Loving Lunches and The Kids Menu have teamed up to give your classic Christmas recipes a Naughty or Nice makeover. We have a new Naughty and Nice recipe for each day of the week - So whether you're Naughty or Nice this Christmas, we've got recipes for you!
I love caramel. I love fudge. I *love* caramel fudge. But I'm fussy. It has to be the old fashioned crumbly fudge, like you used to get at school fetes. Not this creamy gourmet stuff. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the odd square of the new wave fudge, but I just can't go past the crumbly, make-your-teeth-furry-with-sugar, good old fashioned fudge. However I've never been able to make it successfully. I saw this recipe on Better Homes & Gardens a while back and just had to try it. I instantly fell in love!! Not only is it easy, I was able to get it to set to the consistency I like and it uses a full pack of everything, so there's not a partial bag of anything floating around just begging to be made into more.
I have been looking for an excuse to make some more. Hello Naughty/Nice! My only problem was, this recipe is basically sugar and fat. How on earth is it possible to cram more Naughty into that? Add more fat (nuts), some salt and smother it with chocolate I say!!
I followed the recipe and at the end simply added 1 tablespoon of coffee essence and 500g chopped salted macadamia & cashew blend nuts. Next time (and yes, Virginia, there will be a next time) I think I'll toast the nuts too. I was all set to add some flaked sea salt, but the nuts I bought happened to be salted & a taste test told me it was enough.
Pour into silicon moulds, lightly sprayed with oil and a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
Allow to cool & set. I think perhaps I didn't cook this batch quite long enough as it was a little soft. Poor headless Gingerbread man. Yet another excuse to make some more.
Using cookie cutters, create some fun shapes from the square.
I was quite happy with how these all turned out. . .
. . . and I think this little star Christmas tree would make a glorious edible centre piece. But is adding salted nuts really Naughty enough?
Cue Honey waking up cranky, just when the chocolate had started to melt *sigh*. It seized a little so I ended up adding some cream and was able to bring it back enough to use, but if I was gifting these I would have made a fresh batch.
It seized a little so I ended up adding some cream and was able to bring it back enough to use, but if I was gifting these I would have made a fresh batch.
Some I dipped, some I drizzled. . .
. . . and some I painted.
They all tasted good!
Who wouldn't love receiving some of these tasty morsels for the calorie festive season?
And that little tree from earlier? Drizzle with chocolate 'tinsel' and add some cachou 'baubles'.
Can you tell I'm kind of proud of this one?
Naughty Caramel Fudge
- 1 tin condensed milk
- 500g brown sugar
- 250g butter
- few drops of vanilla essence
- 1 TBsp coffee essence
- 500g chopped, toasted, salted nuts (I used macadamia/cashew mix)
- melted chocolate & cachous to decorate
Heat first 3 ingredients over medium low heat until it reaches soft ball stage (roughly 20 minutes). Low & slow is the key here. Keep stirring. Remove from heat and stir in your vanilla essence and nuts. Pour into your chosen mould and set aside to cool. Drizzle with chocolate and decorate with cachous if desired.
Now hop on over to The Kids Menu to see the Nice Version, and don't forget to come back tomorrow for more Naughty-ness
Thank you to Jan Henry Solutions for our clever graphic!
~J
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.
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