Halloween's not really a big thing in SA, probably something to do with having to get past electric fence on top of 6 foot walls, foreboding spiked gate, the 2 rabid guard dogs, the 1 yapping Maltese Poodle, blinding flood lights and gun-wielding suspicious home owner peering through the curtains before being able to reach the front door to yell "Trick or Treat!"

But now I'm in Ireland. And in Ireland, you do Halloween. M&S sport kids' costumes next to the new Christmas stuff. There are shelves dedicated to Halloween themed candy. Restaurants have pumpkins and spider webs hanging everywhere. So when in Rome? Well, make Halloween Rocky Road!

I've seen plenty of cakes and cupcakes topped with spiders and ghosts, cookies in spooky shapes, all look brilliant. But I got a little overwhelmed this month with life, the Daring Baker macaron challenge, work, friends, etc so I wanted to do something easy.

Gives a new meaning to keeping an eye on what you eat

I found the perfect thing to make when, on a sugar craving binge late one evening, my hubby and I popped down to our local little market who always have fantastic goodies. They make Mars Bar Rice Krispie treats and various other things that will sort out that craving in just a few bites. One of these things was their rocky road bars. But this time they'd swapped out the normal pink and white marshmallows for marshmallow pumpkins and ghosts. So simple, so cute!

Just give me a spoon, I'll eat it like that

Rocky road is great, you can throw almost anything into it. The usuals being some sort of cookie, marshmallow and nuts. I decided to jam pack my bars with Digestives, roasted pecan nuts (in the spirit of Halloween, I figured these resemble brains ;) ), marshmallows and dried cranberries. Topped off, of course, with something fitting the theme. Skull, pumpkin and ghost mallows. Also some huge fruity flavoured gummy eyeballs. What kid (or grown up) won't like these?

Another great thing about rocky road bars is that they're really easy to make, so adult or kid, you'll have fun making and eating these :)

Ingredients

750g Milk Chocolate

1 cup Digestive Biscuits, roughly broken up

1 cup Roasted Pecan Nuts

1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

1 cup Marshmallows, roughly cut up if large

Various Halloween themed sweets

Method

Line an 8"x8" square dish with parchment paper
Tip: Have the parchment fold over the edges of the dish so you can use these as handles to pull the chocolate out
Tip: Also great to use is square silicon bakeware as it's flexible so you can pull it away from the chocolate
Break the chocolate up into peices and put into a heat resistant bowl over a pot of simmering water
Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally
Combine the broken Digestive peices, marshmallow, nuts and cranberries in a bowl
Once the chocolate is melted, reserve 1/3 of the chocolate and mix the rest in with the nuts, mallows, etc.
Spread the mixture into the prepared dish
Pour the reserved 1/3 of melted chocolate over the top and spread with a spatula
Push the Halloween themed candy into the top, half sticking out
Chill in the fridge till set, about 1-2 hours
Remove the chocolate from the dish and remove parchment
Using a sharp knife, cut into 6 or 9 blocks
Tip: I find it best not to saw through but rather rock the knife back and forth, slowly pushing down on the knife to prevent the block of chocolate from cracking

You can make your rocky road bars as crammed full of goodies as you like so the above amounts are approximates, just have enough chocolate to mix & cover everything

Rocky Road for Halloween