33/365: National Heavenly Hash Day

Today is one of the odder food holidays we’ll be celebrating, because there seems to be no general consensus over what, exactly, “heavenly hash” is. It’s described as a sweet confection containing marshmallows, and can refer to candy, ice cream, cake, cookies, brownies, rice pudding, or ambrosia. I even came across a recipe for a heavenly hash martini. So, I guess, pretty much anything involving marshmallows and fruit, then?

At least it’s not Groundhog Day. I mean, it is Groundhog Day, but at least we don’t have to eat groundhog. Although that would be a lot simpler, and it probably tastes like chicken anyway.

So much confusion reigns that one intrepid blogger contacted several ice cream companies to ask them the difference between Heavenly Hash and Rocky Road (which Wikipedia claims are basically the same thing). The responses are amusing (and still somewhat inconclusive). Rocky Road is a mixture of chocolate ice cream, mini marshmallows, and almonds, while Heavenly Hash is a mixture of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, mini marshmallows, and nuts. Since both Edy’s (Dreyer’s on the west coast) and Ben & Jerry’s agree – and because we’re both slightly hung over and thinking too hard hurts – we’re keeping it simple. We bought a pint of Rocky Road, and we still have leftover vanilla ice cream from our Peach Melba challenge last month. We just mixed the two together and created our own Heavenly Hash. If by definition that’s good enough for the Ice Cream Conglomerates, then it’s good enough for us!

I don’t even have a history on Heavenly Hash (though Rocky Road was created during the Great Depression and its name was meant to make people smile. “We’ve got a rocky road ahead of us.” Ha-ha, yeah, that’s a hoot. Said people jumping to their deaths from tall buildings after losing their life savings in the stock market crash). I guess in that regard, Heavenly Hash is an appropriate name, too…

Related articles

• Heavenly Hash Pudding (familyrecipebooks.wordpress.com)