Rocky Road Ice Cream Our Way

Towards the beginning of the summer I mentioned that I wanted to get an ice cream maker. In my mind I was of course thinking of an old manual crank machine like my parents had when I was little. Once we started getting watermelon from our CSA, we took the plunge and bought one. Now of course Joe couldn't have just any ice cream maker; we had to buy the expensive (not too expensive but still) one versus the cheap Walmart version I was planning on buying. It's turned out that Joe was right, I now love our "expensive" ice cream maker, especially once we made this ice cream.

The amazing thing about an ice cream maker is...you can make ANY ice cream or sorbet or frozen yogurt that you can imagine. It's Cold Stone Creamery only you get the whole pint! We used a basic chocolate ice cream recipe and added marshmallows, chocolate pieces, and pretzels. How could it go wrong?

Rocky Road Ice Cream (our way)


1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
pinch salt
2/3 c. whole milk
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
marshmallows (cut up)
chocolate chunks
pretzels (crushed)

In a medium bowl, mix together the cocoa, sugars, and salt. Add the milk using either a whisk or hand mixer on low speed. Mix until combined. Stir in the cream and vanilla. Refrigerate for several hours or up to overnight.

Pour the mixture in to the ice cream maker (yes, you need to have one) and let mix for about 15-20 minutes. Add the marshmallows, pretzels, and chocolate pieces a few minutes before it is finished.

* Sorry there isn't a picture of the finished product, we were too busy eating to take a picture!*

This is an incredibly delicious dessert. If you hadn't already guessed from the heavy cream AND whole milk, it is a very rich ice cream. Next time I might try the same ingredients with a vanilla ice cream to make it a little less sweet. If you are going to use the pretzels try to eat the ice cream relatively soon as they tend to get a little soggy over time.

I'm so excited to keep experimenting with flavors, because honestly even ones that don't turn out the way we want are still going to taste yummy. My goal is to have a special ice cream ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year!