This is one of my ultimate festive recipes. It makes a fantastic sweet treat at the end of your Christmas meal. It also is a brilliant gift that you can give to any of your loved ones. I would love to receive one of these. My Rocky Road Christmas Pudding is full of seasonal flavours and has plenty of textures. Every time I make this I want to burst into carols – that’s how good this is.
Whenever the subject of Christmas pudding is brought up I find people fall into one of two camps. Either they love it or they can’t stand it. I am all for a Christmas pudding myself but I know many people who wouldn’t dream of eating it. This is my compromise, all the look of a stunning Christmas pudding with the flavours of my festive rocky road.
There are three flavours and three textures that really make this special. The textures you need are smoothness from the chocolate, crunch from the biscuits and ‘squidge’ from the dried cranberries and marshmallows. Flavour wise I want a dark blanket of chocolate, warming spice from the ginger nut biscuits and the sharp zest from the cranberries and clementines.
I have a spherical cake tin which is perfect to get this perfect almost cartoon look to my Rocky Road Christmas Pudding. You need to really push it into the mould and compress it so that is good and solid. If you don’t have a spherical cake tin and let’s face it who does? Then I suggest using a bowl to get a pudding shape. I line the mould with a couple of strips of reusable baking paper to make un-moulding easy, you could also use cling film if you wish.
To decorate I think ready to roll fondant icing is perfect to get the ideal shape ‘splodge’ you want. I love the way it makes this look like the perfect cartoon pudding. You could use white chocolate however that could make this very sweet. If the icing is rolled thin enough then it doesn’t tip it too far into the sweet side. I particularly like the icing version of holly but there is nothing stopping you using real holly, just remove before eating.
I would love to know what you think of this Rocky Road Christmas Pudding. If you want anymore festive recipe take a look at these:
Mince Pie Baklava
Brown Sugar Shortbread
Meringue Wreath Pavlova
Orange & Cranberry Scones
Sausage Roll Wreath
Rocky Road Christmas Pudding
Ingredients
- 200 grams Ginger Nut Biscuits
- 150 grams Dark Chocolate
- 70 grams Milk Chocolate
- 100 grams Butter
- 3 tbsp Golden Syrup
- Zest of 2 Clementines
- Juice of Half a Clementine
- 100 grams Mini Marshmallows (or large ones cut up)
- 100 grams Dried Cranberries
To Decorate
- 150 grams White Ready to Roll Icing
- Red & Green Gel Food Colouring (or use red and green icing)
Instructions
- Crush the Ginger Nuts.You have a few options easiest is to put them in a bag and bash with a rolling pin or any other weapon of choice. You want some chunkier bits and some bits of dust.You can also put them in a large bowl and use something like a masher and go at them like a large mortar and pestle.
- Next in a large saucepan place the Dark & Milk Chocolate (broken up), Butter, Golden Syrup, Zest of 2 Clementines and the juice of half of one of the Clementines and melt together over a low heat. You can swirl this to help it along and make sure it is all combined.
- Once it is all melted allow to cool slighty as you dont want the marshmallows to melt. Then tip in the crushed Ginger Nuts, Dried Cranberries & Mini Marshmallows. Mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until everything is coated in chocolatey goodness.
- Line a large bowl or a spherical mould, I used strips of reusuable baking paper, cling film would work also.Press down on the mixture to compress it and stash in the fridge to chill and set for at least 4 hours but over night is better.
- Once your pudding is chilled you can unmould and place on your plate and keep in the fridge.Now you need to make the decoration if you are colouring the red and green you want two small pieces of fondant one ball about 1.5 inches and the other half the size. The larger one knead in the green gel food colouring and the smaller knead in the red.Sprinkle the worktop or large board with icing sugar and roll out the White Icing to a circle, using a knife cut out a 'splodge' think of drawing a sun or star but with curves not points. Brush with a little water and lay over your pudding, if you wanted you could use the syrup from a jar of stem ginger as a very delicious glue.Cut holly leaves out of the Green Icing and roll the Red Icing into small balls to act as the berries use water to glue these to the the top of the pudding.Proudly present your pudding and enjoy!
