Type Ice cream | Place of origin United States | |
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Main ingredients chocolate ice cream, nuts, and marshmallow Region or state Oakland, California, United States Similar Butter pecan, Mint chocolate chip, Chocolate chip cookie dough ice, Cookies and Cream, Vanilla ice cream | ||
Rocky road ice cream is a chocolate flavored ice cream. Though there are variations from the original flavor, it is traditionally composed of chocolate ice cream, nuts, and whole or diced marshmallows. According to one source, the flavor was created in March 1929 by William Dreyer in Oakland, California when he cut up walnuts and marshmallows with his wife's sewing scissors and added them to his chocolate ice cream in a manner that reflected how his partner Joseph Edy's chocolate candy creation incorporated walnuts and marshmallow pieces. Later, the walnuts would be replaced by pieces of toasted almond. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Dreyer and Edy gave the flavor its current name "to give folks something to smile about in the midst of the Great Depression." Alternatively, Fentons Creamery in Oakland claims that William Dreyer based his recipe on a Rocky Road-style ice cream flavor invented by his friend, Fentons' George Farren, who blended his own Rocky Road-style candy bar into ice cream; however, Dreyer substituted almonds for walnuts.
The original Rocky Road ice cream used chocolate ice cream with no chocolate chip pieces.
