Skip to main content

Phudge


Phudge 
Source: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.), pg. 249.

This may be the easiest recipe in all of Maida's books. After eating my first piece (and I could have easily ate the whole pan), I realized that I had this before. I think it is a fairly common recipe and I wonder if it originated from Maida Heatter. Whatever the source, it is fantastic. I haven't tried any of the other fudge recipes which require a bit more skill than this one but taste wise, this one is hard to beat. It can be eaten cold or at room temperature. I like it cold. It gets very soft when it gets to room temperature.

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup walnuts or pecans (medium sized pieces0

After melting the chocolate, beat in the cream cheese, vanilla and salt. Beat in the remaining sugar and melted chocolate and the nuts. Transfer to a foil-lined 8" pan. Wrap and refrigerate until firm.

Serve cold or at room temperature.

Yum

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. viii. I made these brownies again a few days ago and they were just as good as ever. This time I made half with York Peppermint Patties and the other half with Andes mints. There wasn't a noticeable difference in taste. The ones with the Andes mints were pretty with the mint green color but the ones with Yorks are equally pretty. When Maida Heatter's first book (the above-mentioned title) won the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame Award in 1998, she accepted her award on stage and began to toss out these brownies to the audience. Everybody clamored for one and went wild. The original recipe came from a local deli in her area and did not include the mints (that recipe is available in the first edition of this book). She tinkered with the recipe and added the mints which do not melt during baking. I've been itching to ...

Mulattoes

Mulattoes Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. 199. Of the hundreds of Maida Heatter cookie recipes, this may be the most famous. These are chunky but soft, extremely chocolaty,  full of nuts and chocolate chips. Sinfully delicious! They are easy to make. The trickiest part may be the baking time. After making them numerous times, I have learned to only bake them 10 or 11 minutes at the most, then remove them and allow them to sit on the hot baking pan for about 5 minutes. They will be extremely soft to the touch but eventually they firm up nicely.  I just use my hand mixer for these. Although the recipe states that it makes 18 large cookies, I find that the yield is slightly higher, even when making them fairly large. I use a tablespoon scoop to form the cookies. 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate 3 oz. (3/4 stick) butter 1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking pow...

Frozen Chocolate Mousse

Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.) , pg. 228. Here is a dessert sure to make any chocoholic swoon. Silky and decadent, this frozen mousse is like a rich chocolate ice cream. It is really easy to make - all the folding required will give you a workout but it is worth it! The crust can be made with crushed wafer cookies or you could even buy a ready-made crust. If doing your own, the instructions say to apply the crumbs around the sides of the pan (use a springform pan) but I did not do this - I just made a bottom layer. You will have to run a sharp knife around the pan before releasing the catch on the pan. The mousse is soft (even after freezing) and it will need to be put back in the freezer as soon as possible after serving. Maida Heatter recommends covering the mousse with either whipped cream, strawberries or chocolate leaves. I did not do either, it looks lovely without a topping. Crust 8 oz. choc...