Joan's Fudge

I've been thinking about doing a new series of posts, covering my favorite recipes. Consider this the first of the batch, perfect for Christmas.

I found this recipe when I was clearing out some old files to make room for the Christmas tree. When I made it this month, it did not quite live up to my childhood memories of it being the greatest food that had ever been invented and ever could be invented, but it was still... oh so good. 

These are the ingredients. 

• Two bags of chocolate chips ("never generic", the recipe says, although I haven't tested that yet and doubt I would be able to tell the difference)
• One bag of butterscotch chips
• One bag of Reese's peanut butter chips

① Melt them, stirring constantly.

② Add 1-2 cups, stir till totally melted.

"Add 1-2 cups of what?", I thought. There's no other ingredients. I finally decided that I was supposed to put all the chips in a bowl together and melt a cup or two of chips at a time, instead of melting all of them at once. So that's what I did. But next time I might try melting all of them at once, just to see what happens.

③ Pour into molds. (Add nuts if desired).

I made mine without nuts this time. But I remember very much liking both varieties. As for molds, a cake pan works just fine, and then you can cut it into squares later. I did both that and a muffin tin.

I'm not sure if the fudge was quite as melted as it was supposed to be, since it was still pretty thick when I poured it into molds. The ones on the left in the picture below are what they looked like right after I poured them. The ones on the right are what they look like after I shake the pan a bit to settle them.

④ Let harden (freezer, fridge, or back porch). 

Ahahahaha. Yes, an uninsulated back porch in a Minnesota winter will get things very cold. 

⑤ Eat and enjoy!

In case you are curious, this is how easy it was to pop the fudge out of the muffin tins, after it hardened.

<sup>1. Growing up, my family always had a couple young adults living with us; it was part of a "community" thing. Joan was one of these young adults. She lived with us for 7 years (longer than any of the others), so she was a big part of my life growing up.

2. Oh, and for the record, Ken insists that this is not real fudge. He says it is more like a really good candy bar. I don't particularly think it makes a difference, but there you go.</sup>