This is the easiest—and I meaneasiest—peppermintfudgeyou will ever make in your life. With the exception of two choices in topping, the fudge recipe itself has all of two ingredients. Two. As in, one-two. And there's no cooking, no need for a candy thermometer, no finesse required whatsoever. It's pretty much just melt, stir, spread, and let itcool in the pan.
And at Christmastime, when everything around us is busy, that's just the kind ofhomemade food giftI love.Make it this holiday season! It's mysteriously easy and ridiculously good.
Can you melt the chocolate in a microwave?
Sure, but it's very important that you keep a careful eye on melting chocolate and stir frequently. Place the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a microwavable bowl, and start by microwaving the mixture for about a minute to get it going. Then, stir it, and pop it back in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir again, and microwave continue to microwave in 30-second intervals until the chocolate it just melted. Once it's smooth, immediately pour it into the prepared pan. I like using a double boiler because it's easier to monitor and harder to mess up than using the microwave.
What else can I top this fudge with?
Top it with just about any sweet or salty ingredients you want! Chopped toasted pecans, walnuts, peanuts, or pretzels would bring a wonderful balancing saltiness to the fudge. Toffee bits, sprinkles, colorful chocolate-covered candies, or leftover bits from your otherChristmas candy recipes would be great, too. You can make it for every season by switching up the toppings!
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- Yields:
- 12 serving(s)
- Prep Time:
- 2 hrs
- Cook Time:
- 10 mins
- Total Time:
- 2 hrs 10 mins
Ingredients
- 3 c.
semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1
(14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
- 8
whole peppermint candies, crushed
Directions
- Step1Line a 8-by-8-inch pan with foil and smooth the surface. Spray the foil with nonstick spray.
- Step2In a double boiler over medium heat, combine the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Heat until melted, about 5 to7 minutes. Stir until smooth, then immediately pour the mixtureinto the prepared pan. Use an offset spatula to smooth the surface, then sprinkle on the crushed peppermints.
- Step3Refrigerate for 2 hours, then cut into small squares.
I made this impossibly easy (impossibly easy? I love contradicting phrases like that) fudge on my Christmas episode last year, and I never did get around to posting the recipe here. I hope you can forgive me for the year-long delay!
I promise you, the wait will be worth it.
Violently hurl some regular chocolate chips into a double boiler or, in my case, a glass mixing bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.
That was a really long sentence.
Then—and this is the kicker—pour in a can of sweetened condensed milk.
I’m gonna need you to go ahead and have a can of sweetened condensed milk in your pantry at all times, okay? Thank you for your cooperation.
Is this not a beautiful sight? I mean, come on. The natural, unbridled beauty!
Now, just let it warm up/soften in the double boiler over medium heat for a few minutes while you get everything else ready.
Grab a square (I used 8 x 8) pan and press a sheet of aluminum foil in the bottom.
Use your fingers to smooth the surface as much as you can so it isn’t lumpy and bumpy and craggy and…
Nothing rhymes with craggy. Except “shaggy,” which reminds me of hair, which is not something I want to think about when I’m making fudge.
And “baggy,” which my jeans are not after this Thanksgiving weekend, which is also not something I want to think about when I’m making fudge.
And let’s not even talk about the word “gaggy,” which has no place on this post at all.
So let’s just leave it at that.
Spray the foil with cooking or baking spray and set it aside.
“Set it aside.” What else are you going to do with it, Ree? Balance it on your head while you get the rest of the stuff ready? Why do you say “set aside” so much?
(I have to have conversations with myself sometimes to keep myself on the straight and narrow.)
So, while you’re not balancing the pan on your head, grab some peppermint candies. You can use red or green or a mix of red and green!
Green peppermints scare me, though, because sometimes you pop one in your mouth and find that it’s lime-flavored, not peppermint flavored. Nooooooooo!
Unwrap ’em and throw ’em into a Ziploc…
Then use a rolling pin (or a hammer or an iron skillet or anything heavy!) to crush them up. I basically crush them until there are no longer any pieces large enough to break a tooth.
By now, guess what? Everything’s nice and warm and soft.
Stir it slowly…
Until it just barely comes together. Now, this is a time you really don’t want to dawdle; once it comes together, you need to get it into the pan pretty quickly or the mixture starts to wig out a little bit. It doesn’t stay this silky/marshmallowy/soft/perfect forever.
Use a rubber spatula to get it all out of the bowl and into the pan…
And use a dinner knife or offset spatula to smooth out the surface. Again, time is of the essence here, so don’t go reciting all the states and capitals thinking you’re gonna get to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the time it takes to spread it into the pan.
That was a really roundabout way of saying, “Work quickly.”
As soon as it’s all spread out, start sprinkling the crushed peppermint all over the surface…
Until it has the amount you want. Press them lightly into the surface of the chocolate so they stick.
I sprinkled on a little of the peppermint “powder”—the fine particles—because I think it looks like a dusting of snow. A dusting of snow on a rich chocolate meadow.
Only we don’t say meadow here in rural Oklahoma. We say pasture. And that reminds me of manure.
So again: Never mind.
Now just cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for two hours to firm everything up.
It’s ready!
Here’s the beauty of the foil-lined pan: The whole thing lifts right out.
Then I just peel back the edges of the foil so it’s out of the way…
And then I slice it up using a long serrated bread knife.
You can cut the fudge into whatever size you like.
Since it’s so very, very rich, I like to do small, pop-in-your mouth squares.
Then just serve them on a pretty tray or stand!
So very pretty. So very festive.
And sooooo very good.
It’s the easiest fudge around! Hope you try it sometime soon.
