FULL MOON COCKTAIL: International Cocktail Day!

 It must be in the stars, and I'm over the moon about it. Tomorrow is International Cocktail Day, and tonight is the Full Moon. To celebrate, here's a recipe for a Chocolate Full Moon Cocktail. Tequila and Chocolate (Creme de Cacao, both dark and clear) go so well in this easy cocktail. Don't let it fool you, though. You'll be howling at the moon, if you drink too many. :-)

Chocolate Full Moon Cocktail

Ingredients
1 oz Cream
1/2 oz Creme de Cacao
2 oz Tequila
1/2 oz Dark Creme de Cacao

Directions
Pour all ingredients into cocktail shaker with ice and shake.
Strain into cocktail glass.
Garnish with chocolate curls.

NUTTY FUDGE: Memories, History, and 3 Recipes to celebrate National Nutty Fudge Day

Another holiday, another recipe. Today is National Nutty Fudge Day. My Aunt Annie made the best fudge in the world, but now that I know more about candy nomenclature, I think she actually made truffles. They were dark chocolate balls rolled in cocoa. She called it fudge, and I'll always remember it that way.

But I had my first taste of 'real' fudge down the shore in Atlantic City. Fudge was sold along with Salt Water Taffy at many of the Boardwalk candy shops. I loved trying fudge from all the candy shops.

History of Fudge: Fudge was supposedly invented in the U.S.in the late 1880s. Historians believe the first batch of fudge resulted from a bungled batch of caramels, as in "Oh, Fudge" I don't think so...

According to Wikipedia, the main component of Fudge was similar to the traditional recipe for Scots Tablet found in The Household Book of the Lady Grisell Baillie (1692-1733). The term 'fudge' is often used in the UK for a soft variant of the tablet recipe.

One of the first documented examples of American fudge (containing chocolate!) was found in a letter written by Emelyn Batersby Hartridge, a Vassar College student, who wrote that a friend's cousin made fudge in Baltimore in 1886 and sold it for 40 cents a pound. Hartridge asked for the fudge recipe, and in 1888 she made 30 pounds of the fudge for the Vassar Senior Auction. In The Candy Book (Alice Bradley, 1929) an entire chapter is devoted to fudge.

Fudge is a crystalline candy, which means that, unlike lollipops, caramels, and taffy, crystal formation is the key to making great fudge. Tiny microcrystals of sugar in fudge give fudge its firm but smooth texture. The secret to successful fudge is getting these crystals to form at just the right time. Fudge is one of the rare exceptions to the rule that sugar crystals are not desirable in candy. Tiny microcrystals in fudge are what give it its firm texture. When the crystals are small enough, they don’t feel grainy on your tongue, but smooth.

While you ultimately want crystals to form, it's important that they don't form too early. Now it gets tricky! The key to successful, nongrainy fudge is in the cooling, not the cooking. If you disturb the cooling fudge during this cooling phase you increase the potential for larger crystals (seed crystals) of sugar to form too early and thus a grainy fudge results.

So how to make fudge easily? Here are three recipes.

1. Easy Million Dollar Fudge 
Adapted from Stephanie in All Recipes

Ingredients
4 - 1/2 cups white sugar
1 pinch salt
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
2 cups chopped nuts
1 (12 ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips (or good quality dark chocolate, chopped)
12 (1 ounce) squares German sweet chocolate
2 cups marshmallow creme

Directions
Butter two 9 x 9 inch baking pans and set aside.
Place chocolate chips, German chocolate, marshmallow creme, and nuts into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
In 4 quart saucepan, combine sugar, salt, butter, and evaporated milk. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, and cook for 6 minutes.
Pour boiling syrup over ingredients in bowl, beat until all chocolate is melted. Pour into prepared pans. Let stand a few hours before cutting.

2. Foolproof Dark Chocolate Fudge Recipe

Ingredients
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or dark chocolate, chopped)
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
Pinch of salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1-1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions
In heavy saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt. Remove from heat; stir in walnuts and vanilla.
Spread evenly into aluminum foil lined 8 or 9 inch square pan.
Chill 2 hours or until firm.
Turn fudge onto cutting board; peel off foil and cut into squares.

3. Nutty Chocolate Fudge
Alton Brown had a great show on the Food Network on making fudge, so I thought I should include one of his recipes for nutty chocolate fudge (slightly adapted)

Ingredients
2- 3/4 cups sugar
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
1 cup half-and-half
1 Tbsp corn syrup
1 Tbsp Madagascar vanilla extract
1 cup chopped, roasted nuts

Directions
Grease 8 by 8-inch pan with butter.
In heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine sugar, chocolate, 1-1/2 Tbsp  butter, half-and-half, and corn syrup. Over medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved and chocolate is melted.
Increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and boil for 3 minutes.
Remove cover and attach candy thermometer to pot. Cook until thermometer reads 234 degrees F.
Remove from heat and add remaining butter. Do not stir.
Let mixture cool for 10 minutes or until it drops to 130 degrees F.
Add vanilla and nuts and mix until well-blended and shiny texture becomes matte.
Pour into prepared pan.
Let sit in cool dry area until firm.
Cut into 1-inch pieces.

And, there are websites that are just devoted to fudge. Fudge-Recipes.net,  Fudge-Recipes.com, and Fudge Recipe Collection. In addition there are many, many other nutty chocolate fudge recipes on various food blogs, including this one!

Have a Nutty Fudge Day!

MILK CHOCOLATE QUEEN'S CAKE for Mother's Day!: Retro Ad with Recipe

I love Retro Ads with Recipes, and here's a really good one for Milk Chocolate Queen's Cake from Pillsbury's Best Flour. I'm a dark chocolate afficiando, but for those who love milk chocolate (or love both), this is a great cake! The recipe was a Grand National Pillsbury Bake-Off Favorite. Perfect for Mother on her special day--Queen for a Day!

Mother's Day Fudgy Brownies

Who doesn't love Brownies? Mom does, for sure. Here's a great recipe from Scharffen Berger for Mother's Day Fudgy Brownies!

One hint: Stir hard until the batter is smooth and glossy and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Great advice!

Mother's Day Fudgy Brownies!

Ingredients 
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus more for the pan
8 ounces SCHARFFEN BERGER 62% Cacao Chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup toasted walnut halves
1/2 cup 62% Scharffen Berger Chocolate, chopped into chunks

Directions
Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.
Cut an 8 by 16-inch piece of parchment paper.
Lightly butter 8 by 8 by 2-inch pan and line  with the parchment, allowing to extend evenly over the opposite sides.
Butter parchment including paper on sides of pan.
Put chocolate and butter in large heatproof bowl set over pot of simmering water and stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
With large rubber spatula or wooden spoon, beat sugar and salt into chocolate mixture. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add flour and mix vigorously until batter is very glossy and pulls away from the sides of bowl.
Break nuts into large pieces over batter and fold in.
Fold in extra chocolate chunks.
Pour batter into prepared pan and tap pan bottom on countertop to level batter.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until skewer in center comes out moist but clean.
Cool in pan oncooling rack for 10 minutes.
Remove brownies from pan using parchment “handles,” and cool completely on rack before cutting into 2-inch squares.