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Soft and chewy rocky road cookies will hit the spot and remind you of your favorite rocky road ice cream. These chocolate cookies are packed with almonds, chocolate chips and marshmallows! You don’t have to chill the dough, this rocky road cookie recipe is ready in 30 minutes!
What’s In Rocky Road Cookies?
Our rocky road cookies follow the classic flavors of rocky road ice cream. Our recipe starts with a chocolate cookie base, then you add in almonds, chocolate chips and marshmallows. Extra marshmallows in mine, please!
Nuts for Rocky Road Cookies
Our nut recommendation would be to use either almonds (chopped or sliced), peanuts (whole or chopped), or walnuts (chopped).
But these are your cookies! If you want to use pecans, cashews, etc, I say go for it!
Can I Use Mallow Bits in Place of the Marshmallows?
Yes, you definitely can. I would suggest using 1 cup of Mallow Bits and mixing those into the batter. If you’re not sure what mallow bits are, they are basically like lucky charm marshmallows shaped into tiny marshmallow shapes. They won’t give you the same gooey texture of mini marshmallows, but they are still fun (and delicious) to use in this rocky road cookie recipe.
Gluten Free Rocky Road Cookies
I’ve made this recipe with both regular and gluten free flour with awesome results on multiple occasions. I recommend King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour. Use it as a one for one substitute for regular flour.
How to Make Cookies That LOOK AWESOME
Okay, so cookies taste great, but we want them to look great too. Making cookies look awesome takes 1 extra step in the baking process.
Here’s the key: to make delicious, drool-worthy cookies, always add additional toppings to the outside of your dough balls. That way when your cookies are done baking, they’ll have all these delicious looking pieces of almonds, chocolate chips, and marshmallows on the surface of the cookie.
Don’t be afraid to load them with toppings!
Best Cookie Sheets for Baking Cookies
These are my favorite cookie sheets. I recommend using shiny, heavy cookie sheets that have very low or no sides. Avoid dark aluminum sheets because they can cause overcooking.
Pro Tip: To ensure even baking, place only 1 cookie sheet in the oven at a time.
I highly suggest you bake cookies on a cookie sheet that’s lined with a silicone baking mat.
Total Time Required
- 10 minutes to make the cookie dough
- 10-13 minutes to bake the cookies
- 15 minutes to cool the cookies
Serving Rocky Road Cookies
You can eat them warm right off the cookie sheet, let them completely cool and eat or, microwave them for 5 seconds before eating if they are stored in a tupperware container.
Tips for Making Cookies
- Properly measure the all purpose flour using the spoon and sweep method.
- Use room temperature butter for easier creaming of the butter and sugar.
- Use a cookie scoop to form uniform balls.
- Press chocolate chips, almonds and marshmallows on the outside of the dough balls before baking for a loaded cookie presentation like the photos!
More Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies
- Maraschino Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Classic Monster Cookies
- Lemon Sugar Cookies
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Rocky Road Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened, 1/2 cup
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup sliced almonds, broken into smaller pieces
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
To top the cookies:
- 1 cup mini marshmallows, extra sliced almonds and chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a mixing bowl, combine the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and 1/2 cup chocolate chips,
- In a separate mixing bowl cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together with a mixer on low.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract, mix again on low. Gently add in the dry ingredients, chocolate chips and sliced almonds, mixing on low or by hand just until combined.
- Use a cookie scoop to drop dough balls on a silicone mat lined baking sheet. Press 3-4 mini marshmallows into each cookie and add additional almond pieces and chocolate chips to the outside of the dough balls.
- Place the cookies 3 inches apart on a silicone lined baking sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Bake one cookie sheet at a time.
These were a hit! Hubby even recommended them as ice cream sandwiches with vanilla bean ice cream. Yum!
I do want to mention to avoid adding marshmallows close to the bottom and waiting until you take them out of the oven to avoid that sticky crunchy texture. Then you can lightly torch them to avoid extreme expansion.
Hi Beth!
First and foremost, thank you for this wonderful recipe and its’ easy to follow directions and readily on hand ingredients. My mini marshmallows were a touch on the “stale” side (LOL), but toasted up to a lovely golden colour before collapsing into a wonderful gooey puddle. This one is definitely making it into my permanent files. Thanks again!
Thanks for the recipe! I halved the sugars and omitted the almonds (per DD’s request, ☹️) and they r deeeelish!