Oh, FUUUDDDGGGGGE!

Boxing day, indeed.

This was Kristen’s biggest holiday baking schedule to date.  This year’s packages consisted of her delightful peppermint-mocha biscotti, caramel corn, red velvet cookies, and newly developed peanut butter pretzel fudge.  For an entire week leading up to Christmas there were new treats to test my ninja skills on in attempts to steal a taste.  Needless to say, I am not as cunning as I’d like to think and very few bites were stolen.  In reality, the only tastes I received were given to me out of pity.

Sadly, the holidays put a lag on our cooking and writing.  Well, Kristen did plenty of cooking. The truth is that the blame falls on me.  The overabundance of good food and drink kept my hands away from the keyboard and I did more eating than writing. I mean, my hands were full.  Despite my laziness, we’re excited to kick off the 2013 with some of the F dash dash dash dash word.

 FUDGE!

The holidays are about classics.   We watch the same holiday movies and listen to the same holiday tunes.  Our house, for example, is filled with the swoons of Bing Crosby and glee of Vince Guaraldi.  There’s comfort in the repetition.  At home in Alabama, winter is just another part of the food cycle.  It’s when we my uncle fries a turkey, my mom slays us with her green bean casserole, and I dream about digging my hands into some Boston Butt.  I depend on these year after year.

 

New to my list is the unforgettable holiday classic: fudge.  This variety combines two of my favorite classics: chocolate and peanut butter.  Since I have recently raved over her biscotti and already mentioned the miracle of her salty-sweet concoctions, I won’t belabor their glory in this post (See Mantown, USA).  The nice thing about fudge is that you can set it and forget it.  But, once it was out of the mixer, there was no forgetting it.  It kept calling to me from the fridge and the left over pretzel pieces couldn't quell the craving invoked by the smell of peanut butter.  Luckily, Kristen had to square off the batch and I got to feast on the trimmings. Oddly, they looked like bacon and were as equally delectable. 

What part of the pig does this come from?

The end product was perfect layers of chocolate and peanut putter fudge.

The knife is there as a deterrent.

We’re excited for the New Year and I can’t wait to see what I will get to eat in 2013! Check out our menu at shecookshewrites.blogspot.com and send any catering requests to Kristen at sweetnessdessertboutique@gmail.com

Ingredients & Directions (from Sprinklebakes.com):

 This recipe makes about 4 pounds of fudge, so make it for holiday gatherings or for people on your bake-and-give Christmas list. They'll thank you for it!  These can be enjoyed at room temperature for up to a week when stored in an air-tight container.  With refrigeration they will keep slightly longer.

 Yield: 4 lbs of fudge                                                                                          

 Crust:

1 cup finely ground pretzels

3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (or a level 1/2 cup semisweet chips)

4 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp sugar

1 egg, beaten

1. Line a 9x9-inch baking dish with parchment paper, allowing the paper to overhang on all sides.
2. Heat a saucepan filled 1/3 full with water and bring to a simmer.  Put chocolate and butter in a medium heat-proof bowl and place on top of the pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter melts. Add the sugar and egg.  Cook mixture until it is very hot and has thickened slightly. 
3. Remove from simmering pot and stir in pretzel crumbs.  You will use the pan of simmering water again for the ganache, so be sure to keep it handy. Press the mixture into the prepared pan with buttered hands.  Set aside while you prepare the fudge.

Maple-peanut butter fudge:

2  14 oz. cans of sweetened condensed milk

2 10 oz. bags of peanut butter chips (such as Reese's)

1 1/2 tsp. pure maple extract

1. Combine the condensed milk and peanut butter chips in a large microwaveable bowl. Heat at 100% power until melted and smooth, 3-5 minutes.  Stir in maple extract.  Pour mixture over crust and refrigerate for 15 minutes. While you wait for the fudge to chill, make the topping.

Chocolate ganache/ pretzel topping:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3 tbsp heavy cream

25 thick cut pretzels

1. Combine chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and set over the simmering water. Stir until melted, smooth and shiny about 3 minutes. Using and offset spatula spread over the fudge and top with 14-15 whole pretzels.  

Crush the remaining pretzels and sprinkle over the ganache.  Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.  Cut into squares.  Enjoy!

Mantown, USA

After preparing for Thanksgiving, we took a week’s sabbatical from cooking and writing.  I did most of my writing in my sleep and Kris did most of her cooking while we were out to eat.  I’m happy to say, though, that we are back, cooking with fire, and preparing for her Xmas baking marathon.  Tonight was the warm-up.

Whether it’s time for breakfast or dessert, my salty-sweet craving chases me like a giant boulder on iron rails.  Potato chips and ice cream usually help my hankering, but Kristen recovered information pertaining to the existence of a legendary combination, the golden idol of baking, one thought lost in the recipe books: chocolate and bacon.

Our excavation of ingredients begins with bacon, a staple in our home.  If its hallowed aroma is not in the air every Saturday, something has gone horribly wrong.  Typically we go for the center cut variety.  But this time, only the thick cut has the resolve for a journey this epic.When the bacon starts to sizzle I am reminded of Indiana Jones’s fear of snakes.  These thick pieces hiss and curl in the heat, but I remain unafraid.

Once the snakes are slain stiff, I sneak a bite of the salty pork relics.   I don't do it a second time because, in a glance, she reminds me of her knife close at hand.

Next, she starts to mix the batter.  Once it moves out of the bowl and into the mixer I divert my attention back to the living room and turn up the volume on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It’s at the part of the movie when Indiana Jones and Sallah discover the Map Room leading to the Well of Souls.  I look back into the kitchen.  Kristen stands with the rolling pin in her hand as if it is the Staff of Ra, shining a light towards the location of the burial chamber of the ark.  She’s found it. She rolls out the dough and places it on the baking sheet.  There are two loaves of chocolate-chip-bacon glory lying there beside each other like the Ten Commandments.  I try to read them.  They only say, “BACON!”

After the first baking, the house is filled with a smell not of this earth, an ambrosia odor.  She takes them out to inspect and cool, then places them back in the oven for the final bake.

Before they are finished, I am fast asleep on the couch, dreaming of adventures.  The mixed fragrance of bacon and chocolate swirls in my mind and I awake euphoric.  In a daze, I walk upstairs to our bedroom and resist the temptation to devour them all.

In the morning I find them covered on the kitchen table.  As I lift the veil, the remaining scent whiffs into my nostrils.  I pick up one of the chocolate-laced fragments and eat it whole.

The flavor is everything I have been searching for, the perfect salty-sweet.  But then, this happens…

*Good enough to melt your face off.

Check out our menu for more delish options.  Taking any of them to your holiday party will be like taking a gun to a sword fight.

Ingredients:

7-8 Thick sliced bacon strips
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Fry bacon in skillet until browned and crisp. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate to drain. Allow bacon to cool completely.  Chop bacon (Original recipe suggested using food processor, if you do, you have bacon powder – good for some things, not this).
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy, two or three minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat to combine. Add flour mixture and beat until blended. Stir in bacon and chocolate chips. Gather dough in ball and divide in half. Wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate until firm, 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350ºF. On floured surface, roll each piece of dough out into a 12 to 14-inch log. Transfer logs to baking sheet spacing them 3 to 4 inches apart. Bake until light golden and dry to the touch, about 30 minutes.
4. Remove baking sheet from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 300ºF. Allow logs to cool for 15 minutes. Transfer logs to cutting board. Using serrated knife, slice logs on diagonal into 1/2-inch thick slices. Return slices to baking sheet, standing upright, and bake until dry and golden, 20 to 30 minutes.

Adapted from Seriouseats.com