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a glass footed dish filled with scoops of chocolate rocky road ice cream and topped with almonds and mini marshmallows

Easy Rocky Road Ice Cream

icecreamfromscratch
Rocky Road Ice Cream, made from scratch, has a chocolate base packed with chunks of rich chocolate, marshmallows, and toasted almonds. This is the best rocky road ice cream, in our opinion.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Chilling/Freezing Time 7 hours
Total Time 7 hours 45 minutes
Course Ice Cream Recipes
Cuisine Dessert
Servings 8 Servings
Calories 502 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 oz semisweet or dark chocolate roughly chopped, divided
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup mini marshmallows
  • 1 cup toasted almonds roughly chopped

Instructions
 

  • Chill the ice cream bowl for at least 24 hours or until solid. You should not hear any water sloshing around when you shake the bowl.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and granulated sugar until smooth and pale yellow in color.
  • Add the milk, cocoa powder, and salt to a saucepan over medium heat. Bring the milk to a simmer and then remove from the heat. Be sure not to boil.
  • Add about ½ cup of the hot milk to the egg and sugar mixture and whisk constantly until combined.
  • Then, add the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk.
  • Heat the saucepan on low. Stirring constantly, heat until the base has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon or spatula. This should take a few minutes.
  • Strain the mixture into a bowl to remove any pieces of egg that may have cooked.
  • Add ½ cup of the chopped chocolate, reserving the rest for later. Stir until melted.
  • Add the heavy cream and vanilla extract and stir to combine.
  • Cover the bowl with plastic wrap making sure to have the plastic wrap touching the surface of the ice cream base. This will help keep it from forming a skin while chilling. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
  • Churn the ice cream mixture in the bowl of your ice cream machine according to your manufacturer’s instructions (mine took about 20 minutes), until it is thick and the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.
  • In the last two minutes, add the marshmallows, almonds, and remaining chopped chocolate and churn until evenly distributed.
  • Spoon the ice cream into a loaf pan or freezer-safe container. Press plastic wrap or wax paper to the surface of the ice cream. Freeze for at least 4 hours, or until solid. Let sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before serving.

Notes

  • I used semi-sweet chocolate for this recipe but you can also use dark chocolate instead.
  • You want to chop the chocolate so that it’s the size of small chunks. You don’t want the chocolate chunks to be too large because when you get a bite it will be too hard to eat.
  • I prefer to use a chocolate bar that I have chopped myself instead of bagged chocolate chips or chocolate chunks because when it goes into the hot custard it will melt much easier and smoother. Also, when the chunks get stirred into the ice cream later I like the varied size for eating.
  • Feel free to substitute pecans or walnuts for the almonds in this recipe.
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