Rocky Road Cookies

Ingredients

½ cup 1 stick (115 g) room temperature unsalted butter
½ cup (115 g) lightly packed brown sugar 
⅓ cup (75g) granulated sugar 
1 tsp. (6g) vanilla extract 
1 egg room temperature
1 cup (150g) all purpose flour 
⅓ cup (30g) cocoa powder
½ tsp. (2g) salt
½ tsp. (3g) baking soda
1 cup (35g) + more for topping dehydrated marshmallows**
1 cup (140g) + more for topping chopped roasted and salted almonds
1 tbsp. (2g) Espresso powder (optional)
1 cup (175g) milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugars and butter until light and fluffy about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until mixed in. Add the vanilla and espresso powder and mix. 
3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the sugar mixture and mix just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips, dehydrated marshmallows and chopped roasted almonds. 
4. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop rounds of cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Gently flatten the tops of each cookie with the palm of your hand. Top each cookie with a few dehydrated marshmallows, 1 whole almond, and 3-4 chocolate chips. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. 
5. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack. 
6. Store in an airtight container for 3 days.

** Dehydrating Marshmallows – You can make your own.
Place 2 cups mini marshmallows layered on a baking sheet with space between
Place in a 175 or 200 degree oven for 2 hours with the oven door open slightly. After 30 minutes, toss marshmallows and continue to dry out in the oven and repeat until you have baked/dehydrated them for 2 hours. They will puff up slightly. To test, squish a marshmallow and if it’s crunchy and dry, they are done.

More about this recipe…

I love ice cream and one of my all time favorite flavors is rocky road. I just love the chocolate flavor combined with the creamy marshmallows and salty almonds. It’s just the perfect combination. I decided to recreate my favorite ice cream in a cookie. After a lot of trial an error, mostly on the part of the marshmallows I created a delicious cookie. 

The trick is using dehydrated marshmallows. If you use regular marshmallows they will melt and caramelize in the oven creating a crunchy messy looking cookie. But if you use dehydrated marshmallows something magical happens in the oven, they hold their shape but become creamy and delicious. When I was creating this recipe I had a jar of these mini dehydrated marshmallows and they worked great, but when I went to purchase more I couldn’t find any anywhere online or in stores. Not sure why, but there seems to be a shortage of these. So I researched and figured out a way to make my own without a dehydrator. I always have a bag or two of mini marshmallows on hand because you just never know when you will have a hankering for rice krispies treats, since we are on that subject, you should check out my Browned Butter Rice Krispy Treats video. I found an easy way to dehydrate marshmallows at home. 

Another important tip is using salted roasted almonds. This adds so much more flavor. The cookie base is delicious as well, almost like a brownie texture with crisp edges.  These are one of my favorite cookies now, and I hope you try to make them yourself. 

Be sure to watch the video tutorial below on how to make these cookies as well as how I dehydrate the marshmallows myself.