Rocky Road Cookies
These flourless chocolate cookies are chewy and ooey gooey delicious, and studded with all the components of Rocky Road: toasted almonds, gooey marshmallows, and chocolate chips!
Ever since the idea of rocky road cookies popped into my head a month ago, I have been tweaking recipe after recipe so I could come up with a cookie delicious enough to be posted here.
These chewy rocky road cookies are complete fudgy chocolate goodness (I mean, flourless chocolate goods usually are). The crunchy nuts contrast nicely with the melty semi-sweet chocolate chips, and the marshmallows on top are crispy and golden brown on the edges and gooey in the middle.
Just like if you roasted them on a fire!
This is also one of those quick and easy recipes with zero chilling time required. If you want a deeply fudgy chocolate cookie, this is it.
Don’t Mix the Marshmallows In
In a large bowl, sift together powdered sugar (aka confectioner’s sugar) with cocoa powder. These are your dry ingredients.
Then whisk in salt, egg whites, and vanilla extract, then finally, chocolate chips and almonds.
You might be wondering why we don’t just mix the mini marshmallows into the batter, and the reason is that they sort of melt and disappear that way.
The golden brown crispy shelled marshmallows on top make this cookie truly incredible and rocky road-esque. So they must be placed on top of the cookies, in order to become browned but gooey melted marshmallows.
Take your time here to whisk thoroughly each step of the way, but especially when whisking in the egg whites. You want to break up the egg whites and distribute everything evenly.
I don’t mind doing this with just a whisk and a mixing bowl, but you can also use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer over medium-high speed to ensure it’s well mixed. Because there is no flour here, there’s no risk of developing gluten and making the cookies tough.
When the batter is ready, know that it will be relatively loose because there is no flour. It will look almost like a melted chocolate mixture.
I recommend using a medium cookie scoop for portioning out the batter in dollops. If you want perfectly round cookies, or another shape, you can also portion the batter into a cookie form or metal rings.
Place 4 to 5 marshmallows on the tops of each cookie. And if you think this is stingy, then by all means, feel free to add extra marshmallows.
Also, while you can get away with baking right on an uncoated cookie sheet, I now recommend you line baking sheets with parchment paper, to ensure the cookies don’t stick (this is updated in the recipe card below). Others have reported that a silicone mat does not work well.
Bake in a 350 degrees F oven for 12 minutes, until the marshmallows are brown and a crispy edge has developed all around.
Be careful not to overbake here, as these can go from chewy cookie to hard cookie if all the moisture is baked out.
Let the cookies cool for a couple minutes to set, right on the silicone mat or layer of parchment paper. If you try to move them to a wire rack or cooling rack immediately after baking, they may fall apart.
For more favorite cookie recipes, try No Chill Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, or Shortbread Cookies.
For the chocolate lover, I also recommend Chocolate Muffins, Homemade Hot Chocolate, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes. Enjoy!
Recipe Tips and FAQ
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Note that if you live in a humid climate, these will turn into soft chocolate cookies in a day or two after baking.
Try to use a good quality one, and avoid the standard Hershey’s cocoa. Guittard is my favorite brand, but Callebaut, Vahlrona, Scharrfen Berger, and Ghirardelli are all great too.
Absolutely. Substitute an equal amount for the semisweet chocolate chips. You may also use any kind of dark chocolate you like.
Did you enjoy the recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. Or, follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest!
Rocky Road Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 extra large egg whites
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 2.5 oz sliced almonds toasted
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk in the salt. Add the egg whites and vanilla and whisk until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and almonds.
- Use a disher to portion out small mounds on to the parchment paper, then top each cookie with 4-5 marshmallows. Pop into the freezer for 5 minutes to chill slightly (this prevents them from spreading too much in the oven).
- Bake for 12-13 minutes until the marshmallows are golden brown. Let the cookies sit on the paper for a few minutes to set, before moving them to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!!!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
189 Comments on “Rocky Road Cookies”
Hi Joanne. I made these last year and they came out perfect. I just made some tonight and the batter came out very stiff. I followed the recipe and used extra large whites. You made a comment to another baker about the powder sugar possibly being compacted. That could explain why the batter was very stiff. I wonder next time if I should go ahead and sift the powdered sugar, THEN measure out 3 cups. They still taste good, but they don’t have that hard shell, crackle look that makes the cookie so attractive looking.
I used special dark cocoa powder.
I couldn’t resist making these after seeing the picture on facebook, and oh boy am I glad I did! I didn’t have any nuts on hand so I left those out. I also added peanut butter chips to half the batch. Both versions are just amazing! I’ll definitely be making these again and might experiment with mint chips. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
So glad you enjoyed the cookies, and also added your own twist!
These are really addictive! I have made them twice now but the only problem I have is that they stay stuck to the parchment paper, I noticed that yours don’t, and I don’t know why. Despite the work to remove them from the pan, it is still well worth it. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Are you sure you used parchment paper and not wax paper? Silicone shouldn’t stick at all, and that’s in the parchment paper.
Can I used icing sugar? Is it the same as powdered sugar?
I believe those are the same, so yes =)
Made these this morning and just sampled one. Oh my! Double chocolatey goodness. Baked as directed but found that if I very lightly spayed Pam onto the parchment paper the slightly cooled, baked cookies came right off the cookie sheet after allowing them to cooI for three mins and I found placing the cookies on the cookie sheet in the freezer for five mins really helped but I also kept the dough cold in the fridge between baking.
Hi Donna, so glad you loved the cookies! And your tips are great =)
I made this for the first time on Christmas eve and will say these are really good. My family ate them all in a few hours. I will warn you, If you don’t like foods that are sweet these cookies are not for you. However if you are a person that likes rich ooey gooey desserts then you will find that this is one of the best cookies you have ever consumed.
Hi Julie, I’m really glad to hear that your family enjoyed the cookies!
A big hit! As chewy & gooey as you said they would be
heyy the cookies look sooo good!!! can i byany chance use like 2 eggs instead of 3 egg whites?
I Love great recipes..Love your page !
I love this recipe so much it.make me went to cook those cookies that I like to cook .
I just made these cookies and they turned out exactly like yours! Phew! 🙂 They are SO cho..co..lat..ey!!! OMG! I’ve already “tested” three! I better stop or there won’t be any left when the rest of the family gets home! Thanks!
Wonderful, Jodi! So happy to hear you enjoyed the cookies and they turned out well.
hi.. greetings from indonesia! i love ur ooey gooey cookies so much and i love all ur recipes.. i made it a couole dats ago and within a day it just vanish to my husband and brother stomach! but i have a question here.. this recipe is actually too sweet and i have a diabetic father can i substitute or add donething to reduce the sweetness.. any thought? thank you
I’m so happy to hear that everyone loved them! Part of the reason the recipe is so sweet is because it’s gluten-free and we use the powdered sugar to substitute a bit for the flour. I think your best bet would be to find a chocolate cookie that has some flour in it. Good luck!
These were delicious! I sliced my own almonds with my food processor, and so I had a bunch of powdery almond crumbs that I threw in with the slivered almonds, and it made the flavor of the cookie AMAZING. (I toasted the crumbs along with the almonds.)
I do have a question that hopefully you haven’t already answered (I admit I don’t have the drive to read all 152 comments to find out): how do you store these? They are too gooey to put in a ziplock or to stack in a container.
Hi Kelsi, awesome! The least messy way to store them is to wrap them in parchment paper or wax paper, then put in a plastic bag or container. Enjoy!
I absolutely love these cookies! My only problem is that they stick so bad! Maybe it’s something I’m doing. I spray my parchment paper, as suggested below, but I feel like I spend the most time scraping them from the pan and then the cookies end up in pieces. I did find letting them cool off a little longer helped a little, but then I spent time peeling the paper from the bottom of the cookie. Any thoughts??
Hi Holli, are you 100% sure you’re not using wax paper? Parchment paper is made with silicone and it shouldn’t stick to anything. If you did use parchment paper, I know that it’s not recommended to spray them or oil the surface.
Hi! I love this recipe! And although I’m not a chocolate-person, I love rocky road ice-cream. So, I searched for a delicious recipe and I found it! This brought me to try more and more of your recipes and I seriously, loved. them. all. 🙂 But, the first time I made this, my cookie dough was not thick, it was actually kind of the opposite. Do you have any idea why this might happen? In the last few times it hasn’t been doing that so I was just wondering why that had happened…
Hi Esther, I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying so many recipes! My first thought could be the temperature of the egg whites. They are very thick when cold and thin out quite a bit as they warm up.