Salted Dark Chocolate and Caramel Fudge

I’ve been having fun inventing new fudge flavours recently.  We’ve had Orange, Strawberry, Raspberry and White Choc, and now there is this delicious gem; Salted Dark Chocolate and Caramel Fudge.  It is quite indulgent and I love the hits of salt in the dark choc layer.

Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate Layer
375g packet dark chocolate melts
395g can condensed milk
30g butter
½ teaspoon salt

Caramel layer
125g Butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
100g white chocolate melts

Decoration
100g dark chocolate, melted

Method:
Grease and line a 20cm square tin.  For the dark chocolate layer, put the dark chocolate, condensed milk and butter in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until melted and well combined.  Mix through the salt.  Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and place in the fridge to cool.
To make the caramel layer, melt the butter in a pan.  Remove from the heat, add the brown sugar and stir until combined with the butter.  Add the condensed milk and stir until combined with the sugar and butter.
Add the golden syrup, mix and return to a low heat. Stir the mixture constantly for 10 minutes (be careful not to let the mixture get to hot or boil to rapidly as the sugar will start to crystallise - which tastes quite nice but ruins the smooth consistency.  If the mixture does start to crystallise remove from the heat immediately and stir rapidly).  Remove from the heat and add the chocolate melts. Mix until smooth, then spread the mixture over the top of the dark chocolate layer.  Place in the fridge to set.
Once the fudge has set, chop into squares.  Put the melted chocolate into a snap-lock bag, snip off one of the corners, and drizzle the chocolate over the fudge before serving.

Plate c/o The Vintage Table.

Fran’s Fantastic Fudge

Last weekend Simon and I headed down to New Plymouth to visit Courtenay, Shane and Max and also Simon’s family.  We had a great time catching up with everyone and were treated to lots of delicious food; we actually left with a boot load full of fruit and veg generously given to us by Simon’s Great Aunty Pat – thank you!  Simon spent the afternoon of ANZAC day in the kitchen using some of the stuff we were given.  We now have passion fruit curd, stewed rhubarb and sweet chilli jam - and we still have pumpkins, avocados and more chillies to use up!

While we were visiting we tried some of this beautiful fudge made by Simon’s second cousin Frances.  We liked it so much that we popped in and got the recipe off her before we left and we made some once we got home.  It’s pretty simple to make too (which I think makes it kind of dangerous) - you just put everything in the microwave.

100g butter, cubed
¼ cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla, or 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon rum essence
4 cups sifted icing sugar
½ cup cocoa
½ – 1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Place the butter, milk, vanilla, sifted icing sugar and cocoa into a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave on high for 2 minutes, then beat until smooth.  Pour into a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper.  Refrigerate until cold.  Cut into pieces before serving.

Thank you Frances for sharing the recipe with us and thank you so much to everyone for the hospitality we were provided with while we visited.  We look forward to seeing you all when we head down to Taranaki again in another couple of months :)

5 Minute Fudge!

 
The oven / stove in my new place is useless – the old tenants didn’t tell the landlord that the door didn’t shut properly, the plug on the side doesn’t go AND two of the elements don’t work.  Idiots!  If they had, the landlord would have got them a new one.  I told ‘em and a brand new stove is being delivered this weekend.  However, until then I can’t do any baking as I don’t trust the one we have.
So, I have been looking for a no bake slice recipe.  Something chocoaltey as I have been having mean chocolate cravings lately.  Naughty.  However, I couldn’t find one that appealed or wasn’t time consuming, but it got me thinking, what about fudge?  That doesn’t require baking.  I still didn’t want to spend as much time in the kitchen as my previous fudge recipes required, so I tried this recipe and it is super, super, SUPER easy. 


To make it, you will need:
395g can sweetened condensed milk
50g butter
400g chocolate (totally up to you what type you use.  I used 200g milk chocolate and 200g macadamia chocolate as I wanted nuts in my fudge)

Stir the sweetened condensed milk and the butter over a medium heat until the butter is melted.  During this, stir the mixture constantly so that it doesn’t burn – if it looks like there are little brown crystal particles forming remove from the heat immediately and stir very rapidly to beat the heat out of the mixture.
Add the chocolate, stir until melted.  Pour in to a 18cm square tin and pop in the fridge for 2-4 hours to set (or, put it in the freezer and it is pretty edible after 30mins – I am eating some now!).  DONE AND YUM!