fudge

Chocolate Swirl Peppermint Fudge

By in Candy, Chocolate, Christmas, GF Sweets, Sweets 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , ,

peppermint fudge

Me and the kidlets have been spending lot’s of time in the kitchen this week making sweets for goody baskets and Christmas celebrations. All the gifts have been bought, many of them are wrapped and tucked under the tree. All that’s left is the fun stuff – cooking and baking! I tried not to take on too much this year because I tend to go overboard with my expectations of what I can get done. I think I finally found the right balance, but we’ll see… ;)

I think this would be a great addition to your cookie platters and gift baskets. It’s easy, quick and tastes divine. Yes, it uses a ton of chocolate, but it makes a lot, and one of these little babies is enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. They are just as fudge should be – rich, fudgy and indulgent. And, the peppermint makes them a great little after dinner mint/sweet.

Chocolate Swirl Peppermint Fudge

Make sure to use baking chocolate/chips not regular chocolate chips, the regular ones don’t melt as easily as baking chocolate.

  • 22 oz. white baking chocolate, chopped (or baking chips)
  • 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
  • 3/4 cup dark (or bittersweet) chocolate baking chips

Place white chocolate and milk in a large saucepan set over low heat. Cook, stirring often, until melted and smooth. Stir in peppermint extract. Pour half of the white chocolate mixture into an 8×8 inch pan that’s been lined with foil and lightly greased. Sprinkle over 1/2 cup dark chocolate baking chips. Pour remaining white chocolate over top and sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Wait a minute or two, until the chips have softened (if they have trouble softening stick the pan in a slightly warm oven). Swirl the mixtures together with a knife until you have a marbled pattern. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Slice into 1 inch squares, to serve. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks. (Or store, covered, at room temperature for up to 2 days.)

Makes approximately: 64 servings

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens.

Fudge Brownies with Salt Roasted Pecans

By in Chocolate, Cookies & Bars, Sweets 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , ,

Fudge Brownies with Salt Roasted Pecans

Hi friends! I hope you didn”t think I”d forgotten about you!

After what feels like forever, we”re finally settled in our new place. We didn”t have any internet for most of last week, which is why the blog was rather quiet. But, I did get my first ever garden planted – I even have the bright red sun burn to prove it!

I can”t believe how much our lives have changed over the last little while. We went from a view like this:

To a view like this:

Only a little change…

To make up for my week of silence, I made you brownies. Fudgy, gooey, rich brownies. With little pockets of salt roasted pecans to help offset the uber chocolatey-ness. It is one delicious combination.

To ensure fudgy brownies every time it”s important to do two things 1) Don”t over-bake the brownies. A toothpick inserted in the centre should have a few fudgy crumbs stuck to it. If it comes out clean it”s been in the oven too long. To avoid this, check on the brownies well before the recommended time. 2) Don”t over-beat the batter. If you beat the batter too much it incorporates too much air and you”ll have a cakey brownie instead of a fudgy one. To avoid this, mix the batter by hand just until the ingredients are incorporated.

This is one brownie that gets better with age, so if you can bear the wait, make it the day before you plan on serving it.

Fudge Brownies with Salt Roasted Pecans

Salt Roasted Pecans

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

  • 1 cup pecans

  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the pecans and salt. Cook, stirring often until the pecans have a toasted aroma. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Brownies

  • 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

  • 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, cut up

  • 1 cup white sugar

  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

  • 3 large eggs, room temperature

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder

Melt together chocolate and butter in a medium sized saucepan, over medium heat. Remove from heat; whisk in sugars. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until evenly mixed. Stir in vanilla. Stir in flour and cocoa powder.

Remove 12 pecans from the skillet and set aside. Chop remaining pecans and stir into brownie batter. Pour the batter into a greased 8×8 inch baking pan. Top with the reserved pecans.

Bake at 350º for 25 minutes, or until the top looses it”s shine and a toothpick inserted in the centre produces fudgy crumbs. Let cool at least one hour before serving. Store covered, at room temperature, for up to 5 days.

Makes: 12 servings

Adapted from Bake with Anna Olson.

Mocha-Chip-Fudge Cheesecake

By in Cakes, Chocolate, Creamy, Mothers Day, Sweets 12 Comments Tags: , , ,

mocha chip cheesecake

In all my time in Norway not once did I see a block of cream cheese. Spreadable cream cheese was everywhere but the one time I tried to make a cheesecake with it (in my desperation) it did not end well. Three years is far too long to go without a slice of cheesecake!

So you can imagine that it was at the top of my list of things to make when we moved to New York. And, I can now say, it was worth the wait! It was pretty hard to decide which one to make first but I’ve been craving coffee lately (I credit that to the exhaustion of furnishing an entire house from scratch in one week. Whew.) so I decided to go with Mocha Chip. It was a great choice.

On a whim I added a mocha fudge topping because I thought it might pretty it up a bit. In the end I can’t imagine the cheesecake without it. It gave it a much more intense chocolate flavour that I think would have been lacking without it. I don’t think I need to go into much description about how good this tastes. Mocha. Fudge. Cheesecake. Enough said right?

In order to help myself have some self-restraint and not be wasteful (who wants to waste cheesecake?), I decided to slice these into individual servings and freeze them. That way if we’ve got company, or are craving an indulgent dessert, I can just pull out as many as we need, let them thaw and then serve. I love the idea of having something in my freezer to serve guests that doesn’t take any work but is more special than just cookies (although there’s nothing wrong with “just” cookies).

I was a little nervous about making cheesecake again. It had been such a long time that I’d built it up in my head as something difficult. But it couldn’t have been more easy. I hope you try it soon.

Mocha-Chip-Fudge Cheesecake

My springform pan is almost 10 inches and it worked fine for this recipe. I just didn’t press the crumbs as far up the sides of the pan.

Crust
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted

Combine cookie crumbs and sugar, stir in butter until evenly coated. Press into the bottom and approximately 2 inches up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan.

Mocha Chip Filling
  • 3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Beat together cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in flour until well combined. At low-speed, beat in eggs just until combined.

Mix together cream and instant coffee. Let sit for 1 minute, stir to dissolve. Add to cream cheese mixture along with vanilla. Stir just until evenly distributed. Stir in 3/4 cup chocolate chips.

Pour cream cheese mixture into crust. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips.

Bake at 325ºF for 50-60 minutes or until centre is almost set. Let cool completely at room temperature.

Mocha Fudge Topping
  • 6 oz. (1/2 of 12 oz. package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream

Put all ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 1 minute at 50%. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Spread on top of cooled cheesecake.

Cover cheesecake with foil and refrigerate overnight.

To serve: Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Warm a sharp knife under hot tap water, wipe it dry with a clean kitchen towel and cut one slice. Rinse it clean under hot tap water and repeat.

Makes: 14 servings

Adapted from TasteofHome.