Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Nigella's Chocolate Fudge


Six months ago I joined up with I Heart Cooking Clubs to celebrate the wonderful and eloquent Nigella Lawson. Armed with my copy of Nigella Express, I was excited to get cooking and testing out Nigella's recipes. Right out of the gate, I loved Nigella's recipes and her style of writing. Cooking up one hit after another for my picky family, we grew to love her recipes. After thirty or so of Nigella's recipes, Nigella Express holds a very special spot on my cookbook shelf.

One of our family favorites is this recipe for Nigella's Chocolate Fudge. In Nigella Express, Nigella adds pistachios to her fudge, but my son is allergic to nuts so we omit them. This is just your standard recipe for fudge using condensed milk, but the entire family loves it and most importantly my son can eat it, therefore it makes us all happy.

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge
Adapted from Nigella Express
12 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (I use a bag of semi or milk chocolate chips)
(1) 14 oz. can condensed milk
pinch of salt
1 cup shelled pistachios (I omit these and sometimes sub dried fruit)
2 tablespoons butter

Melt the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, butter and salt in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat. Put the nuts into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin until broken up into both big and little pieces. Add the nuts to the melted chocolate and condensed milk and stir well to mix. Pour this mixture into a 9-inch square aluminum foil pan, smoothing the top. Let the fudge cool and then refrigerate until set. You can then cut into small pieces approximately 1-3/4 by 1-3/4 inches in size. Cutting 7x7 lines in the pan to give 64 pieces best achieves this. Once cut, you can keep it in the freezer, no need to thaw; just eat right away. Makes 64 pieces of fudge.

Notes/Results: This fudge is a family favorite. It is quick and easy to adapt to your taste. I love pistachios and I'm sure they would be wonderful, but we usually make the fudge plain. I have toyed with the idea of adding dried fruit, but haven't experimented with that just yet. Since we are celebrating Easter over at IHCC, I bought some cute little Easter cupcake holders, filled them with the fudge, and topped them with some cute little bunnies. My son is allergic to flour, eggs, nuts so he can't have a traditional cupcake. These little fudge cupcakes were the perfect treat for him (and the rest of the family too)!



Head on over to I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what everyone else cooked up for their Easter Basket.

This is the last week we are celebrating Nigella Lawson over at I Heart Cooking Clubs. Starting next week, we will be featuring the recipes of Mark Bittman. I'm looking forward to cooking my way through his recipes!!

30 comments:

  1. So lovely. So sweet. Brought a smile.

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  2. What a beautiful and delicious treat!

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  3. The fudge looks wonderful! Your son must have adored it :) I love watching Nigella and listening to her speak, it's so charming.

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  4. Chocolate and pistachios are a winning combination in my mind! What an adorable serving idea for them. Very cute!

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  5. I love nigella. These look so cute. I know I would totally love these. I adore chocolate and pistachios together.
    *kisses* HH

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  6. I love Nigella's fudge and it is really yummy if you add dried cranberries. If you love her style of writing, then try out her Feast book. It is like sitting down and having a conversation with your favorite foodie friend, and the recipes are lots of fun too.
    Your presentation is absolutely darling!

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  7. Love it...looks awesome!
    Your poor son. My daughter had to go through all the allergy testing and it was awful...it ended up not being food releated. I cannot imagine how difficult that is.

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  8. What marvelous fudge and gorgeous photos. You've done such a nice job of presentation. It's perfect for the Easter season. Have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  9. These look divine!! And so pretty:)

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  10. Thanks, Kim! I have a pot luck the day after Easter and have been trying to come up with something to bring. I'm stealing this idea!

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  11. I am SO excited for Bittman as well! I really wanted to participate in Nigella's challenges but most of her recipes were just too hard for me to adapt to cooking for one, at least the ones that were offered on the food network's site.

    This fudge looks excellent! I will definitely be trying it with the pistachios.

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  12. I love NL's pistachio fudge and ur ur cute bunnies sure do make them the best for easter:-)))

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  13. Those look so good!! Definitely insulin worthy!

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  14. What a cute idea to serve it in the cupcake holders!!

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  15. I'm not a fudgy person, but these look so yummy, and cute :)

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  16. you made these SO cute! i normally only get fudge during the holidays, so this would be a wonderful treat indeed!

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  17. Kim, these Nigella fudge cups are adorable. These easter cups make it to the top of the list of cute-This would be a family hit.

    Happy Easter to you and your family.

    btw, I can see that you love cookbooks too.

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  18. The fudge looks so good, Kim! I want some! :)

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  19. Seems like a very tasty pot with bunny!!!!

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  20. Mmm...your fudge looks delicious--love the bunnies--so cute! I'll miss Nigella too (and will probably keep cooking her recipes since I still have a bunch I didn't get to) but I am excited for Bittman! ;-)

    Happy Easter!

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  21. Oh Kim! These looks amazing. What a pretty job you did with these...know the kids love em!

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  22. Kim,
    It looks so festive and delicious. I bet dried fruits would be a fantastic addition.
    Mimi

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  23. The bunnies on a stick are adorable! My sister would really like the Chocolate Pistachio Fudge. She tried and tried to make fudge when I was a kid and it never would set, but she ate it any way!

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  24. Pistachios in fudge sound so yummy! I have had bad experiences making fudge. I hope I can remember this recipe for my next attempt. I love your presentation. So cute and festive.

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  25. That looks so cute in the cupcake papers! The recipe I use (really similar to this) is in an old Mennonite/Amish cookbook, and sometimes I do a layer of dark chocolate fudge and top with a layer of white - and a bit of peppermint essence in the dark layer sometimes! It's really adaptable, so I bet you can find loads of non-nut options for treats for your son!

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  26. Kim, this fudge sounds great, and super easy - love your little Easter bunnies - your son must have adored these.
    Sue

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  27. So cool you've found so many different recipes you love in just one cookbook! So glad you share em' all too! I am actually not a huge fan of fudge, but my dad is a die-hard fan!

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  28. I love that you put them in individule paper cups. Can you believe I have never made fudge?

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  29. Ah, I love fudge, it is so addicting! This one has such a great texture, too. A classic :).

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