It's a rocky road to brownie town

In the white marshmallow corner, William Dreyer, one of the founders of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Holding. In the pink marshmallow corner, George Farren of Fenton's Creamery.

Which of these likely lads actually invented rocky road ice cream? Dreyerists believe he created it in March 1929 by adding walnuts (later almonds) to his chocolate ice cream, then chopping up some marshmallows with his wife's sewing scissors and mixing them in too. Farrenists don't seem to have such a touching tale to back up their claims, but I'm inclined to believe them anyway as it is very difficult to believe a seemingly intelligent man who is capable of running a successful ice creamery would be foolish enough to cut up marshmallow using his wife's good sewing scissors.

Limited reading on the topic reveals the rocky road candy bar was later invented, but according to the candy bar makers it has nothing to do with the ice cream. Yes, just a kooky coincidence. I have not had one of these apparently very popular US candy bars, but I can barely contain my enthusiasm after reading on the Annabelle Candy website that it "literally melts in your mouth".

Of course, us Aussies have our own tweaked version of rocky road which generally contains most or all of the following: chocolate, glace cherries, nuts, desiccated coconut, Turkish delight and marshmallows. I pity anyone who tries to make it following Wikipedia's claim that Australian rocky road also contains "jelly (jell-o in US English)".

The Conor version may not contain jelly or Turkish delight, but it does contain brownie.

Rocky Road Brownie Slice

Recipe ripped out of a crappy women's magazine years ago at the gym. How ironic.

Makes 35

Ingredients
Slice
150 g dark chocolate, chopped
125 g butter, chopped
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted

Rocky Road
125 g mixed marshmallows, roughly chopped
1/2 cup glace cherries, halved
1/2 cup mixed unsalted nuts, roughly chopped
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
500 g milk chocolate, chopped

Method
1. Preheat oven to moderate, 180 degrees C. Lightly grease and line an 18 x 28 cm slice pan, extending paper 2cm above edge of pan.
2. Combine dark chocolate and butter in small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Cool for 10 minutes.

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

3. Stir sugar and egg well through the chocolate mix, then fold in the flour. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until firm. Cool to room temperature.
4. Melt milk chocolate until smooth, then stir the marshmallows, cherries, nuts and coconut through it.
5. Spread chocolate mixture evenly over brownie base. Chill for 1 hour until firm.

Seconds later, all was quiet except for a strange bowl-licking sound

6. Cut into squares (I cut it into 5x7 to get 35 square-ish pieces) with a sharp knife (the recipe says to use a hot knife but I don't bother).
7. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to devour.