christmas rocky road squares

These are plain old rocky road squares with the seasonal adjustment of red glace cherries. The ones pictured here are missing their nuts as they were destined for a school party. These can be made ahead and store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week. Decorate with icing sugar up to 2 hours before serving. Make the Rocky Road as above and freeze for up to a month. Thaw overnight in a cool place and decorate.

Ingredients
250g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
175g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g Rich Tea biscuits
150g toasted hazelnuts
150g glace cherries (red)
125 g mini marshmallows
1 tbsp icing sugar
Edible things for decorating

Method
Chop both sorts of chocolate small and then put into a heavy-based pan to melt with the butter and syrup over a gentle heat. Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin to get big- and little-sized crumbs; you want some pieces to crunch and some sandy rubble. Put the nuts into another freezer bag and also bash them so you get different-sized nut rubble. Take the pan off the heat, and add the crushed biscuits and nuts, whole glacé cherries and mini-marshmallows. Turn carefully to coat everything with syrupy chocolate. Tip into a foil tray (I use one 236mm x 296mm), smoothing the top as best you can, although it will look bumpy. Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1 1/2–2 hours. Then take the set block of rocky road out of the foil tray ready to cut. Sieve the icing sugar to dust the top of the Rocky Road. With the long side in front of you, cut into it 6 slices down and 4 across, so that you have 24 almost-squares. Top with festive things, edible or plastic, taking care not to eat the plastic ones.

Adapted from Nigella Christmas