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.

Homemade toffee

Believe me, this is the homemade caramel toffee. Even I can't believe myself.
Always wonder can we make toffee at home? Now, I got the answer, Yes we can !

Two months ago, I found this recipe in the Food Network magazine, under Christmas special treats. Its Ina Garten recipe, Fleur De Sel Caramels. From that day I wanted to try this, as you all know, I was little busy the whole month with cake decoration :))
As the name says, Ina Garten added Fleur De Sel  in her recipe, but I used the regular salt.

This caramel toffee is a simple, easy and delicious treat. Once you do it then you can use your imagination and try many more toffee having this as a base recipe. I am having many to try on...

Ingredients : 1 and 1/2  cup -- Sugar 1/4 cup -- Corn syrup 1 cup -- Heavy cream 5 tbsp -- Butter 1 tsp -- Salt 1/2 tsp -- pure vanilla extract Methods : --- Grease a 8" square pan and line with the parchment paper. Leave some extra paper hanging on each sides. Grease the paper lightly too. *** I didn't have square pan, I used the round pan and struggled much for aligning the parchment paper. --- For preparing sugar caramel, in a thick bottom sauce pan, add corn syrup, sugar and 1/2 cup water and bring it to boil in medium heat. In actual recipe, Ina garten have specified the measurement for the pan - 6 inches diameter by 4 1/2 inches deep. --- At any point, don't stir the mixture with the spoon. If you mix it with a spoon then the whole mixture forms into crystals. Experience talk. If needed just swirl the pan using the handle. Do it very carefully. Boil the mixture until it turns into golden brown. --- In the meantime in another pan, boil the heavy cream, butter and salt in the medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Keep aside the mixture. --- When the sugar turns to mild golden color, turn of the heat. Take the cream butter mixture and add very slowly and carefully into the caramel mixture. Now you can use a wooden spoon to mix. --- In this stage the caramel mixture will bubble up violently. So take utmost care while mixing the both. --- Add the Vanilla extract to the mixture and bring it to medium heat. --- Cook the mixture for 10 minutes. *** In the actual recipe, the chef mentioned to cook until the candy thermometer shows 248F, I did not have one, so I checked the mixture consistency using our traditional method. After 8 minutes I took the spoon and dropped the mixture in the chill water, try to roll into solid mass. I checked 3-4 times and at last I was able to do it. If you have candy thermometer, its well and good. --- Pour the caramel cream mixture into the grease pan and cool it for 3-4 hours --- When the caramel is cold, take the parchment paper from the pan and cut into halves. --- Make a log by rolling each half and cut the log into pieces according to the size you like. And sprinkle the Fleur de Sel on top of the each if using the same. *** I didn't roll them into logs, I just cut them into rectangles.

This toffee reminded me many of my childhood toffees, Maha Lacto, Lacto king, Coffe bite, Aasai, some Parry company chocolates.

One interesting thing happened when I was wrapping this toffees. My uncle called us to wish for New year. He is a food technologist, worked in Parry company and doing consultancy for many leading food companies. He told me to add fondant before pouring into the pan and after cooling the mixture a little. This will avoid the toffee from sticking to our teeth.

I have to try the same in my next toffee. Will keep you posted on the result.