Rocky Road Everything Squares--A No Bake Square

Rocky Road Everything Squares are a tasty treat for the chocolate/peanut butter lovers and a great addition to your holiday cookie plate. Whether you call them a cookie or a candy these will please your family and friends.

You might wonder why these squares have the word "Everything" in the title.  It's because when I was making them I threw in everything that I thought would make a tasty mouthful, ha, ha.  I had half a bag of nearly dead miniature marshmallows sitting in my cupboard and thought I'd better make something before they were too hard to eat.  And as it's almost Christmas I thought a pan of Rocky Road Squares wouldn't go astray.  Now, I've made these confections many times over the years but really never had a recipe for them.  I'd just eyeball the chocolate, peanut butter and marshmallows and I'd end up with a pretty good cookie/candy. I decided to do a bit of research on the Rocky Road Square/Candy and found out there are hardly two recipes alike on the internet search I did.  There are so many variations apart from chocolate and marshmallows that I was somewhat at a loss for which recipe to use.  Some recipes use melted chocolate and others make a ganache with chocolate and sweetened condensed milk and others use an egg in the mixture. Some use peanut butter and some do not. But the thing that caught my eye was the add-ins to the chocolate and marshmallow mixture.  They were just wonderful.  Besides a variety of nuts there was coconut, Rice Krispies, chopped digestive biscuits or graham crackers, chopped cherries and a few others things I can't remember.  They all sounded good to me so I chose a few to put in my cookies and used up those half dead marshmallows.  We liked them so much I made them again and used a new bag of marshmallows and they were even better, ha, ha. 

If you are the kind of person who does not like nuts and cherries and Rice Krispies leave them out and use 4 or 5 cups of the marshmallows.  I am not that person.  

Printable recipe at end of post.

Rocky Road Everything Squares

• 2½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup peanut butter
• ¼ cup butter
• 3 cups miniature marshmallows, white or fruit flavoured
• ½ cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans
• ½ cup salted peanuts
• ½ cup chopped maraschino or glacé cherries
• 1½ cups Rice Krispies

How to make it:

Lightly grease a 9x9-inch square baking pan. Do not use a smaller pan. Line with parchment paper for easy removal.

In a large pot melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter over a very low heat. You can remove the pot from the stove before all the chocolate chips have melted.  The residual heat should continue to melt the chips.  Let the chocolate mixture cool down so you can comfortably hold the bottom of the pot in your hand.  Stir in the remaining ingredients until everything is coated in the chocolate.  

Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan.  Refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm enough to cut.  Cut into 25-36 squares. Store in a covered container.  Refrigerate unless you are storing them in a cool place.

Makes 25-36 squares.

Prepare the pan by lightly greasing (to hold the parchment paper in place) and lining the pan.  I use the clips to hold back the paper.  Do not use a smaller pan than a 9x9-inch because the mixture fills this to the top.  

Melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter together.  You can remove the mixture just before everything is completely melted. The residual heat will melt any remaining ingredients.  As you can see you need a really low setting on the stove burner.

Assemble the marshmallows, cherries, nuts and Rice Krispies in a large bowl.

Mix all the add-ins together. Let the chocolate cool.

You can scrape the chocolate into the mix or an easier way is to dump the marshmallow mix into the melted chocolate. Make sure the chocolate is not too warm or the marshmallows will melt. Mix well until everything is coated with the chocolate.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and refrigerate at least two hours before cutting in squares.

When set, remove from the pan using the edges of the parchment paper to help lift them out.  Cut into 25 or 36 squares.  I like the smaller squares because you feel justified in going back for more because they were small. 

I use this handy little lifter for squares. You can usually buy them at the dollar stores for a couple of dollars.  I bought mine at Dollarama. 

I've packed away a few for later on.  These squares freeze well and when in a pinch can be eaten straight from the freezer.  I know this for a fact.

Don't they look good!  The fruit flavoured marshmallows look very festive but the white ones will be just as tasty. 

Festive Rocky Road Everything Squares looking good on a Christmas cookie plate.

To print click on arrow upper right side.⇩