photo credit: vanlaarIf you love chocolate – and really, who doesn’t? – the holiday season is ripe with opportunities to take a chocolate break. Chocolate is a delicious treat with many faces and forms. Just because it tastes wonderful is no reason for guilt. Remeber, recent studies have confirmed that chocolate is good for your heart, so if anyone tries to make you feel guilty, simply point your finger to that fact. Then, invite your accuser to join you in a healthful treat. Try and avoid clutching your heart, falling to the floor, and writhing. It spoils the treat.
There’s simply nothing like chocolate. Chocolate is good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. A chocolate croissant is the perfect accompaniment to a morning cup of coffee. A brownie is a wonderful ending to lunch. Chocolate truffles are elegant after-dinner treats. And there’s one chocolate treat that seems right at any time of the day, as a pick-me-up, a snack, an evening dessert, or a shared moment in bed – chocolate fudge.
If you google chocolate fudge, you’ll get millions of results, attesting to the popularity of this dessert. Everyone’s got a recipe for this versatile goodie, any of which you may find tempting.
Chocolate fudge brings back memories of family gatherings at Grandma’s house, with a big tin of little squares of fudge just waiting to be popped into your mouth, and savored with a sigh of great enjoyment.
It seems everyone’s Mom or Grandma has the very best fudge recipe. That doesn’t mean there’s not room for experimentation and new discoveries of chocolate heaven.
Among the basic chocolate fudge ingredients are chocolate (duh!), butter, cream and perhaps sugar if you’re using baking chocolate. It’s the add-ons that personalize your fudge, making your chocolate fudge sing in the memory of your appreciative recipients.
Add-ons make your fudge distinctive. Try nuts, such as crushed almonds, pecans or walnuts. Get flamboyant with some marshmallow creme. A bit of quality, high cocoa butter chocolate can make your fudge extraordinary. Just a couple tablespoons of liqueur, such as Kahlua, rum or Orange Marnier mixed in with the batch can produce a mysterious and intriguing chocolate fudge, made all your own with a little experimentation and imagination.
Along with a couverture quality chocolate, heavy cream lends a sensuous, rich texture and flavor to your chocolate fudge. Butter adds calories, it’s true, but the taste overcomes any foolish qualms you may have.
Presentation is the final gilding of the lily. Party stores sell small gold and silver foil cups to hold the treasured treat. Once the chocolate fudge has set, cut it into tiny bite-sized pieces, set in the foil cups and box them up. You’ll have no shortage of customers.