Nigella Lawson's Rocky Road Crunch Bars from Nigella Express

During Sunday’s disastrous cooking session, I remembered, with foreboding, that Mrs Chef had to make something to take to her Baby group this morning. At that point, I was not in the mood for cooking, but after a drink and a sleep, woke up revitalised. We both had a think, and realised that if the treats are taken to impress others, then Mrs Chef needed to bring out the big guns – only Nigella would do! We recalled that at a recent child's birthday party, the cupcakes we had made were mostly ignored in favour of Nigella’s Rocky Road… such a simple, effective answer. We don’t have ‘Nigella Express’, but did find the recipe online at lifestylefood.com.au here.

25 soft unsalted butter

300 g best quality Dark Chocolate broken into pieces

3 tablespoons Golden Syrup

200 g rich tea biscuits

100 g mini Marshmallows

2 teaspoons icing sugar to dust

I have to admit - I'm not Nigella's biggest fan. Thanks in part to Ulrika Jonsson's impression, she has become a bit of a caricature on television, uses extreme amounts of oil, butter and fat and I think she can be a bit pretentious. However, Mrs Chef loves her and I have to admit that her recipes to impress, and for sweet things that quickly make you fat if eaten often, cannot be beaten!

A very simple recipe – essentially melt the butter, chocolate and syrup. Add the majority of the mixture to the bashed up biscuits and the marshmallows, spread out in a tin, and then add the rest of the plain chocolate mixture to act as a top. Leave to cool. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Of course, things didn’t go quite right. Mrs Chef made a start, before, inevitably, Chef Junior demanded her attention and I had to finish things off. I had to crush the biscuits, add the marshmallows and biscuits and then top. Easy enough, but in Nigella’s instructions she specifies how much mixture should be set aside for the topping. I tried to save on washing up and guestimated – and cocked it right up. Still, not the end of the world – Mrs Chef made up some more mixture and we get a nice, thick topping instead. An excellent collection of ingredients. Things looked great this morning, and I will let you know how they taste in the next post!

Nigella Express at Amazon.co.uk