S’mores rocky road

This is possibly my proudest creation: chocolate refrigerator cake, or tiffin, crossed with rocky road, crossed with s’mores – the American campfire classic of Graham crackers and marshmallows sandwiched with a piece of chocolate, and toasted over a fire. In this version, the marshmallows just start to catch and caramelise under a hot oven. Perfect to take over to friends’ houses, as it is rich and generously proportioned.

Serves: many, many people
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes, plus 1 hour chilling

• 200g unsalted butter
• 300g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids, broken up)
• 250g digestive biscuits or Graham crackers
• 150g mini vegetarian marshmallows (I like pink and white)
• 75g salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/gas 6. Tip the butter and chocolate into a saucepan over a low heat and stir until both have fully melted.

Break up all but 4 of the digestive biscuits or Graham crackers and stir them into the chocolate butter, then stir in 100g of the marshmallows. Spread the mixture in a lined shallow roasting tin, then scatter with the remaining digestive biscuits, broken into larger pieces, the marshmallows and the peanuts.

Transfer the tin to the oven and bake for 5–10 minutes, until the marshmallows have just started to catch and turn golden brown. Let the tin cool on the side before cutting the cake into squares. (I rather like a square or two while it’s still warm out of the oven, but for a proper refrigerator cake, you’ll need to pop it into the fridge to chill for a few hours before serving, so it sets properly.)

Extracted from: The Roasting Tin Around the World – Global One Dish Dinners by Rukmini Iyer (Square Peg). Photography by David Loftus.