Semi-Instant Gratification Fudge

I was spinning around the web, trying to find a decent, fast snack for the chocolate monster.  The chocolate chip cookies had gone to my students and classmates, and I only kept 5 for myself, which became Fridays breakfast on the go.  But, since it's almost break, my fridge is running low and so is my pantry.  I had a problem.  I wanted chocolate, I wanted it bad, and I wanted it without corn syrup.

I found a couple of recipes that looked promising, but none of them agreed with each other. I decided I'd have to mix them all up and see what happened.

You need:

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp. flavouring
1/2 chopped nuts (I used sliced almonds leftover from the previous batch of cookies)


Line your favorite fudge dish, mine is a square dollar store deal, with some aluminum foil, shiny side up.  This does 2 things-makes it easy to get the fudge out of the pan AND makes you not have to wash the pan. Ooooo ingenuity (I didn't end up in grad school for nothing).

Your powdered sugar should be a sifted 3 1/2 cups, but who the heck sifts when they're in a hurry?  Instead, using a spoon, spoon the sugar into your half cup and measure it out. Trust me, it works.

Mix together the cocoa and sugar, gently, so you don't end up looking like something the Scooby gang is going to catch in Fred's traps.

Next, cut your nice cold butter into a few slices and toss on top.  Pour the milk over it, and DO NOT STIR IT. Resist the urge. You'll ruin it if you don't.

Microwave on high 2-3 minutes (until butter melts) uncovered.  After heating, stir just enough to combine ingredients and get huge lumps out.  Add vanilla and your nuts, stir them in, pour it in your pan and refrigerate for at LEAST 1 hour.  I know, that's NOT a hurry, except you just spent 2 minutes making what's normally an hour long endeavor of nightmarish proportions.

Things to consider...

Got other extracts in the house?  Then screw the vanilla and go for the orange, or raspberry or whatever awesome nonsense you have.

Don't like nuts, fine leave it out, or add something sick like marshmallows if that's your thing.

Rinn's Cookie Base

This recipe is my new cookie base.  Sadly, I didn't keep track of where I found the one that it originally came from, but it doesn't really matter, as I have messed with it hard core.  It came from me running out of brown sugar, and my class being promised cookies for tomorrow.  So, I looked up "can I make my own brown sugar?" PCHAW-Google gives me directions (2 Tbsp Molasses to 1 Cup White).

You need:

2 cups and 2-3 spoons full of all purpose flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. molasses
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
3 tsp vanilla

To make chocolate chips, add a 12 oz bag of semi-sweets, or whatever.  But, this is meant to be a base, so throw a cup to two cups of your favorite goodies in there and roll with it.

Mix together sugar, egg and yolk, melted butter and vanilla.  Add molasses. Add baking soda and salt.

Add flour 1/2 cup at a time.  Spoon flour into 1/2 cup and level off, then add to mix. Stir in, and repeat until you have reach 2 cups.  Spoon in 3-5 spoons of flour more.  Add your goodies.

Wrap your cookie tray in foil.  I don't know why, it just works better, and then you don't need to grease anything (or clean anything). Plus, it's recyclable in most states.  Using a spoon, the one you eat your ice cream with (no, the NORMAL one), spoon out small spoonfuls of dough about 1-2 inches apart.

Bake at 325 F.  7 minutes, flip tray, 10 minutes more, or until slightly golden and a tad soft in the middle for a nice cookie with crunch.

If you like them soft, cook for less time, try 4 and 4, with them a little softer in the middle then normal.

DO NOT ROLL IN BALLS! Why, I have no clue, but the original recipe made it very clear that the dough needed to be rough.  If you want larger cookies, it suggested using a 1/4 cup, rolled in a  ball, halved, and the smooth sides stuck together before putting it on the tray to bake.

Bon Appetite!