Day 4: More vegan treats

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about how being with a vegan has changed my cooking habits.  One of my favourite things to do has been to find alternative versions of recipes I would make anyway; the vegan lemon cake recipe I posted then is a big hit in this respect.

Once the nights start drawing in and it gets chilly, I like to keep warm in the kitchen baking calorific treats.  One of my favourites has always been rocky road, using this recipe of Nigella's.  But how to veganise something that includes lashings of butter, chocolate and marshmallows?  I experimented this weekend, and I have to say the finished article is - in my brother's words - scrum-diddly-umptious.

Photo via the BBC, because I forgot to take pictures yesterday.  So imagine these without marshmallows (god, I'm a crap blogger sometimes!)

Vegan rocky road squares

 

300g plain chocolate (but make sure it contains no milk powder, which lots of plain chocolate does)

100g soya or vegetable margarine

3 tbsp golden syrup

120g rich tea biscuits (again, ensure they're vegan; they almost always are)

70g raisins

50g glace cherries

50g pistachios

The last four ingredients can be messed around with to your heart's content.  Fancy dried cranberries?  Wack them in.  Want more biscuit and less nut?  Not a problem.  Just aim for about 300g of dry ingredients overall.

Melt the margarine, chocolate and golden syrup in a Pyrex bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Remove from the heat, scoop out about 125ml/4½fl oz of the melted mixture and set aside in a bowl.
Place the biscuits into a plastic freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin until some have turned to crumbs but there are still pieces of biscuit remaining.
Fold the biscuit pieces and crumbs into the melted chocolate mixture in the saucepan, then add the pistachios, raisins and glace cherries.
Tip the mixture into a 24cm/9in square baking tin (lined with greasproof paper) and smooth the top with a wet spatula.
Pour over the reserved 125ml/4½fl oz of the melted chocolate mixture and smooth the top with a wet spatula.
Refrigerate for about two hours or overnight.
To serve, cut into squares. And try not to eat them all at once.