Dulce de Leche (Caramel) Fudge

I made this fudge for Valentine’s Day as an effort to reclaim the day for myself and I think I made my point and made the days of a bunch of people who deserved to have their days made. I have my own backlog of recipes which I publish when it makes sense, so today I am I publishing this!

The post below was written in December and published for intellectual property reasons in March

There’s something romantic about making fudge and pretty much everything else people ate in the books I enjoyed during my childhood where the characters at Christmas time actually rode in horse drawn sleighs and trimmed their tree with popcorn and cranberries. So when my life exploded and I had to be reminded of what the season should actually feel like I turned to making fudge. Well, yoga and fudge. Yes I was my own version of a Batmanesque supehero candy maker- Fudge maker by day and yogi by night at the local YMCA, which in Central New York was very fancy by YMCA standards. In a place I did not ever picture myself living, with no real access to my friends or the things which mattered to me, I was struggling with getting into the spirit. With characteristic determination, I went to work filling pan after pan with fudge. The area which was so beautiful in the summer, and so pretty in the very short fall had become relentlessly cold and snowy in the winter and I needed something to do. Quickly realizing I was running out of pans, I started placing them in the snow to make the fudge set more quickly. Placing in them in the snow was made harder because my parents’ dog had been sitting watching me make fudge and I kept narrowly escaping having a pan of fudge, which I had logically placed in the snow, becoming his proverbial and actual last supper. Yes, there were mishaps and because when I am able I do things in a big way, the fudge and candy making took on a life of its own which began resembling a messy I Love Lucy -esque assembly line. My thoughts, this Christmas so many sad Christmases ago, was my exile from what seemed like real life was temporary, it would be over in a month and why not, while in a place where it snowed so much people actually were able to ride on horse drawn sleigh, commit myself to making fudge? In a spirit of complete disclosure I run very cold and I am not so open or friendly when I am cold…and this is being generous to myself about how bitchy I can be when freezing. I had not ever seen snow like the snow I saw there and it felt like shoveling was like trying to remove sand from the ocean a bucket at a time. In the spirit of the season I was being optimistic about miracles, as I try to be every year, but this year I have had such a discouraging year I don’t whole heartedly still believe in the power of fudge to power miracles. Fortunately I still believe in miracles which can be powered by prayer, love and incredible stubbornness so I am not adrift on an ocean of disillusionment. Good thing or it would have probably affected the quality of my fudge and bad fudge is an embarrassment I am not willing to suffer.

That Christmas passed without fanfare and I sit typing this post, wondering what I could have done differently. I even question things which seem insignificant like “Should I have not made fudge? Has somebody published a paper saying only fragile people make fudge or people who bake cannot make be trusted to make their own decisions? What if somebody has convincingly said fudge makers don’t need the same things other people do?”

Despite my misgivings, this year I made fudge again. Gone was the joy of past years and my gifts of fudge were not even, until yesterday, generally well received. I gave fudge to somebody who, after I had packaged her fudge, told the whole room she was off dairy and sugar. I gave fudge to somebody and then watched somebody else eat it and then rub their body suggestively in a way which fudge has not ever motivated somebody to act ever before. I think I was supposed to read it as sexually enticing but actually looked like he must have done some sort of drug on which which licking wall paper would turn him on. I made fudge, and then the recipient was no where to be found. All in all, until the past few days my fudge making this year something which would make you say “Oh fudge!”.

Yet, yesterday I tried this recipe and I had a little glimmer of holiday spirit. Not a sufficient amount to power santa’s sleigh in Elf, but a sufficient amount to motivate me to give it to somebody. So I did - I brought it to max’s where some might say I go for sm french fries or the occasional margarita monday, but I really go for the friendly faces who always seem to be happy I am there. My friend, who is always doing for other people got to taste my fudge and her genuine reaction to this recipe brightened my holiday.

It is in the spirit of the season, I share my recipe with you. Perhaps you are like me and you love this season and are having a hard time enjoying it because of money, or mayhem or “Man, nobody is listening to me!” moments, and this recipe will give you the boost you need. It is as simple as it is decadent and this recipe is my gift to you.

Ingredients

13.5 oz can of Dulce de Leche (Milk based caramel) You’ll find this is the Spanish foods aisle

3 cups of white chocolate chips

0.5 cup of semi sweet morsels

Tsp of vanilla (but only if you’re feeling lie a ballin’ baker who can afford vanilla)

Plan of Attack

Pour the Dulce de leche into a medium saucepan

Turn on medium low

As the caramel becomes liquified, add the chocolate chips, a cup at a time, stirring the chips after every addition so they melt into the caramel sauce before adding the next cup.

Pour the mixture, once integrated, into a 9 X 9 baking dish lined with wax paper.

Melt the semi sweet morsels in your microwave on 30 second intervals

Pour the melted chocolate over the top of the caramel fudge, and using a knife or skewer, trace swirls into the fudge in a pattern to give the top of a marbled look.

Place in your fridge or freezer until it sets and the cut, give and enjoy! You might have to let it warm up on the counter before the pan will let the wax paper give sufficiently to be removed from the pan.

Finished in the pan before being cut

Caramel fudge before the chocolate was added

Valentines day fudge complete witH seasonal sprinkles