Holidays are getting closer and all I can think about now is what I can prepare for my family and friends. I would love to organize a couple of parties, one with my neighbors and another one with my little boy’s friends and their families. My dream is to prepare many different American Christmas cookies for three reasons; first because they’re sooo good, second because most of them never ate them before and third because this year we’re not going to the States for the holidays. We’ll feel closer to our American side of the family by preparing all the sweets we eat when we are in stateside for the holidays. I have a long list of things I’m going to make together with my boy and husband, but the first on the list is this incredible fudge and I’m sure they will all love it as much as we do.
I encountered fudge the first time I went to Minnesota nearly 20 years ago and as you can imagine, it was love at first bite. It seemed an easy dessert but until now I’ve never found the right recipe. Then I ran across this unbelievable recipe that only takes few minutes to prepare. I recommend you to buy a good quality chocolate I used two different kinds of chocolate, semisweet with 50% cocoa and bittersweet chocolate with 70% cocoa, but you can always choose the percentage of cocoa you prefer according to your taste. I personally don’t like an excessively sweet fudge. Condensed milk is the other ingredient which makes this fudge smooth and luscious. To give a special twist to the recipe I added some coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts. My last suggestion is to cut the fudge in small bite portions otherwise it might be nauseating.
Ingredients:
18 oz./ g. 400 semi-sweet good quality chocolate bar or chocolate chips (50% cocoa)
3.5 oz./ g. 100 bittersweet chocolate bar (70% cocoa)
1 (14 oz.) can/ g. 400 condensed milk
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
3.5 oz./ g. 100 pealed toasted hazelnuts
Preparation:
If you have a chocolate bar chop the chocolate in small pieces an then add it to a sauce pan together with the condensed milk and warm over a low heat until the chocolate is melted and well combined.
When melted add the vanilla and coarsely chopped hazelnuts.
Spread the chocolate mixture in a rectangular baking dish and let it rest until cool then refrigerate it until firm, about 2 hours. My dish is 10X7.5 inch./ cm. 25X19.
Cut the fudge in small cubes and place them directly on a serving dish and serve.
When I lived Massachusetts I liked when I was able to participate in a ‘Cookie Swap’ shortly before Christmas. Each person brought 3 or 4 dozen of one type of cookie, depending on the number of participants, & an empty container into which everyone selected a fair share of all the cookies. This way you had an interesting variety without all the hard work.