My Nana's fudge

Growing up my nana used to send us massive care packages full of the most delicious treats - cookies, fudge, candied walnuts. I looked forward to these packages every year, and now as a parent to my own brood I've been wanting more and more to pass on recipes to MY kids. This year has really made me realize that I am going to really be the Matriarch of my family. I'm not close to my sisters, except one. I haven't talked to or seen my brother in years, unfortunately. We can't afford to see our family in California, or our parents very often and they can't afford to come visit us. This was one of my main reasons for wanting a large family. I knew that my kids were only, really, going to have each other when they grew up. They aren't going to be close to their cousins (except perhaps Deanna's kids), if they know their cousins at all, and I really want them to have a strong sense of family. So for the past few months I've really concentrated on establishing traditions to pass down to them, that they can pass down to their own kids. My Nana's recipes were some of the things I wanted to pass down to them.

My dads ex wife has been so kind to send me some of her recipes and I've been trying them out over the past few weeks. The sugar cookies turned out okay, but the pregnancy does not let me enjoy them because they use a lot of lard and this baby does not like the taste or smell of it. I haven't tried the candied walnuts yet but I will attempt them in the next few days! Today I tried my hand at fudge.

My Nana's fudge is not the ooey gooey kind people think when they think fudge. It's not marshmellowy or any of that nonsense. Thats not "real" fudge in my opinion, thats a new type of fudge that is more like a gooey brownie than a candy. My Nana's fudge is old fashioned, sugary, crumbly, and absolutely heavenly. I should admit that my Nana got her recipe from the old Hershey can, so technically it's Hersheys fudge, but it will always be my Nana's fudge to me.

I attempted making this about 10 years ago with my sister Jenny (and I think my brother was present too). It turned out awful. Of course we didn't follow directions very well, or use a candy thermometer, but it made me absolutely terrified to attempt to make it. I don't take failure well, especially in the kitchen.

I'm not an expert cook or baker, but I do like to think I know a little about both. Baking and bread making are definitely a passion of mine, and I've been wanting to try my hand at candy making but I've been too afraid. I think I have found some confidence in it! I expect I'll be making a few tutorials about different candy goodies!

So now on to what you really care about - the tutorial.

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar

2/3 cup cocoa

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

You'll want to line an 8 or 9 inch pan with foil, and then rub it down with softened butter. This helps to set your fudge, and to keep it from sticking.

Mix the first three ingredients in a LARGE sauce pan. Trust me, you want it large, it expands a lot when it starts to boil. Attach your candy thermometer to the side of the pot, make sure the bulb isn't touching the bottom.

Once it is all mixed up well, add the milk and turn the heat on to medium. Stir constantly with a WOODEN spoon. You do NOT want to use a wisk or anything metal. The metal, for some reason, reacts to the fudge and it won't turn out well. Also, stir very gently, it will take a while to mix up but as it heats up it will help. Continuing stirring until it comes to a ROLLING boil.

Now, STOP STIRRING. Let it continue to boil until the temperature reads 234 degrees. Your thermometer might also read "soft ball" at this temperature. This is because you can test your fudge by dropping a bit into VERY cold water. Feel it with your fingers, if it turns into a soft ball that flattens when you remove it from the water, your fudge is at the right temperature. Because this is a candy temperature is VERY important. It will take about 20 minutes to get to this temperature but I suggest not venturing far from your pot. I just cleaned the kitchen and checked on it like a mad woman, I was so afraid of failing!

Once it has reached the appropriate temperature take it off the heat and drop in the vanilla and butter but DO NOT STIR IT. I just chopped my butter into 4 pieces and poured the vanilla around the whole pot. This is vitally important, do NOT stir it in.

Let the fudge cool until it reaches lukewarm temperature, which is 110 degrees. The original recipe said this would take 2-2.5 hours. Mine did not. It reached it in about 1 hour. So check your thermometer frequently and don't rely on set time that it will take to cool. Just like anything, the amount of time it will take depends on a number of factors. Also, the fudge will settle, so reposition your thermometer to make sure it is still IN the fudge. Thankfully my husband caught that!

Once it's reached 110 degrees take your wooden spoon and stir it. Stir, stir, stir. It will be TOUGH and similar in consistency to taffy, so if you have someone who can help you stir let them help! I couldn't stir much at all because of my arms, so Chris did the majority of the stirring for me. Continuing stirring until it loses it's sheen. This is where Chris and I made our mistake. The original recipe said to stir until it loses it's sheen, about 20 minutes. It started to lose it's sheen about 10 minutes in so Chris and I thought it was close, but continued to stir. We missed the mark by 30 seconds. The second it starts to lose it's sheen TRANSFER it to your foil. We waited 30 seconds too long and it set up right in the pan. Doesn't make it taste any different but we didn't end up with pretty cut squares.

So as soon as it starts to lose its sheen, set it in the pan and let it cool. It won't be the most pretty fudge, it's not glossy at all, it's crumbly and delicious, and melts in your mouth.

See ours is all broken into strange looking pieces, but it tastes just like I remember!

Party Pizza

I've made this a few times now and all the kids love it, Chris and I enjoy it, and any meal that isn't met with even one child complaining is a major win in our house!

You can use premade pizza dough if you want, I prefer to make my own. Makes me feel better about feeding my kids party pizza for dinner! Pizza dough is pretty simple to make. I've seen this recipe, or similar ones, all over the internet - this is my take.


You'll need:
1 1/2 c. warm (105-115 degrees) water
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
3-4 1/2 c. flour

Mix the first three ingredients together and let the yeast rise until bubbly, about 10 minutes.


Mix the salt in, and then start adding flour. Of course I make this in Betsy.


Keep adding flour until the dough reaches the proper consistency. It will form a nice ball, and not be too sticky. It takes about 3-4 cups of flour.



Knead it or let your mixer knead it for a few moments.

Grease a bowl and turn dough in the bowl to coat with oil. Let it rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. This time of the year it's always a good idea to turn your oven on warm and place your bread on the stove. The heat will encourage it to rise.

While this is rising prepare your ingredients. I've used pepperoni and I've used pineapple before. Next time I may try peppers and onions. Any pizza topping, or really any topping in general will work great. Chop it smaller though. Cube your cheese (we use mozzarella).

Once the dough is ready pinch off walnut sized pieces and flatten. Some people prefer to roll out their dough and cut with a pizza cutter into "x" amount of pieces. This seems like unnecessary work to me, but it's whatever you feel is easiest.

Place your toppings on the top of your dough. Bring up the sides and pinched closed. Place in your greased pie/cake pan seam side down.

If you have spare pans, or if you want to purchase throw away pie tins, these make great Make Ahead Meals. I have 4 pie tins, but I think I'll still purchase a few more. I'd like to have 6 or so of these in my freezer for easy meals. I only have 2.5 tins in there right now.

Make your topping. I mix oil, Italian Seasoning, maybe some garlic powder. Whatever works best for you. I think the Italian Seasoning is a must though! Pour over the top and brush to evenly coat. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan or Italian cheese mix. I prefer the Italian Cheese mix, it has Parmesan in it plus a bunch of other yummy cheeses.

Bake at 400 for 10-20 minutes.

Serve with sauce on the side for dipping. This is oh so very yummy, and a great meal to make ahead for nights where you are busy and can't cook!

My happy campers (Anthony wasn't there for dinner that night which is why there is no picture of him, but he loves it too!)

Anastasia

Charlie (what an odd expression)

David (as you can see these pictures are a few weeks old, but it's such a hit around here it will become a staple!)

Broken Glass Jello

I made this a few days ago and it's been a HUGE hit with the kids. The recipe is super simple, easy to make, cheap, and looks and tastes amazing.

Ingredients:

4 boxes of Jello (I used Raspberry, Lime, Orange, and Blue berry)

2 packets of unflavored gelatin (each box has 4 packets, I did NOT know this until after I bought the ingredients.)

1 can of Condensed sweetened milk (not the same as evaporated milk)

Start by taking 4 square containers, I used tupperware, and dumping the different packets of Jello in them. Ooooh pretty!

Prepare the Jello like normal, and place in fridge to cool. It's recommended you have a LOT of time for this to cool. I did not, and my jello didn't come out of the tupperwares as pretty as it could have.

Once the jello is ready cut into square blocks and place in a large dish. Prepare the plain gelatin by adding 1/2 cup of cold water to it (in a separate dish) and waiting just a minute. Meanwhile boil 1.5 cups of water and pour on top, and dissolve the gelatin completely. Add the condensed milk, stir, and cool to room temperature (otherwise you'll melt your jello when you pour it on top).

Once cooled pour over top of your jello cubes, and chill in the fridge for a few hours, preferably overnight. Cut and serve!!

You can see mine isn't as pretty because my jello didn't cube up as well, but the kids loved it and thats the important thing!

Tortillas

For years I've been trying over and over to make homemade tortillas with very little success. They always turned out like a big cracker. It was quite depressing as tortillas is my all time favorite comfort food. I remember eating my nana's homemade tortillas as a young child. So delicious. Then my friend Elaine sent me this link that described in detail how to make tortillas. From what I understand, though, the link isn't working :( I did print it out and will scan and upload it when I return from camping. As long as I give them credit I'm not violating any copyright laws, right? The basic recipe goes something like this:

2 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 tablespoons of lard

2/3 cup of water.

Mix flour and salt together. Melt lard in water, and slowly pour into flour mixture. Knead a few times. Dough should not be wet, but not be dry. If wet add more flour, if dry add more water. Allow to rest for 1 hour. Separate into balls, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rest for 10 to 30 minutes. Very simple. In fact, this was written up by memory because it's very easy to remember!

****EDIT - I recently began becoming annoyed because the dough was getting a little dried out in it's resting times, making it harder to roll out and leaving dry spots. I added a little oil to the bowl during the first rest and rolled the tortilla dough in it, coating it completely. Just enough oil to coat it. This drastically improved the tortillas. They were much easier to roll out and I was able to make much much larger tortillas without issue. They were also paper thin, and puffed up twice as much as the tortillas previously. I'm annoyed I didn't consider this earlier as I do this with bread all the time. Small adjustment but definitely worth it!

I wanted to make 4 batches of this to take with us camping. The kids love homemade tortillas and it's a very clean snack. At first I just quadrupled the recipe and had Chris pour the lard water for me since my arms can't really pour such a heavy amount. I instructed him to pour slowly but he didn't listen. The dough turned out awful. It had the consistency of gooey mashed potatoes. I added more flour but it was beyond saving. I fired Chris and decided to just make 4 small batches. It's very quick to make so it wasn't a big deal. But take note - Pour the lard water SLOWLY. I made this in Betsy using just my dough hook, and it turned out perfect.

This is about halfway through cooking. My balls waiting for me. If you make them too big they are difficult to keep round, and to transfer to the skillet. I made mine big this time. Next time I'll probably go smaller.

All rolled out and waiting to put on the skillet

Not very round, but working on that! Place on skillet, once it puffs up a little flip it over.

Cook on this side about 30 seconds and then flip BACK over to the first side. So the first side will get cooked twice.

Once it puffs up again remove it from the skillet and place in a towel to keep warm.

These are very soft and pliable. They don't crack at all when rolled.

All rolled up

And as it unrolls you can see, no cracks, not tears. Very soft and absolutely delicious!