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Rocky Road Crunch Bars

No one is ever going to complain about having one of these in their lunchbox, and they're pretty handy to have around in a kitchen for a quick, snatched burst of energy at any time.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and tea work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 163 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, nutty. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 24
Prep30 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Line a 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 in) tin with baking parchment, leaving some overhang so the bars can be lifted out later.

  2. Put the rich tea biscuits in a sealed plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin into a mix of small crumbs and bigger pieces.

  3. Put the butter, dark chocolate and golden syrup in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth, about 5 minutes, making sure the bowl does not touch the water.

  4. Remove the bowl from the heat and let the chocolate mixture cool for 2 minutes.

  5. Stir the crushed biscuits and mini marshmallows into the chocolate mixture until everything is evenly coated.

  6. Scrape the mixture into the lined tin and press it firmly and evenly into the corners with the back of a spoon.

  7. Chill for at least 2 hours, until completely firm.

  8. Dust the top evenly with icing sugar sifted through a fine sieve.

  9. Lift the slab out using the parchment overhang, then cut into 24 bars with a sharp knife, wiping the blade clean between cuts.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chocolate + teatop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  2. Syrup + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Biscuit + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Chocolate + syruptop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,239 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs