. (If you substitute a lower level fat milk, and half and half the ice cream will have a less creamy texture).
- Some varieties of rocky road ice cream have different nuts in them instead of almonds. The most popular substitutes are pecans or walnuts. Try adding the same amount of an alternate nut to the ice cream instead of the almonds as called for. Other delicious nuts would be hazelnuts or macadamia nuts.
- Toasting your own almonds really adds to the flavor of this ice cream (though already roasted almonds from the store work great – you just don’t want salted) Spread the nuts in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Make sure to stir the nuts once or twice while roasting.
- Substitute up to 1/2 cup of another mix in for some of the marshmallow and nuts as called for. I think some delicious options would be white chocolate, chopped pretzels, or a swirl of hot fudge sauce.
- Add up to 1 TBS of espresso powder when adding the cocoa powder to amplify the chocolate flavor.
- If you don’t want to make a custard based chocolate ice cream as this recipe calls for, you can make our standard chocolate ice cream for the base, and add in the marshmallows, chocolate shavings and toasted almonds as called for in this recipe.
This rocky road is a delicious chunky chocolate ice cream that is completely loaded with chocolate flavor in every bite. It’s also loaded with crunchy nuts, and soft marshmallows for the perfect mix of textures. It’s a delicious mix of flavors and definitely loved by everyone.
More ice cream recipes:
- Cookie Monster Ice Cream
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
- Cookie and Cream Ice Cream
- Brownie Ice Cream
- Pistachio Ice Cream
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Rocky Road Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 4 oz semi sweet chocolate bar (chopped)
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1/2 cup almonds (chopped)
- 1/3 cup chocolate shavings
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
- Add the heavy cream, whole milk, cocoa powder, and sugar to a large sauce pan. Heat the mixture over medium until it just starts to bubble.
- Add in the semi sweet chocolate and stir until it is totally melted and can be stirred smooth.
- Add the egg yolks to a medium sized bowl and whisk them together until smooth.
- Slowly pour 1/2 cup of the chocolate cream mixture into the egg yolks, and whisk them together until combined.
- Add another 1/2 cup of the chocolate cream, then another until it's all combined.
- Pour the egg mixture back into the sauce pan and continue to let it cook over medium for another couple minutes until the mixture starts to thicken.
- Stir in the salt and vanilla extract.
- Pour the mixture though a fine mesh strainer, into a large bowl.
- Put the bowl over another large bowl full of ice. Let the ice cream mixture chill over the ice for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Cover the bowl and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Pour the mixture into a prepared ice cream maker, allow to run according to the ice cream makers manufactures instructions (about 25 to 30 minutes), or until thick.
- Scoop 1/3 of the ice cream into a 2 quart pan (a 9x5 loaf pan works great). Sprinkle about 1/3 of the marshmallows, nuts, and chocolate over the chocolate ice
- Repeat with additional ice cream, toppings, ice cream and toppings until it's all in the pan.
- Cover and transfer the ice cream to the freezer for another 6 hours minimum, up to overnight to get the ice cream to freeze solid.
Cathy says
Delicious! I’ve made this twice now. The ice cream was creamy and silky smooth. Wonderful texture and flavor. I made two slight changes. I used dark chocolate for the add in because I didn’t have enough semisweet on hand. I also ran the custard through a fine mesh sieve, just because that’s what I’m used to doing.
This is my husband’s favorite flavor. Thanks for the recipe!
Aimee says
Oh, good catch, I always fun it through a strainer as well. So glad you both love it!