Hot Fudge Sunday

What better way to end a great weekend then with a nice sweet dessert?

It's been a weekend full of family time and bargain hunting. Spring means the beginning of new life in the garden, the chickens are growing up and it's also the start of the yard sales and flea market shopping (blog post to come!). One of the special things I like to do on weekends is make a yummy treat. Like I said before, we try to eat healthy, but we only live once! And this mama's gotta have her chocolate.

One time I was watching Ming Tsai on PBS and Duff Goldman (Ace of Cakes) was on. They were going to make desserts, Ming's was a beautiful Tarte Tatin and Duff's was a supremely indulgent looking fudge. It included bacon and dulce de leche. He called it Mexican Breakfast Fudge (http://www.ming.com/food-and-wine/recipes/simply-ming-season-11/duff-goldmans-mexican-breakfast-fudge.htm) and I knew I had to make it.

I have very little candy making experience, so I was a little intimidated. But, I wasn't going to let that stop me.

Ingredients:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
4 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tbsp of cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
Pinch of salt
4 1/2 tbsp of light corn syrup
6 oz of unsweetened chocolate chopped
9 tbsp of unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean scraped
1 tsp of good vanilla extract
Spray for pan

Original recipe called for bacon and walnuts and 3 vanilla beans scraped. I omitted the nuts and bacon and I only had one vanilla bean on hand, so I improvised.

The reason I chose to make this fudge, was the amazing "magic" trick Duff did to make the dulce de leche. I was absolutely dumbfounded when I saw that it worked. First, you peel the label of the can of sweetened condensed milk and then you boil the can for 3 hours.

That's right! You boil the whole can! And then you get dulce de leche. What?! I had to see this for myself.

I soon realized I would need a bigger pan than the one I originally chose. So, remember to get a bigger pot (one that's sturdy on the bottom) and fill enough so it just about covers the can. Keep an eye on it and refill with water as needed. Once the 3 hours are up, cool the can (I lifted it out with tongs) in an ice bath for about a half an hour.

Now, I was so excited about the outcome, I completely forgot to photograph it with my camera! I did however manage to get some pictures with my phone. So, excuse the picture quality!

Amazing right? And it tasted as sinful as it looked. Now onto the fudge.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa powder and salt and mix together until well combined and there are no clumps. In another bowl combine the heavy cream and corn syrup and blend well. Now, you will slowly mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. What I did was wrap a towel around the base of the big bowl as I mixed the ingredients. It helps the bowl from slipping.

The consistency will begin to look like a batter. Make sure it doesn't have clumps.

Now begin chopping the chocolate.

Cut the vanilla bean right down the middle. When you open it up, you will see tiny little black seeds inside. That's the good stuff! Scrape it out carefully and set aside.

Add your mixture to a large pot (I just cleaned out the one I made the dulce de leche in) and place a candy thermometer on the lip of the pot. Cook this on high until it reaches 235-240 degrees. Stir occasionally so it doesn't scorch the pan.

Once it reached soft ball stage, mix in the chocolate with a heat proof spoon or spatula. Add the butter and once that's melted, the vanilla. Here's where I think I had an issue (although I didn't know it until later). The instructions didn't talk about crystallization. Stirring too frequently can actually cause the sugar that was melted to re-crystallize. So, stir, but use caution. I think this is where candy making really takes practice to perfect.

Remove the fudge from the heat and pour one third into a prepared pan. I used an 8x8 square (a 9x9 would have been better, but I don't have one) pan. I sprayed the pan and then placed parchment paper inside with some paper hanging over the sides so the fudge can easily be removed.

Once a third of the chocolate has been poured, add in some of the dulce de leche and make little swirls with a spoon. Add more chocolate, then more dulce de leche. Repeat until you've used all the ingredients.  Let it cool to room temperature before taking the mold out of the pan. You want to make sure that the fudge has set or hardened.

Now, for the best part.

Wowza. We couldn't wait to dig into this.

Even though the sugars crystallized a little and left the fudge on the gritty side, man was this good. The combination of the intense chocolate with the creamy dulce de leche was pure Heaven. And a little goes a long way.

Fudge is definitely a treat. We can't eat this stuff every day or else we'd be headed to the dentist more often. But it is nice to have in the fridge for those times when you just need a little something to cure that craving.

Have a great rest of the weekend!