Semi-sweet chocolate chunks meet mini marshmallows inside these delectable rocky road cookies. All you need are three simple ingredients to make the chocolate cookie base before you add in your mix-ins, making these chocolatey cookies a dream come true.
If you love classic Rocky Road ice cream, you’re in for a treat with these chocolate lover’s dream cookies! It’s a cookie recipe that you’ll want to hang on to in your recipe box!
Obsessed with all things chocolatey? Me too. Check out my yummy Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie or Oreo Brookies to satisfy more of your chocolate-loving sweet tooth after making this Rocky Road cookie recipe!
Jump to:
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It uses a few ingredients: With only 3 ingredients for the cookie base, these chocolate cookies are super simple!
- Customizable: While the original rocky road cookies recipe calls for mini marshmallows, semi-sweet chocolate chunks, and peanuts, you can easily change it up with some more of your favorite treats!
- Ready in only 20 minutes: From ingredients to wire rack chilling, this recipe only takes 20 minutes to make.
🧾 Ingredients Needed
I’ve highlighted a couple of ingredients below with some relevant notes. Aside from this, the ingredients needed are pretty basic.
- Chocolate Cake Mix – I used a basic chocolate cake mix for this recipe.
- Chocolate Chunks – I highly recommend chunks of chocolate over chocolate chips for a dreamy melty chocolate cookie.
- Peanuts – Unsalted peanuts are what this recipe calls for. No need for salted!
📖 Substitutions
Sometimes substitutions are necessary because of ingredients that are unavailable or needed for dietary restrictions. Here are some suggestions that can help:
- Eggs – If you’re short on eggs, you can use applesauce in this recipe instead.
- Canola Oil – You can swap this out for any oil you prefer.
📖 Variations
Easily change up this basic Rocky Road cookie recipe with a few simple variations:
- Cake Mix – You can use chocolate fudge, milk chocolate, or devil’s food cake mix for this recipe. You could even take it a step further and go with a flavored chocolate cake mix.
- Chocolate – Feel free to use your favorite chocolate for this recipe. Just remember, chunks of chocolate bars will serve the best results and are always the right answer for cookies!
- Nuts – You don’t have to stick to peanuts for this recipe. Crunchy nuts like pecans, almonds, or walnuts would also be great options to take the cookies to the next level.
👩🏻🍳 How to Make Chewy Rocky Road Cookies
This fudgy chocolate cookies recipe is super simple to make. I am talking, 3 steps from start to finish!
These Rocky Road Cookies are broken into 3 components:
- making the cookie base
- adding your mix-ins
- baking to ooey-gooey perfection
I suggest doubling this recipe because you are not going to be able to get enough out of the 15 cookies the original makes. You will run out on day one and crave more of the gooey marshmallows and melty chocolate from these chewy chocolate cookies!
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and line two large cookie trays with a layer of parchment paper. You could also use a silicone mat.
STEP 1. Make the cookie base. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, and oil until you achieve a smooth mixture. You could also use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer for this on medium-high speed. (Image 1).
STEP 2. Add mix-ins. Gently fold in ½ cup each of marshmallows, chocolate chunks, and peanuts. (Image 2).
STEP 3. Scoop and Set. Use a large scoop to place the cookie dough onto each prepared baking sheet, ensuring there’s about two inches of space between each scoop. You can use a medium cookie scoop to get a greater number of cookies within the batch. Top each dough ball with 2-3 chocolate chunks and peanuts. (Image 4).
Tip: Push in any marshmallows around the outside of the dough ball shape to prevent overspilling some melted marshmallows that lead to misshapen cookies. If you like a crispy edge, ignore this tip!
STEP 4. Bake. Bake in the preheated oven for 9-10 minutes.
STEP 5. Finish ’em off. Once the cookies are out of the oven, add 3-4 mini marshmallows on top of the cookies. Then, return the cookies to the oven for an additional 1 minute before placing them on your cooling rack.
💭 Recipe Pro Tips
- Add the last-minute marshmallows. Adding a few marshmallows on the tops of each cookie at the end of baking will lead to some extra ooey-gooeyness!
- Use quality chocolate. Your chocolate cookies are only as good as the chocolate you use. Splurge a bit here on some delicious chocolate!
📋 Recipe FAQs
Rocky Road cookies have a chocolate base and are filled with mini marshmallows, chocolate chunks, and peanuts. To keep things easy, you can use a base chocolate cake mix for the cookie as I did in this recipe.
Peanuts are the usual nut that is in Rocky Road, however, you can change it up with almonds, walnuts, or pecans.
To turn this Rocky Road chocolate cookies recipe into a bar recipe, simply press the cookie dough mixture into a large baking dish and bake for roughly 20 minutes. Check for doneness around the 17-minute mark.
Rocky Road cookies are named after the famous ice cream flavor “Rocky Road.” The term “rocky road” is often associated with a combination of chocolate, marshmallows, and nuts. The name is thought to have originated in the United States during the Great Depression, as a way to describe something that was rough and bumpy, just like the texture of these cookies or the ice cream.
Cookies oftentimes come out of the oven in imperfect shapes. To get that perfect circle cookie look, use a large round cookie cutter or glass to stick around the outside of the cookie and gently swirl the cookie around in the glass to re-shape it into beautiful cookies.
Making good, chewy Rocky Road cookies comes back to how much moisture is in your batter prior to cooking. Be sure to stick to the measurements to ensure a yummy, chewy texture.
🍽 What to Serve with Chocolate Rocky Road Cookies
Serve these yummy Rocky Road cookies with your favorite ice cream or a tall glass of milk. If you’re looking to take it a step further, try out a cookie dip like this Oreo Dip or this Marshmallow Fluff Dip.
❄️ Storage
Keep the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for a maximum of three days. To prevent them from sticking together, consider placing a piece of parchment paper between the layers.
🍪 More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
Feeling like Cookie Monster lately? Indulge in some of these yummy cookie recipes below! Or if you’re just looking for something sweet, you’ll love all of our easy dessert recipes!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
📖 Recipe
Rocky Road Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup mini marshmallows plus extra for topping the cookie
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks plus extra for topping the cookie
- ½ cup roasted unsalted peanuts, plus extra for topping the cookie
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line two large cookie trays with parchment paper and set them aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, and oil until you achieve a smooth mixture.
- Gently fold in ½ cup each of marshmallows, chocolate chunks, and peanuts.
- Use a large scoop to place the cookie dough onto the prepared trays, ensuring there’s about two inches of space between each scoop. Top each dough ball with 2-3 chocolate chunks and peanuts.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 9-10 minutes.
- Once the cookies are out of the oven, add 3-4 mini marshmallows on top of each cookie. Then, return the cookies to the oven for an additional 1 minute.
Notes
- When baking these cookies, don’t be surprised if they don’t come out perfectly round. As the marshmallows melt during baking, they might spill out and cause some misshapen cookies. To prevent this, be mindful when scooping the cookie dough, avoiding an excessive amount of marshmallows on the sides or bottom of the dough balls. If you notice large marshmallow pieces sticking out, gently push them back into the dough ball. You can also use a cookie cutter (larger than your cookies) or the edge of a glass to shape the cookies back into circles right after taking them out of the oven.
- Chocolate fudge, milk chocolate, or devil’s food cake mix are all suitable for this recipe.
- If you don’t have chocolate chunks, you can substitute them with chocolate chips.
- Similarly, you can replace peanuts with walnuts, cashews, almonds, or pecans. If using any of these nuts, it’s recommended to roughly chop them before adding them to the cookie dough, and toasted nuts will impart the best flavor.
- To ensure consistent cookie sizes, use a cookie scoop. This not only enhances presentation but also helps maintain uniform baking times.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Sharon Jackson says
Can these be frozen?
Jessica says
Hi Sharon! I haven’t tried freezing them yet but I don’t see why not. I would only be concerned about marshmallows and freezing them but I know that people freeze marshmallows alone anyway — so it should be ok! If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turns out!