12 Days of Christmas, Day 5: Peanut Butter Fudge

Fudge...   It appears every year.  Large, luxurious cubes of joy.  When I was growing up my grandmother had what she called "Fannie Farmer Fudge" for us to eat annually.  It was over the top sweet (which to a child spelled "Awesome!") and had tons of walnuts in it.  She made that fudge by the pound.  As I grew older I decided I wasn't a fan of the nuts in there.  For some it is a sort of break in the continuous texture of butteriness but, plain chocolate fudge isn't repulsive when made properly.  Personally, I prefer my chocolate with peanut butter.  So, I took my two loves this year and married them.  What ensued was nothing short of perfection....

**You should have a cooking thermometer for this recipe, a heavy bottomed cooking pot, and a stand mixer is the safest way to beat this after the cooking process.

Peanut Butter Fudge
2 c. sugar
2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cocoa powder (I use Callebaut...buy it on Amazon.com)
1 1/3 c. milk (I used whole milk)
1/4 c. unsalted butter
3/4 c. creamy or crunchy peanut butter (used creamy)
2 tsp. vanilla paste or vanilla extract
aluminum foil

Prepare a 9 x 9 baking pan by lining it with aluminum foil and grease the foil with butter.  Set it aside for later.

In a large, heavy bottomed pot stir together the sugars, salt, cocoa powder, and milk.  Heat until the sugar is dissolved then add the butter and cook until a thermometer reads 238 degrees.

Turn the mixture out into your stand mixer with a scraper mixing paddle attached.

  

Add in the peanut butter and vanilla.  Mix until the fudge begins to lighten in color and loses its gloss....becomes dull instead of shiny.

Then pour it out into the greased pan before cutting into 1 inch cubes.

This fudge is absolutely amazing!  It has such a silky smooth texture it is hard to believe it is made out of grainy stuff like sugar and cocoa powder.  I gave some of this to neighbors, I dropped some by the place I am doing my physical therapy, and saved a little package for when the in laws came.  Everyone liked it....loved it.  It evaporated into thin air!  I tried one cube and that was all she wrote.  They cleaned me out lol!  Which is fine.  It is great to know when you find a recipe that people like.  It makes life easy.  As fudge recipes go, this was one of the easier ones I've used.  I hope you try it out if you plan on candies of any kind this year.  I promise you'll fall in love!