Rocky Road Chocolate Cookies are based on a recipe from Carol Walter's Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets. I actually bought the book after finding the recipe posted on a bulletin board. The book's version is a bit more detailed (as are all the recipes), but this adapted recipe comes close. I've added weights for most of the ingredients.
Rocky Road Cookie Ingredient Notes
- Flour -- The original recipe didn't have grams, but I've always used around 260 to 270 grams total.
- Cocoa Powder -- If your cocoa powder is lumpy, be sure to sift it. You can use natural or Dutch or mix both together. I use 65 grams total.
- Butter -- The cookies have plenty of salt in them, so for this recipe it's best to use unsalted butter. If you have to use salted, cut the salt to ½ teaspoon.
- Sour Cream -- The sour cream really curbs the sweetness of these cookies. It adds moisture, but makes them fudgy rather than cakey. Be sure to use regular full fat sour cream rather than light.
- Marshmallows -- The marshmallows in Rocky Road Chocolate Cookies are added about 2-3 minute before the end of the bake time. They are not stirred in with the batter.
- Pecans -- Rocky Road Cookies are also great with walnuts!
Recipe
Rocky Road Chocolate Cookies
Rocky Road Chocolate Cookies (Adapted from Great Cookies by Carole Walter)
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (270 grams)
- ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, natural or Dutch (65 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 oz unsalted butter, slightly firm, cut into chunks (230 grams)
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (280 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- ⅔ cup sour cream (150 grams)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup broken toasted pecans
- 1 ½ cups bittersweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups mini-marshmallows
Glaze Ingredients:
- ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons boiling water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder ands salt. You can sift if you prefer, but it's not absolutely necessary as long as you mix the dry ingredients thoroughly. If your flour is lumpy, then yes -- you should sift.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and light, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat 1 minute longer. Add the eggs and mix until combined. Mix in the sour cream and the vanilla.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in two additions, mixing just until blended. Using a large rubber spatula, fold in the pecans and chocolate chips.
- Using about a quarter cup measure, shape dough into mounds and place 3 inches apart onto parchment paper or Silpat lined cookie sheets. Bake for 12 minutes or until just starting to set on top. Remove from the oven and press nine or ten mini-marshmallows at random onto the tops. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 2 minutes or just until the marshmallows start to soften. WATCH CAREFULLY. Do not allow the marshmallows to become too hot or they will melt. These cookies are best slightly underbaked.
- Let rest on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes or until firm enough to handle before loosening with a large metal spatula. Remove to a wire cooling rack set over a jelly roll pan or a sheet of wax paper.
- Glaze the Cookies: Combine the chocolate chips and the butter in a medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Melt together, stirring occasionally. [Or microwave for 30 seconds or so] Add the boiling water , ½ teaspoon at a time, to thin to a pouring consistency. Using a spoon or a fork, drizzle the glaze over each cookie. Let stand on the cooling racks until the glaze sets.
- The cookies are a little gooey at first. I almost always throw them in the freezer to set the chocolate and make them a little easier to handle.
Notes
Note: I left out the boiling water, spooned the glaze into a heavy duty zipper bag, snipped a tiny hole in the bottom corner and squeezed the glaze out the corner.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Carin says
These cookies are too good! I used micro marshmallows, and the cookies looked yummy too!
Patricia Scarpin says
Anna, these look amazing! Those mini marshmallows are so cute. 🙂
carole says
Anna
You would never survive here in Cleveland. We had a major blizzard over the weekend --- 18 inches of snow on the ground. Not drifts, that is how deep the snow is. Velcro, my new pup, fell into a drift and Al had to go rescue her.
Since I am snowed in I am going to make todays cookie right now since I have mini marshmallows on hand.
Anna says
Therese, isn't it funny how we adapt to different weather periods. If it were 39 here, I'd be wearing a parka.
It's just icky out today. Period. Rainy and nasty. Luckily Fuzz found a friend to play with and they are having a good time.
Heather, thanks for the reminder. I've been meaning to do that!
Heather D says
Anna, are you going to post a revised "Spring Edition" of you top 10 list?
Therese says
Anna---
Gosh girl....I am sorry you are not going anywhere. If it makes you feel any better I am actually in a GREAT mood today because we reached 39 degrees here in Wisconsin!!!! I saw someone in shorts at the grocery store!! That's how excited we are here....too funny eh?!
We are not going anywhere for Spring Break (ours is the week after Easter)...but good to be with family. And the Easter bunny will be here soon!! Let's start thinking of what we can make with the leftover easter candy!! tee hee!!
YOU ROCK!! These cookies look nummy!!
Anna says
Chris, that's somewhere! Besides, I like IL.
Then again, Puerto Rico is warm and has a beach.
Chris C-L says
If it makes you feel any better, Trevor is on spring break next week and the only place we are going is to my mom and dad's in Illinois for a few days. Not a very exotic trip! On the other hand, my husband is on his way to Puerto Rico today for the rest of the week. I'm not sure why he could not have scheduled his trip next week and Trevor and I could have tagged along.