Chocolate fudge using Marshmallows

Phew, after 3 days of great struggle, I took this photo.

I know this is a not great looking photo, but Im happy to report that it tasted better than it looks. The day after I made this fudge, I was waiting for a clear morning sunshine but as it always happens, the whole day was fully dark and it was raining heavily. Next couple of days tried some shots and all were disaster. By this now, the jar of fudge has been reduced to just 4 pieces.

I was having some ingredients in my pantry hiding for a long days. So decided to put all in one and make a sweet dish and good thing is it turned out very good.

Ingredients : 3 cup -- Sugar 1 cup -- Heavy cream 1 cup -- Evaporated milk 200 gm -- Marshmallows 6 tbsp -- Unsweetened Chocolate powder 3/4 cup -- Unsalted butter 1 tsp -- Fine salt 1 cup -- Chopped nuts 1/4 cup -- milk Method: --- Take a big heavy sauce pan and mix the sugar, butter, heavy cream and evaporated milk in medium heat. --- Sieve the cocoa powder and mix the powder in the milk without any lumps. --- And the cocoa milk mixture and salt to the sugar and mix well. --- Stir the sugar mixture in medium heat until the quantity is reduced to half. No need to stir constantly, good news is you can very well take a break and do in frequent intervals. --- But have an eye on the mixtuure while boiling. Be careful the mixture might overflow, so tall utensil is preferable. I used a pan then in half way changed the mixture to pressure cooker, since the mixture started to overflow while boiling. --- Meanwhile toast the chopped nuts. I used almonds.And also grease the plate with butter and keep it ready. --- Once the quantity is reduced to 1/4th, add the marshmallows. --- And stir for few minutes till the marshmallows are dissolved in the cocoa mixture. --- Drop a spoon of gooey mixture in a cup of ice water, If you able to make a soft ball then immediatey switch off the heat and add the toasted nuts and mix well. --- Transfer the mixture to the greased pan and let it cool completely. --- Using a greased knife, cut the chocolate fudge.

I cut my fudge an inch size so I got around 60 - 70 pcs. Adding salt gave a unique taste to the chocolate fudge and marshmallows gave a nice soft texture.

More toffee treats

Remember, I did the caramel toffee last week. I tried the same recipe yesterday, with little variations. The result was fantastic. I did two type toffees with the same base recipe.

1. Nutty toffee bars
2. Chocolate toffee caramel bars

The base recipe for both the toffees were same.  You can see my toffee recipe here. The only change to the recipe is the use of fondant. After turning off the heat I cooled the caramel mixture for couple of minutes (not cooled completely) and added approximately 2-3 tsps of fondant. I added the fondant in little pieces and mixed well.

Caramel Nutty Bars :

--- Grease the pan and line up with the parchment paper. Grease the paper lightly and let some paper hang out on each sides.
--- Add a cup of roasted cashews into the warm caramel mixture and transfer the mixture onto the greased parchment paper.
--- Once cooled, you can easily cut the caramel into required shape.
--- Since we have used fondant, the caramel will not stick to the knife or to the teeth.
--- The texture of this caramel toffees are entirely different to the earlier one. This toffees are soft, brittle and very much reminds toffees which we enjoyed in our childhood.

Chocolate toffee caramel bars :



--- Grease the pan and the parchment pan.
--- This is a double layer toffee with the caramel base with the chocolate topping.
--- Once you pour the caramel onto the greased pan, pour 1 pack of semi sweet chocolate chips over the caramel.
--- The chocolate chips will melt by the heat of caramel, use a spatula and spread the chocolate covering the caramel.
--- Once the mixture is cooled completely cut the toffees using a buttered knife.

Chocolate Cake Balls

Happy Halloween.
Isn't the cutie nutty balls are attracting you to grab one ?

Last Thursday, we went out for a 3 day trip to Smoky Mountains with couple of our friends. For any trip, I always take our foodie bag with lots of food which can stay for a couple of days. This time my husband wanted me to make Choco cup cakes for the trip. Since we planned to start in the evening, I spent the whole day in cooking. I had the Choco cakes as a last item in my list, because it will take only 30 - 45 min.

The clock flashed 4.00 and I tuk, tuk grabbed all the ingredients and made the choco cake batter. Turned the oven on to 350 F and poured the batter into the tray and baked it. Once done, took the tray and kept aside for the cakes to cool. The cup cakes were looking exactly the same as I baked last time. Meanwhile I was getting ready and packing all the baggage.

I was so happy and excited to take those cup cakes out from the muffin tray, unfortunately I couldn't :((
Those cup cakes were not coming out of the tray. Think, I forgot to grease and flour the tray in a hurry. Though the cake was fluffy and nice, I was able to take only the top part not the whole cake. Sad story !
Didn't have anytime to think about the cakes, wrapped the tray and placed it in the fridge and went. We were back from the trip on Monday. Wanted to do something out of the cake, which is lying in the fridge for 4 days.

While searching for a recipe to fix, found this Cake balls recipe, for a moment I went ..... speechless. Next second, felt so happy and relived from a great tension.
This is the best recipe when we have cake leftovers. Easy to make and tasty to eat.
Here comes the recipe...

Required Ingredients
--- Left over cake (I had chocolate cake with lots of nuts and choco chip)
--- 1 box Frosting cream (I used store bought Pillsbury, Vanilla cream)
--- 1 pack Mini Chocolate chip ( I used Semi sweet)
--- Nuts (optional)

Steps

--- Scratch the cakes into very small pieces.

--- According to the cake quantity, add the frosting cream and mix thoroughly.

--- Make small balls.

--- Line all the cake balls in the cookie sheet and refrigerate it for 3-4 hours
--- Once the cake balls are harden enough, Melt the chocolate chips and dip the above cake balls.
--- Again refrigerate all the balls.
--- You can serve these balls with chocolate coating or else you can roll them over the nuts and also form a nutty layer on top.
--- Either way the balls will be delicious to eat.

Sending this chocolate treat to Madhuri Kumar's, Cook-Curry Nook for her 1st Anniversary celebration.