Rocky road ice cream is a
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...
flavored
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...
. Though there are variations from the original flavor, it traditionally comprises
chocolate ice cream
Chocolate ice cream is ice cream with natural or artificial chocolate flavoring.
Nutrition
History
The earliest frozen chocolate recipes were published in Naples, Italy, in 1693 in Antonio Latini's ''The Modern Steward''. Chocolate was one o ...
,
nuts, and whole or diced
marshmallow
Marshmallow (, ) is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The sugar c ...
s.
History
According to one source, the flavor was created in March 1929 by
William Dreyer in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
when he cut up
walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''.
Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...
s and marshmallows with his wife's sewing
scissors
Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutti ...
and added them to his chocolate ice cream in a manner that reflected how his partner
Joseph Edy
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc. ("Dreyer's"), is an American ice cream company, founded in 1928 in Oakland, California, where its present-day headquarters office remains. The company's two signature brands, ''Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream'' and ''Edy's ...
's chocolate candy creation incorporated walnuts and marshmallow pieces.
Later, the walnuts would be replaced by pieces of toasted
almond
The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...
. After the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, Dreyer and Edy gave the flavor its current name "to give folks something to smile about in the midst of the Great Depression. "
Alternatively,
Fentons Creamery
Fentons Creamery is a historic ice cream parlor and restaurant located on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California, United States. Fentons is the state’s longest continually operating creamery, with a small herd of dairy cows in West Marin.
H ...
in Oakland claims that William Dreyer based his recipe on a Rocky Road-style ice cream flavor invented by his friend, Fentons' George Farren, who blended his own Rocky Road-style candy bar into ice cream; however, Dreyer substituted almonds for walnuts.
The original Rocky Road ice cream used chocolate ice cream with no chocolate chip pieces. By blending numerous ingredients such as chocolate ice cream, nuts, and marshmallows, the rocky road flavor was one of the first types to mix in the materials together. This style was developed by Dreyer's lead chemical engineer and dairy chef Noah Holladay and proved difficult to produce due to the nature of freezing and preserving various mixed ingredients. Over the years after the inception of the flavor, many companies would try to imitate or mix in other ingredients such as various nuts, fruits, and toppings, but the original combination proved to be the most popular.
See also
*
List of ice cream flavors
This is a list of notable ice cream flavors. Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavors. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are ...
*
Rocky road (dessert)
Rocky road is a type of no-bake slice made up of milk chocolate and marshmallows along with other ingredients, which tend to vary by country. In British influenced areas it was previously referred to as 'Tiffin' but the Australian/American name ...
*
Rocky Road (candy bar)
* "
I Love Rocky Road
"I Love Rocky Road" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic about a man's obsession with rocky road ice cream. It is a parody of the 1981 Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' cover version of the British band Arrows' 1975 song, " I Love Rock 'n' Roll", orig ...
"
References
External links
Recipe
Almonds
California culture
Flavors of ice cream
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