It’s the last day of the year! Tomorrow we are off to the races with our New Year’s resolutions. All our low-fat, more exercise, less bacon resolutions. (Sniffle). New year, new you, new me and all the jazz, and you know what that means. It means we have exactly 24 hours left to eat chocolate. And by chocolate, I mean fudge. And by fudge, I mean this particular version of fudge, that includes not only a generous amount of dark chocolate, but a few sneaky ingredients that will have you wondering why you spent all that time eating well-behaved fudge.
Sneaky ingredient #1: Coffee. I used espresso in my fudge, and you’d never know it was in there. You know something is giving it that little kick, but unless you saw the coffee going in you can’t…quite…place it. But man, is it good. I’ve tried the coffee trick before in muffins and I like it just as much in fudge.
Sneaky ingredient #2: Cinnamon. This one you will be able to taste if you concentrate hard enough. And of course everything is better with cinnamon. Everything.
Sneaky ingredient #3: Coarse salt. Sprinkled right on top. This also does wonders for chocolate chip cookies – sprinkle just a teeny bit on top of the dough before you bake ’em. That whole sweet and salty thing is just as fabulous as it’s cracked up to be.
Sneaky ingredient #4: Red pepper. Yes, red pepper. Do NOT leave it out. That’s an order. (If it makes you feel better, there is pepper in chai tea, and we all know how good THAT is.)
Everything else in this fudge recipe is what you expect to find in fudge recipes – condensed milk, butter and of course lots of chocolate. Dark chocolate, please.
But it’s the sneaky stuff that makes this fudge extra special. Oh, and if you are reading this post after the New Year starts, I think I remember reading that dark chocolate is a power food. As in, good for you. As in, there’s no reason why sneaky fudge can’t be part of the whole new-year-new-you thing. Right? Right!
Sneaky Fudge
Yield: Makes 64 pieces
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- One 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon coffee (brewed espresso is fabulous but any brewed coffee will work)
- 1 pound dark chocolate chips
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Coarse salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Line an 8×8 square cake pan with nonstick foil or parchment paper and lightly spray it with cooking spray.
- Put condensed milk, coffee, chocolate chips and butter in the top of a double boiler. Heat over simmering water until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth, stirring all the time.
- Stir in cinnamon and red pepper flakes.
- Scrape evenly into the cake pan. Sprinkle with salt.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours (overnight works even better). Cut into small squares. This fudge keeps best in the fridge, although you can bring it to room temperature to serve it if you like.
The “sneaky” stuff is so many of my favorite things!! Love that you threw all of them in fudge. Happy new year chica!!
Oh yum, this is so perfect 🙂 swoon!
How long do you cook it in the double boiler?
Until the chocolate is melted and smooth – depending on your chocolate, this can take 5 to 10 minutes. Happy fudge making!
I saw this recipe in the Record and had it in my “To Try” recipes. I recently made it and it never firmed up in the frig (for over 24 hours). Any ideas on what could be wrong?
The flavors were terrific – I now have a bowl of fudge stuff.
Hey Chris, and sorry it took me so long to respond, I was out of town for a bit. I’m not sure what’s up here, because chocolate is usually super-reliable in terms of hardening up when it is chilled. Is it possible that you used more of the butter or milk or coffee than the recipe called for? Extra liquid could mean issues with firming up the fudge. I might give it an hour or two in the freezer to see if that helps. And I know this wasn’t what you had in mind, but if worst comes to worst and it just won’t behave, it will make a good ice cream topping!
A terrific “sneaky” tactic is to put some cardamom in with the condensed milk and heat it. That will release the oils. The effect of the cardamom is that it will clean up the chocolate taste somewhat and slightly neutralize the cloying condensed milk taste.
Careful, a little can go a long way. you only want a little.