Chocolatey Honey Fudge

It's been a while since I posted a recipe, I've been cooking, believe me there's no getting around cooking at our cozy little house. What I haven't been doing is taking photographs or having a spare ounce of energy to post a recipe. We have had various illnesses going around, croup, ear infections, colds, strep throat, yikes! Once someone picks up a bug it takes a while to work through all six chickadees. This has resulted in one tired mama and a serious need for chocolate. Not serious enough to get me to pack up everyone and go buy some, my sweet husband treated me to a luscious chocolate bar when he was picking up medicine, but enough of a craving to hunt up a new fudge recipe on allrecipes.com (three cheers for allrecipes.com).

Another development has been a gradual elimination of refined sugar in our diet. Gulp...did I just type that? Moi, lover of brown sugar in my oatmeal and a thick crust of cinnamony-sugar on my toast? We have almost entirely converted to raw honey and grade B maple syrup. Both are perfectly delicious and I have had good results using them in some of my favorite recipes. Fudge however is one of those things that needs sugar to set up properly. Cooked fudge that is.

This fudge needs neither cooking or sugar and let me tell you, it's fabulous! Check out this recipe: Stir together one cup of room temperature coconut oil, one cup of regular cocoa and one half cup of raw honey. When it is smooth, pour it into a foil lined pan and chill for an hour or two. Cut it into small squares, (it's very rich) and enjoy. Did you miss the part about candy thermometers? Boiling? Beating? Oh yeah, it's not in there! Just measure, mix and chill.

We are halfway through a batch and it's going fast. Next time I may mix in some chopped pecan and some dried cherries like my mom does in her famous Chocolate Fudge. Really anything you like in your fudge would be amazing in this, cashews, walnuts, dried cranberries and macadamia nuts, a spoonful of peanut butter, a drizzle of white chocolate. Just use your imagination! Oh, and send me some. Please?

Lately...

Lately we have been having snow and snow and more snow. Quite a bit of snow for our little corner of the world. I am a snow spectator, it's my belief that snow is lovelier when viewed through glass. But on Saturday the kids and I bundled up and did some fort building. The boys needed lots of "ammunition" shelves for the "ambush" they were planning for their dad when he came back from work. They are into military stuff right now in case you were wondering.

Here we usually get ice before any snow starts falling and this time was no exception. A good half inch of ice coated everything under the four inches of snow. The beautiful thing about it for me was that I didn't need a single thing from the store! We had been shopping a few days before so we had some fresh things but even without that we were prepared. I had plenty of food, batteries, candles, water, even a huge bar of chocolate with hazelnuts that our sweet neighbors brought us from their trip to Europe! What more could you want?

So we have been snowed-in. Keeping up with school and housework and doing a bit of reading. Reading with six chickadees underfoot really tests your comprehension but I am one determined woman. My little old blog has been a bit neglected of late but that how things go. More and then less, finding the ever changing balance.

We are having soup for dinner with Red Lobster biscuits. I'm washing the perpetual laundry. The big brothers are confined to their room to save the living room furniture, not to mention my sanity, from their roughhousing and now sweet babe is ready to be nursed. Fullness and plenty that is what I have lately. What is at your house lately? I love hearing snippets of your lives, so tell me about it! And check out the blog list for links to some of my new favorite blogs, I think you'll like them.

Pantry Cooking: Hot Fudge Sauce

Looks yummy, doesn't it? Who wouldn't enjoy a nice hot fudge sundae with pecans sprinkled on top? A well-stocked pantry lend itself to cooking from scratch. Cooking from scratch doesn't mean complicated recipes that take hours to prepare. This Hot Fudge Sauce takes less than fifteen minutes to whip up and beats the dickens out of any store-bought fudge sauce you've ever eaten. In fact, once a spoonful of this luscious sauce passes your lips you will never be content with anything else. So, grab some cocoa and sugar from your nice pantry and let's make some Hot Fudge Sauce!

Measure 9 tablespoons of cocoa, 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup water into a saucepan. Watch, stirring occasionally until the butter is melted. Stir in 1 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons corn syrup (If you don't use corn syrup, add 1/4 cup brown sugar instead.) and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring this to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Cook at a gentle boil for 8 minutes. Cool slightly before pouring over your ice cream. At least blow on the spoonful before you put it in your mouth. You don't want a scorched tongue!

That's it! A word about the corn syrup. It will make the sauce glossier and a bit sweeter than the brown sugar but I've made it either way and let me tell you, it's divine. See, from a few staple ingredients that are in your pantry you can make something that will make a grown man cry. Believe me, I seen this happen more than once!

Mom's Famous Christmas Fudge

In our family, it's not Christmas without Mom's famous Christmas fudge. An old-fashioned (no marshmallow fluff here, folks) chocolate fudge full of pecans. Throughout the month of December, we will cook up and devour several pans of the sweet chocolatety confection. Just for you, I made a batch and photographed the process. Sweet of me, wasn't it? Well, I try!

In an iron skillet (the old splattered cookbook page says iron skillet and we have never tested fate by using anything else), combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 8 tablespoons of cocoa.

Add 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons of corn syrup or 1/8 tsp cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons of butter.

Bring it to a boil. The smell of boiling fudge is embedded in my memory as Christmas. That and fresh pine and tangerines.
You have to cook it to soft-ball stage. Now, of course you can use a candy thermometer, they all have soft-ball stage marked on it. I don't have too much luck with them. For one thing, you can't clip it onto the side of an iron skillet, it only will clip on to a deep pan. Another thing is that they often measure inaccurately and have to be tested in boiling water and adjusted to show the correct temperature. A bit too much for me to mess with when I need a pan of fudge. So I will now show you the simple and fail-proof cold water method. You will thank me. You're welcome!

Above you can see the lovely fudge boiling away and a cup of water with a drizzle of fudge in it. The water must be cold, not iced, but cold tap water. After about 5 minutes of boiling, drop a good teaspoonful of the hot fudge into the water. It will be liquidy and kind of dissolve. You have to keep boiling.

A few minutes later, the teaspoonful of fudge will make a squishy ball in the water but it will by almost too soft to pick up out of the water. In another minute or two, the fudge will make a soft ball that you can easily pick up. It should form into a ball but slightly flatten as it sits in your hand. When that happens, pull the pan off the burner. You did it! Now wasn't that easy? Just be sure to change our the water between tests and it's very important to sample the "tests" each time to be sure you got the recipe right. When the kids catch onto what you are doing then you have to share with them. Set the fudge aside to cool for 10 minutes without disturbing.

Now, roll up your sleeves and beat the dickens out of it with a wooden spoon. You have to beat it until you are sure your arm is about to fall off. As soon as it starts to get glossy and thick, stir in 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans. Stir them in quickly or it will set up in the skillet. Then as fast as you can, spread the fudge in a buttered 8 inch cake pan and let it cool. When you can't stand it anymore, turn it out onto a platter and cut it into pieces.

The final product will be determined by how close you get it to soft-ball stage. A little under, it will be creamy and soft, a little over and it will be firm. However it turns out it is delicious, even a "flop" will be devoured. Anyway you do it, it's part of our Christmas. I hope you try it, it might just become part of yours! Oh, don't forget to let any kid who happens to be around "clean" the pan with a spoon. They will love you forever.

Sesame Fudge

You are now going to learn about one of my all time favorite snacks. My mom made Sesame Fudge when I was little and now it is a hit with my chickadees. Not only is it tasty and quick but you can make it ahead of time and it's full of healthy stuff. I mean, how often can you say all of that about a snack? All of the ingredients are pantry items for me but if you do have to pick up a few things for this, it's worth it. I'm not too sure where it's name came from since it isn't like fudge at all. Fudge for me is my mom's chocolate fudge made only at Christmas time and full of pecans and sometimes dried cherries. Another recipe for another time! But none the less, the name brings to mind yummy goodness so maybe it does fit here. The original recipe calls for wheat germ and I usually use that. In a pinch I have substituted granola and even ground flax seeds, but wheat germ is easy to find and good for you so pick up a jar if you don't already have some. At our grocery store it's stocked on the cereal aisle, not sure why but check there. I buy the sesame seeds and wheat germ at our local natural food store and for basic items like this you can get them for a good price. After you make the fudge it will keep for a week or so in the fridge but I guarantee you that it won't last that long. It has been a life saver for me while I have been pregnant and/or nursing these past eight years. The protein from the sesame seeds and peanut butter is a great snack for when you are starving in the middle of the afternoon. Of course, if you don't do peanut butter any nut butter would work, I just haven't tried it. Give it a try soon, I know you'll love it!

Sesame Fudge

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup raisins

Blend the sesame seeds, peanut butter, honey and wheat germ together in a bowl until it is well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and raisins. If it doesn't want to come together you may have to use your hands. When it's well mixed, shape it into a log and wrap tightly in waxed paper. Wrap the whole thing in tin foil and chill. It will be harder after it chills. Slice to serve.

You may have to hide it from your kids after they taste it. You may even have to hide it from yourself!

Joe's Smacos!

This weekend we went camping at a great local state park with the kids. While camping with five small kids when you are seven months pregnant does have it's less than fun moments, overall we had a good time. Just trying to build some memories over here! Our new treat this time was Joe's Smacos (smore+tacos= smacos). He was introduced to them at his annual guys camping trip this fall and I must say, they are pretty great. For whatever reason, my chickadees don't seem to get the whole smores concept. They lick the chocolate and marshmallows off the crackers and then ask for more chocolate and marshmallows. The crackers are superfluous and my kids have been known to stick the licked bare crackers on their tummies. Delightful! Smores in tortillas however were a whole other experience and they loved them.

Besides a campfire, you will need tortillas, marshmallows and chocolate. I hope you like our healthy choice of whole wheat tortillas, it really balances out the marshmallows. You could use your pet kind of chocolate but my favorite for any recipe is Ghiradelli 60% Cocoa chocolate chips. I have the remains of this bag in my cabinet right now and I get a few during the day when no little ones are looking. It's not something I like to share and I'm not ashamed to say it. So lay the tortilla in a lightly buttered skillet and adorn with the marshmallows and chocolate. As soon as they start to melt, carefully move the smaco to a plate and fold in half like you would a quesadilla. Actually, they should be called smaquadillas but that just doesn't sound a fun as smacos. Be sure to let them cool a few minutes before eating because the filling can really burn you.

Now you are ready to make your own fun camping dessert if you should find yourself staying out in the wilderness some time soon with a fire, some tortillas, marshmallows and chocolate. Oh yeah, kids are helpful too. It's always entertaining to see how far they can spread something sticky!
One warning though, they can be addictive so watch out!

Once-Around-The-Kitchen-Cookies

There once were two little girls who met each other at a picnic. Their families became friends and they spent many hours at each other's homes, playing "sardines", sewing, watching movies, building princess villages in what turned out to be a drainage ditch but they thought was a river, and many other things that imaginative girls like to do together. As happens so often in these stories, one girl had to move far far away from her sweet friend and after many years they started to write letters. For almost ten years letters passed between the two girls. However, much more passed between them than hundreds of letters. Recipes, gifts and most importantly, the joy of true friendship was shared one piece of stationary at a time.

One girl has gone on to become a professor, helping students learn to speak English. She has travelled all over the world, studied at Oxford, and finished many years of education. She is much loved by her friends, family and students. The other finished several years of education, married and is raising a houseful of lovely children. In her recipe box, she has many recipes shared with her friend. Recipes from tea parties and a cookie business. The other friend has recipes from traditional french picnics and another cookie business. So when one friend picked up the scallop-edged note card and set out to make cookies, it almost felt like they were in the kitchen together again. Almost but not quite. And here is the recipe she made.

Once-Around-The-Kitchen Cookies

1 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup flaked coconut

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat in eggs. Stir in next five ingredients. Add flour and baking soda and mix thoroughly. Scoop with a tablespoon onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. A note on the bottom of the note card says that they are very good if you omit the raisins and coconut and add wheat flour instead of white.

The only change I noticed was that the recipe says it makes 2 1/2 dozen and for me it made 5 dozen. I guess it depends on how big you make the cookies. If you don't need 5 dozen at once just scoop the extra dough in cookies sized portions onto a waxed paper lined baking sheet and freeze until solid. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the freezer until you want to bake them. Frozen cookies will take a minute or two longer to bake than fresh but you can bake them straight from the freezer.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Tuesday night we were going to a potluck dinner and all I could think about was an old favorite recipe for Chocolate Chiffon Cake. I dug through my two recipe card files and finally found the smudged and splattered note cards bearing the sacred recipe. The source of this cake and the wonderful icing has long passed from my poor little memory but from whoever or wherever I obtained it, Thank You! I've been making this cake for a long time. Last time I was at my mom's we were looking through a box of old photographs and came across one of my birthdays, maybe my twentieth, and this cake was there on the table decked out with pink candles. Of course, my twentieth birthday wasn't all that long ago but let's just say, I've had a few cakes since then. About the cake, it has a beautiful even texture and taste remarkably like a homemade Hostess cupcake without the weird cream stuff inside. The icing is just a bit thicker than a glaze but thin enough to run down the sides of the cake in glorious chocolate rivers. You will have to excuse the odd color in the photo above, by the time it was cooled and iced the sun had long been gone. I was left with my kitchen lights to work with and they just aren't the same. Now to make this cake, you make some of this:

And then some of this:

Fold it together like this:

When it's mixed together pour it in a pan like this:

Put it in the oven to bake and hopefully your kitchen won't look like this:

If it does, don't worry, it's nothing a little elbow grease and promise of cake to come won't fix. Here is the recipe, I hope you come to love this cake too.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 cup boiling water

1 3/4 cup cake flour (substitute 1 1/4 cup + 1 Tbls. unbleached flour and 5 Tbls. cornstarch)

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup oil

7 eggs, separated (see note below)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

In a bowl, combine cocoa and boiling water, cool 20 minutes or until room temperature. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, soda and salt. Stir in oil, egg yolks, vanilla and cocoa mixture. Beat until smooth. In a large bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar until still peaks form. Gradually fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites using a motion from the bottom of the bowl up to the top instead of a circular stirring motion. This will mix the batter without deflating the egg whites. In a chiffon cake the air you beat into the white helps the cake to rise and gives it a soft texture. You don't want to stir out all the air you just beat into the whites. Pour the batter into an ungreased angel food cake pan (tube pan) and bake on the lowest oven rack at 325 degrees for 60 to 65 minutes. Invert pan to cool completely. Then remove the cake from the pan by running a knife around the outer edge of the pan then the inner ring. Turn the pan upside down and pop it out of the outer part of the pan. Then run the knife between the cake and the bottom of the pan and the cake will fall onto the platter. Ta da!

A note about separating eggs. There are all sorts of contraptions for separating eggs but my mama taught me to do it using the egg shell. Crack your egg over the bowl you want to put the egg whites in. Hold the halves of the shell in each hand with the yolk in one half. Let the white run out into the bowl. Gently tip the yolk into the other half of the egg shell. Do this back and forth until all the white is separated from the yolk. If you have trouble and the yolk starts to break, just stop and dump it into the bowl for the yolks. A little white in the yolks is fine, what you don't want is yolk in the whites. The yolk contains the fat of the egg and any fat will keep the whites from beating up stiff like you want. Try it, you'll feel like a real chef!

Chocolate Icing

1/3 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

6 Tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 to 4 Tablespoons hot water

Melt the butter, stir in the powdered sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Stir until very smooth. Stir in enough hot water to make the icing pourable. Drizzle over the cooled cake and spread with a spoon, pushing gently to help it run down the sides of the cake. Do not make this icing too long before the cake is cooled or you may be temped to eat it before you are able to put it on the cake. This has never happened to me, I'm just saying this could happen to some one of lesser constitution. Enjoy!

A White Christmas and The Man Mug

On Christmas morning we awoke to a winter wonderland. During the night as Santa made his yearly trip to visit all the good boys and girls, snow fell on our part of the world. I can't remember ever having a white Christmas so it was as exciting for me as it was for the kids. Growing up in the south doesn't give too many opportunities for snow on Christmas. After breakfast the kids bundled up to tromp and play and of course, eat snow. My favorite way to enjoy snow is on the warm side of a window with a mug of hot cider. That is precisely what I did.

Speaking of mugs, every year I hunt for a Man Mug for Joe and this year I think I hit the nail on the head. It just happened to fit my requirements for the ideal Christmas gift, handmade. The mug below was made by a friend of mine in her pottery studio and it is the perfect size and weight for a man. In fact he was so inspired by the manliness, he made himself a manly coaster for it to sit on. Oh, and if you could see inside the mug you would see a yummy homemade marshmallow floating in the hot cocoa. Just the thing to warm someone who comes in from a snowy walk with a companionable four year old boy. The marshmallow recipe is coming up soon!

The Last Bite

This week I finally accomplished something I've attempted every year for longer than I would care to admit. I made a batch of english toffee. Every year about this time, I put an equal amount of butter and sugar in a pan and cook it as I feverishly watch the candy thermometer. Every year, I throw out a pan of greasy mushy butter saturated sugar. It makes me mad. Not as mad as it did eight years ago when I ruined my first batch of toffee. But still it chaps my hide. My mom said I didn't cook it long enough. Maybe my thermometer was off and showed the wrong temperature. Maybe the pan I used was the wrong shape, size, or material.

This week I found a toffee recipe on a great recipe blog called Prudence Pennywise. She doesn't use a thermometer at all but uses color as her gauge. Also, she says to watch for the candy to release a puff of smoke, then pour it into the pan to cool. So I tried it and it worked! I poured the caramelized sugar into a buttered pan with chopped pecans in it and waited seven minutes then sprinkled chocolate chips over it and spread them when they were melted. As soon as I was sure I wouldn't sear my tongue off, I cut a chunk out and popped it in my mouth. Tears filled my eyes, I told myself that Prudence Pennywise was indeed a wonderful person and thought of what I owed her. She has taken away the curse of bad toffee from me. I thank her.

Halfway through this week my man left on a trip and I have been here with our five delightful children. Here in the house, stuck inside because of the cold and drizzle. It has built character. They have gone to bed early so they can have plenty of rest so they can grow grow. I have eaten a pan of toffee and half a batch of Cherry Pecan Chocolate Fudge. I am thankful.

8 Years and Still Going Strong!

This weekend we are headed back to the little cabin in the woods for a little getaway in honor of our eighth anniversary. The big difference between this weekend and the one earlier this summer is that we will have only one of our delightful offspring with us. Our brave and wonderful Grandma will be entertaining the four big ones so remember her in your prayers. And don't worry Grandma, we will come back, just take some Motrin and everything will be fine. As for us, I have some snacks packed along with some double dark chocolate Ghiradelli cookie dough to bake and serve with cold milk, I'm taking some books we are reading and a sewing project to work on. I'm excited and ready for some relative quiet and chocolate cookies!

Quick Creamy Chocolate Pudding

If we have a family dessert it's this quick chocolate pudding. When we were first married, back in the olden days, we were living on love. I was supporting us as a portrait photographer and suffice it to say, love was about all we had. Thankfully to newlyweds, that's about all you need. Anyway, we both liked to end our day with a little sweet treat and this pudding became a several times a week little sweet treat. Like the title suggests, it's quick, creamy and chocolate. What more could you want? One of my favorite memories of this dessert is the time our good friend was over and for lack of options, I whipped (whisked?) up a batch and served it forth. He looked at it blankly and asked what it was. Uhhh, chocolate pudding. "But it's warm", he protested. "Why is it warm?" I informed him that I had just finished cooking it. The poor guy didn't know that you cooked pudding. Apparently he had only had instant pudding his whole entire life! Again, poor guy!

Please notice the cup pictured above, it was given to me by a friend's mother and I love it. I can only eat pudding out of this cup. However, I only have two so everyone else has to eat their pudding out of something else. Tough darts, that's the way it goes around here, especially when the mom is a dish fanatic and has to eat certain things out of certain dishes. I'm weird but I have accepted it.

Quick Creamy Chocolate Pudding

2 Tablespoons cocoa

3 Tablespoons sugar, adjust if you like it less or more sweet. You can substitute honey.

2 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Pinch of salt

2 cups of milk, any kind will work. Whole milk is yummy but 1% is fine too.

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, leave this out for a low-fat dessert

Whisk cocoa, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan, slowly pour in milk and cook over medium heat. Whisk every few minutes but don't whisk constantly. Overcooking and overwhisking are two things that will cause a cornstarch pudding to break down and turn into liquid instead of thick luscious creaminess. Not a good thing! So you are whisking slowly and as the pudding thickens, more steadily to prevent lumps. After a few minutes the mixture should begin to thicken and begin to boil. Turn off the heat and stir in butter. When the butter is mixed in, take it off the burner and pour into cups or bowls. If you want to serve it later, press a piece of waxed paper on the surface of the pudding to prevent it from forming a thick nasty "skin". You can also prepare this in the microwave but be sure you are using a large bowl and stirring every 30 seconds or it will boil over faster than a New York minute and then you'll have a mess. Shoot, now I want some chocolate pudding, can you eat pudding at 11:00 in the morning?

The Cabinet

This evening, if you walked into my kitchen and stood at my stove, on your right, just at eye level, you would see this cabinet. Open the door and you would see this. A jar of coffee beans, a well used coffee grinder, a mason jar of straws (the bendy kind), a vintage glass citrus juicer, umm... you wouldn't see the bag of chocolate toffee covered pistachios but we don't need to go into that. On the bottom shelf you would see a jar full of tea bags, a basket of herbal tea boxes, an inherited tin jello mold holding individual tea bags (I kind of like tea) and a pretty card file holding part of my 3x5 card recipe collection. Isn't that nice? What a nice cabinet.

Well, what you wouldn't see, besides the pistachios, is the bar of baking chocolate stashed in-between the card file and the wall. I am not at all ashamed to tell you that almost every time I go to the grocery store I buy a bar of Ghirardelli bittersweet baking chocolate and hide it in my cabinet and eat it all myself. Women need the serotonin in that dark chocolate! You need that serotonin! Serotonin in dark chocolate has to be one of my all time favorite scientific discoveries. It isn't hidden because I am ashamed that I eat several packages of baking chocolate every month. Oh no! It's hidden so I won't have to share. I'm not even ashamed of that! The serotonin is working for me! My husband has always been able to ferret out my chocolate stash and devour it within a single day. I know, it's shocking. So now I have found the perfect spot, he doesn't even suspect it's there. (Insert wicked laugh.)

There are those days when you wake up and your kid has a fever and then proceeds to be sick on you 4 times throughout the day, when your baby is teething and has a fever again, when your other kids has a fever and her tummy hurts, when you 2 year old decides she wants to wear panties but not necessarily go to the toilet, when you have 4 loads of laundry to wash and 2 others still waiting to be folded and put away, when you have to run over and see if you think your neighbors kid needs to go get stitches or not, when not even cartoons can keep them quiet and occupied. And then, my friend you to will be glad you took the time to find the perfect hiding place for your bar of baking chocolate. You will be praising God for creating serotonin. When you too think of getting the word Ghirardelli tattooed somewhere on your body. When that day comes you'll be thanking me!