Revel Bars

As you may have noticed, I love making ‘bars’/’slices’. They are easy to distribute and package, and you tend to get more servings (I was going to say they last longer, but not in this house!)

I’m really into layer bars at the moment AND fudge, so was really excited to make these ‘revel bars’; an oaty base with a fudge centre and more oaty biscuit on top.

Ingredients:
1 cup (225g) butter
2 cups (300g) soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups (300g)plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2.5 cups (200g) quick-cooking rolled oats
1 can  (397g) sweetened condensed milk
175g milk chocolate/175g dark chocolate
1 cup (60g) chopped walnuts
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream the butter and sugar, leave 2tablespoons of butter for the fudge

Whisk in the eggs and 2tsp vanilla

Add the dry ingredients and mix

Put the 2tablespoons of butter, condensed milk, chocolate and 2tsp vanilla into a pan. Heat until the chocolate has melted.

Take fudge of the heat once ready and add the walnuts

Press 2/3 of the biscuit mixture into the cake pan, I used a 20cm square cake pan

Pour the fudge over and spread evenly

Dollop blobs of the remaining biscuit mixture over

Bake in the oven at 180deg for 20mins/until the biscuit topping is golden brown

Leave to cool in the cake tin.  Once cooled, place in the fridge to set the fudge centre for at least 2hrs/overnight.

Cut into squares

These are sooo good.  The oaty biscuit layer has an almost cake like consistency and the fudge layer…is well fudgy.  Sooo addictive!

I found these super cute boxes on eBay 😍

Oreo Cookie Fudge!

I made this gorgeous, creamy fudge. Easy to make thanx to Jane’s excellent instructions and pictures.

Thank you 🙂

Fudgy Update

So I had some evaporated milk left over from when I made the fudge the other day, I didn’t want to chuck it down the sink so decided to make more fudge 😀

The fudge recipe I originally used called to not stir the fudge, this was to prevent any crystals from forming. However, the recipe I used this time did call for stirring and the results were amazing.

The fudge was super crumbly and as the sugar slightly burned on the bottom of the pan it was transformed from vanilla to a gorgeous caramel fudge.

My favourite fudge is from Totally Fudged and this resembled their salted caramel fudge bar the salt.

I decided to go for vanilla fudge, and used this recipe. I halved the quantities:
1)Place 250g castor sugar (I used Golden Castor),170g evaporated milk, 2 tablespoons of milk and a pinch of salt in a pan and heat over a medium heat until the sugar melts (this was a lot quicker than the granulated sugar used in the other recipe)
2) Bring to a boil then bring up to 240deg/’soft ball’ on your thermometer. Stirring frequently.
3) Once it reaches the desired temperature, take of the heat and add the butter and vanilla, leave for 10mins
4) Mix/whisk until it loses it glossy appearance and place in a lined tin and leave to cool

It’s all Fudged Up!

I finally got round to making fudge … and using my thermometer!

I was prompted to make fudge this weekend after the subject of ‘Armpit Fudge‘ came up. The ingredients are put into a bag and are combined together by placing the bag in your armpit and squishing it using your arms… appetising!

Not exactly the fudge I had in mind and the thought of it kinda grossed me out, but suprisingly didn’t put me off … Fudge that is… Not armpit fudge…. That’s a no-no.

I was looking for a recipe for simple, vanilla fudge when I came across chocolate and peanut butter fudge.  There were quite a few different recipes, some involved mainly melted chocolate and condensed milk with chopped up peanut butter cups, or melted chocolate and icing sugar with peanut butter swirled in.
I decided on this one from the Brown Eyed Baker. It seemed to be a more ‘authentic’ fudge recipe and allowed me to use my thermometer (I’m easily pleased) and my measuring cups 😀 :

now I can stop complaining about American measurements!

1) Heat 2½ cups granulated sugar,¼ cup cocoa powder,1 cup evaporated milk (from a can) and1 tablespoon light corn syrup (I used Golden Syrup) mixing continuously until the sugar has completely melted

2) Add 2 tablespoons of butter (taken from 1/2 a cup/125g of unsalted butter) and mix in til the butter melts, bring to the boil, cover and allow to boil for a further 3 minutes

3) Remove the lid and continue to cook, without stirring, until the mixture reaches 234 degrees F on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage).

4)Remove from the heat and, without stirring, add the remaining butter, peanut butter and vanilla. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes.

5)Using a wooden spoon, beat the fudge vigorously until it thickens and begins to lose its gloss (can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes). You can also transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer) and beat it on medium speed, being careful to only mix until it thickens and loses its gloss. Do not overmix

It took about 10mins with my hand mixer to reach the desired state

6) Immediately pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Allow the fudge to come to room temperature, then cover the pan with plastic wrap and chill it until set.

7) Lift the fudge out of the pan and cut into 1-inch squares. The fudge can be stored in an airtight container at cool room temperature or in the refrigerator.

This fudge was really good and I was impressed as it was my first attempt (it actually tastes like fudge!)
It has a smooth, creamy texture. The flavour isn’t too overwhelming with a very subtle peanut butter flavour.

The fudge was surprisingly simple to make, I did burn the pan abit in the process (luckily it didn’t affect the flavour, and the best thing about burnt sugar it’s easy to clean off the pan!)

Waiting for it to chill was a pain though (I’m not very patient).

If I was to use this recipe again, I would add more peanut butter as I felt the flavour was underwhelming, I used smooth but think crunchy might add a nice texture. Or I would add chopped up peanut butter cups.

There are so many different fudge recipes and flavours out there, and bar armpit fudge, I am looking forward to trying more out.