Holiday Rocky Road | Sohla El-Waylly | Cookie Week | NYT Cooking

“You have to say, ‘action.’” “I will. I will.” SOHLA EL-WAYLLY: [LAUGHS]: “(WHISPERING) Action.” “Louder, please.” “Action.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi, it’s Sohla here at
NYT Cooking Studio Kitchen. And I’m going to show you how
to make a Holiday Rocky Road From our friends Down Under,
the Australian Rocky Road. It’s a no-bake cookie, perfect
for those warm winter nights. I like this one
because I wanted To make something that
a kid could make totally On their own. Anyone can make this. If you’re decorating
gingerbread houses and you Have a lot of random scraps
around this time of year, Throw it all in here. You don’t have to
make my recipe. Just like, be inspired.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “All right. We’re going to start by lining
our loaf pan with a little Parchment. This is just going to make it
easier to pop out once it’s Set. You don’t have to be that
precise with the measurement. This is a 9’ by 5’, but
you could do this with an 8 And 1/2’ by 4’. Loaf pans are very strange
in the way they’re sized, And it really stresses me out. But with this recipe, you
don’t have to be stressed. You don’t even have
to line it very well.

If you don’t have parchment,
you could also use foil. The main thing is we want to
have a little sling so we can Easily lift the candy
out once it’s set. If you want to make this
to give away to folks, You can easily double it and
then pop it in an 8’ by 8’ Or a 9’ by 9’ brownie pan or
even quadruple it and put it In a 9’ by 13’. You got gifts for everybody. Hit it with a little
bit of nonstick spray Or any kind of fat just to
help the parchment stick. We’re like halfway done
with the recipe now. Now, we begin. We got our bowl. I’m using a bag of
semi-sweet chips. There’s good chips out there. But if you want
to level this up, A good way is to get a
bar each of dark chocolate And milk chocolate,
melt that together, Get that fancy
chocolate vibe in here. But I love this because
it’s already chopped, Perfect for cooks
of all levels. Now to this, I’m going to
add a 1/2 a cup of Biscoff. Traditionally for Rocky Road,
you just melt the chocolate And you add mix-ins. But I like the Biscoff
because it kind of Gives it this tender,
fudge-like texture. It’s like extra creamy, melts
in your mouth more easily, And you get a little bit of
spice from the cinnamon that’s In the Biscoff. If you don’t like Biscoff,
you could do an equal amount Of peanut butter or
tahini is really good. You can really get creative
and have fun with this, Or you can leave it out
and just go chocolate. This is your Rocky
Road journey.

This would also be
good with Nutella. If you want to go
a little fancy. I don’t know. Nutella always
felt fancy to me. Now I’m going to add a little
bit of, for the holiday vibes, Some pumpkin spice. Last year, I became a
pumpkin spice believer. Something about
fall, now I love it. I used to hate on it,
but now I love it. And some salt, even
though it’s a dessert, Salt always brings out
the flavors of everything. I’m going to melt
this in the microwave. I like having the spices
in there before I melt Because it’s kind of going
to bloom in the fat from The chocolate and the Biscoff. Shall we microwave?” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Wait, pause there.” “Check on it at first
after 20 seconds. And then after that,
every 10 to 15 seconds. Be careful. Make sure you grab
your bowl with a towel Because it could be hot. If you heat it until
it fully melts, Sometimes the
edges kind of burn. So it’s better to leave it a
little under melted and let it Melt from the residual heat. O.K., so my chocolate is
mostly melted and this is Going to cool it down
a little bit as well So our marshmallows
don’t melt. So I’ve been spending
some time on TikTok. I’m like the oldest
person there. My algorithm just
kept giving me videos Of people making Rocky Road.

So I was like, I want
to get in on that fun. So that’s kind of
what inspired this. So the most traditional Rocky
Road was raspberry gummies, Marshmallows, peanuts, like
this, chewy, fluffy, crunchy. So I kind of wanted
the same vibe. So I’m going to
crumble in my Biscoff. You don’t want, like, too
tiny chunks because it’s kind Of nice when you
slice into it. You want to see a cross
section of cookie. So just roughly
crumble them in. At home, I got
some marshmallows That look like Santa Claus
that I wanted to throw In here, but I forgot them. So we’re going to use
the mini marshmallows. So Ham didn’t grow up here. So Ham had his first
jet-puffed marshmallow Because all he had ever
had was like a fine dining Marshmallow that you get at
the end of a tasting menu. He likes these better. So 3/4 of a cup of pecans. You don’t have to
be too precise. You can also use whatever
kind of nut you want. No matter what
you put in here, It’s going to be good because
it’s all coated in chocolate. Some spice drops. So I feel like these are
pretty easy to find around The holidays because they’re
like one of those iconic Things you decorate a
gingerbread house with. So it felt really appropriate
to throw these in here. We’re going to
do 3/4 of a cup, So I’m just kind
of folding this. It’s going to look
really chunky. You could even
add a little more. You can actually
pack a lot in here.

As long as every
ingredient gets coated, It’ll come together
into a bar. I did one version with
some Rice Krispies In there for, like,
that crunch bar vibe. It’s really nice if
you have some cereal, Some Chex because you’re
making Chex Mix around this Time of year. Whoa, guys, I can
just keep going. I think it would be really
good with peanut butter, Chex, A little cinnamon,
marshmallows, peanuts.” “It’s like puppy chow.” “Yeah, like puppy — We should have done that. I love puppy chow. Dust it with some
powdered sugar. All right, I’m going to
tip this into my pan. I’m going to give you the
best visual here, huh? I can cook backwards for you. Now, if you don’t
have a loaf pan, You really can set this in
whatever mounded up on a plate With a rim. As long as you line
it with something, We’ll be able to get it out. So I’m going to just use
my spatula to spread it Into the corners, zhuzh it
around to get it everywhere. And then I’m going to give
it a firm tap to make sure The whole thing has settled.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Make sure the chocolate
kind of seeps in between all The cracks, everything
holds together well, So you get nice, clean slices. And then finish it off
with a little sprinkle, A sprinkle that represents
your holiday of choice. Now this has to set in the
fridge at least an hour.

Because it is just like fat,
it will absorb any odors In your fridge. So it’s going to be
in there for a while, Give it a really good wrap,
and then we’re going to slice It up. As you can see, my
candy is nice and set. You should just be
able to pop it out. Sometimes you need to get
in there with a butter knife And wiggle a bit. You just kind of need
to make a little air Gap to help it along the way. Now, if you are a
child, this is the point Where you definitely need a
parent to help you cut it, But you can do everything
else by yourself, Or just eat it as one block. I don’t know what the
rules are in your home. Whoa, whoa. Huh? You didn’t think I was going
to make that happen, huh? I saw the nervousness
in all of your faces. And now you can kind of
slice this up however You want, as many
portions as you need. I really going just
all the way across. So you get these nice slabs
that are biscotti shaped. You do you, you know? And to keep those
cuts nice and clean, Wipe your blade in between
with a hot, damp towel. Whoa, we did it. Hold on. I want to take a picture.” [CHUCKLES] “You guys got such
good lighting. Everything looks good. I want this one.”

[MUSIC PLAYING] “It’s kind of like truffle-y
where the chocolate’s a little Supple from the Biscoff. So you get this tender,
melty, rich chocolate. And then a whole bunch
of different textures. Little pops of crunch from
the sprinkle, crispy bite From the Biscoff. I think my favorite
bite is the marshmallow. Little chewy marshmallow
bite, it’s really fun. It’s really easy. You can cut it up into
whatever size portion You need. Have fun. If you’re baking
this holiday season, I think just get organized and
try and do as much as you can In advance. There’s a lot of recipes
where you can make the dough In advance and have
it in your freezer, Roll and punch cookies out. Like, I’ve done some
cookie boxes in my day, And I never do that. I do it all two days
before I want to ship it, And it’s disaster. And I never have any fun. So don’t be like me. Plan, be organized. If that happens, just have
some eggnog afterwards. You can get this recipe and
all the Cookie Week recipes At NYTcooking.com.” “Thank you. It’s all of the cookies. Yeah, I can open the box. Whoa- Do you want to get tight
on the ribbon pull?

It’s like a lingerie ad. Thank you for all the cookies. I know you do this every
year, but I forget every year. I’m surprised every time.”