chocolate fudge with bourbon sugar.

By this point in December I am usually on a cookie baking binger.  I will have gone through 4 pounds of sugar, 3 dozen eggs, and a bottle of vanilla extract but this year has been different.  I think I tuckered myself out after baking 100 chocolate chip cookies, a batch of World Peace Cookies, some Austrian Shortbread, and almond cookies for the wedding.  My Cusinart and I still need a little break from each other.  

When I stumbled across this fudge recipe in the latest issue of Bon Appetit and realized it incorporated both chocolate and bourbon (!!!) and it was a recipe from one of the best pastry chefs (William Werner of Craftsman and Wolves out in San Francisco) I felt as if it was time to get back to baking (or in this case candy-making).  

This fudge is about as fudgy as fudge can get.  It is rich.  It is chocolaty.  It is the kind of treat that is decadent and completely appropriate from December through February.  It's all around delicious but it's the sprinkle of bourbon sugar and sea salt on the top that really makes me swoon hard for it.   

Chocolate Fudge With Bourbon Sugar

Recipe from Bon Appetit

I don't typically love the texture of fudge, I find it to be grainy but this stuff is a whole other beast.  I don't know if fudge purists would call if fudge but I call it delicious and isn't that all that matters?  I will say that this is rich (and this is coming from a chocoholic).  The original recipe called cutting this it into 32 pieces and I think at that size it would be too much 48 pieces is much better.  

The bourbon isn't as strong as I imagined it to be.  You do get a faint hint of it but it's not overpowering in the slightest (you can easily feed this to kids).  I will admit that my favorite part of this recipe is the bourbon sugar which I have plans for sprinkling on grapefruit cookies to make a cookie version of my favorite cocktail The Brown Derby - mind blown!  I only made half the amount of brown sugar and I regret that decision now.  Learn from my mistakes.   

Makes 48 Pieces

Bourbon Sugar

1cup demerara sugar

2 tablespoons bourbon

Fudge

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

10 ounces bittersweet chocolate (preferably 72%), coarsely chopped

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

10 tablespoons (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons bourbon

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

To Make The Bourbon Sugar: Preheat oven to 150° or as low as yours will go. Scrape vanilla seeds into a small bowl; stir in demerara sugar and bourbon. Spread on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let dry out in oven overnight, leaving door slightly ajar. Mixture should feel like demerara sugar again in the morning.

Do Ahead: Store bourbon sugar airtight at room temperature up to 2 months.

To Make The Fudge: Line an 8x8” baking dish with parchment paper, leaving a generous overhang on 2 sides; lightly coat with nonstick spray. Heat chocolates in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let bowl touch water), stirring occasionally, until almost completely melted. Set aside.

Combine condensed milk, butter, bourbon, corn syrup, and kosher salt in a small saucepan; scrape in vanilla seeds and add pod. Heat over medium until barely hot (same as the chocolate).

Gently stir one quarter of milk mixture into chocolate with a rubber spatula. Add another quarter of milk mixture, stirring to incorporate (it might look broken and greasy; don’t worry, it will come back together). Continue with remaining milk mixture in 2 additions, stirring vigorously until fudge is very shiny and almost elastic, about 5 minutes. Scrape into prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle with bourbon sugar and sea salt. Let cool, then cover and chill at least 4 hours.

Turn out fudge onto a cutting board and slice into 48 pieces.  

Do Ahead: Fudge can be made 1 week ahead. Wrap tightly and chill.

coffee toffee.

It's cookie week (!!!) here on this blog because it's December and the only logical thing to do in December is eat cookies for breakfast (duh) and contemplate what your sister may want for Christmas (why are sisters so hard to shop for?).  

OK, let me rephrase that.  It's cookie and candy week on the blog because we are starting things off with coffee toffee.  (Actually, it's Cawfee Tawfee since I enjoy saying it in a Staten Island accent much to my boyfriend's chagrin but saying it that way is so much more fun.) 

This stuff is what coffee-aholics dream are made of.  It's what people who obsess over Coffee Heath Bar Crunch want to eat when it's too cold for ice cream.  It's what I want to sneak into movie theaters as my snack of choice. (Not that I condone sneaking food into the movie theater but if you happen to forget that you had some in your bag and you find yourself in the movie theater I don't see why you shouldn't eat it.  It would be foolish not to.) This is the kind of thing that begs to be handed out to neighbors and colleagues and friends and family during the holidays (in adorable cellophane bags) because its absurdly easy to make yet it looks fancy and festive.  It's not cloyingly sweet in the slightest (which is sadly what most holiday cookies tend to me).  It's instead subtly sweet with a great roasted coffee undertone that pairs brilliantly with the toasted hazelnuts, rich chocolate, and flaky sea salt.  No one would be opposed to something this good.  

Coffee Toffee

Recipe adapted (barely) from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

I made the smallest of changes here because I'm me and I have my own personal preferences.  Those preferences include swapping semi-sweet chocolate for bittersweet chocolate because I love bittersweet with coffee and applying a sprinkle of sea salt to the top with the hazelnuts because sea salt makes everything better. 

1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons molasses (can swap corn syrup or honey)
1/4 teaspoon salt (or a heaping 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 cup bittersweet (about 70% cocoa), or 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (toasted, skinned and cooled) or another nut of your choice

Flaky sea salt for sprinkling

Line a small (9x13) baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat and set aside.

In medium heavy saucepan (I used a 3-quart) with a candy thermometer attached, melt butter, brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, salt and espresso together over together. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk or silicon spatula until the temperature approaches 250 degrees, at which point you should stir constantly until it reaches 300 degrees.

Pour immediately into the prepared baking sheet — you can spread it more evenly with a offset or silicon spatula but don’t worry if you have neither. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee and let them sit for a minute until soft, then spread the chocolate evenly over the candy base.

Sprinkle the chocolate with chopped hazelnuts and the flaky sea salt and then, if you’re as impatient as we are, you can slide the sheet onto a cooling rack in the freezer until the toffee is set.

Break into pieces and store in an airtight container. If you’re kitchen runs warm, you might prefer to keep it in the fridge so the chocolate doesn't get soft.