Grandma's Chocolate Walnut Fudge

This is my grandma's recipe and like all of her cooking and baking, it's delicious. 

First you heat the marshmallows, butter, canned milk, and butter until boiling.

Once it's done remove it from the stove.

Mix in the nuts and chocolate chips and then beat it until thick.

Pour it into a well buttered squared pan.

Let it cool and harden.

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Grandma’s Fudge

Ingredients:

¾ cup canned milk

16 large marshmallows

2 cups sugar

¾ cube of butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts

16 oz. chocolate chips

Directions:

1.     Cook milk, marshmallows, sugar and butter over medium heat; stirring constantly.

2.     Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook exactly 5 minutes.

3.     Remove from stove, stir in vanilla, chocolate chips, and nuts.

4.     Beat until it starts to thicken.

5.     Pour into buttered square dish and cool.

6.     Cut into squares.

S'mores Bars

S'mores have become so trendy, haven't they? I mean really, there is s'mores recipes and ideas everywhere. I have even done a S'mores Cupcake previously…oh and they were delicious! We were going to make actual s'mores the other day by roasting marshmallows in the backyard in our fire pit so we ran to the store and got the necessities. (Please notice the 3 missing Hershey's bars from the package, I have a chocolate their in my house!) So we got all the stuff and then we all wimped out and decided it was too cold outside and never made them… so I decided to use what I had to make these S'mores bars! Graham cracker crust, brownie in the middle and topped with a toasted marshmallow! Yum! 

I made a traditional graham cracker crust, crushed graham cracker, butter, and sugar. 

You could use graham cracker crumbs or just make your own! 

Stir it all up and it should clump slightly, if its still too dry to clump add more butter.

Press it into a pan fully lined with parchment paper and then cook it for 8-10 minutes. I like to fully cover the pan because it makes for super easy removal and clean up.

For the chocolate part of the S'mores I decided to go with a brownie, I chose to use melted chocolate instead of cocoa and it turned out really good! 

First you melt the heavy cream, sugar, and butter together until it boils and then add the chocolate and stir while it melts. Next temper the eggs and then add the vanilla. 

Next mix the dry and wet ingredients until just mixed.

Pour it over the graham cracker crust and put it in the oven.

After the brownie is baked add the marshmallows and turn on your broiler.

Broil until just lightly browned and then use a spoon to flatten each marshmallow out. 

Let them cool before you cute them.

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 S’mores Bars

Ingredients

Crust:

18 graham crackers

2 cups white sugar

14 oz. melted butter

Brownie:

½ cup white sugar

2 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. heavy cream

3 Hershey’s Bars (chopped)

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

⅔ cup flour

¼ tsp. baking soda

Topping:

Marshmallows

Directions

Crust:

1.     Heat oven to 350º. Line 9x13 pan with parchment paper.

2.     Crush graham crackers into crumbs.

3.     Mix butter, sugar, and graham crackers.

4.     Press into the bottom of 9x13 pan.

5.     Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Brownie:

1.     Turn oven down to 325º.

2.     Melt sugar, butter and heavy cream over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil.

3.     Remove from the heat and stir in chopped up Hershey’s bars.

4.     Temper eggs and add vanilla. Mix well.

5.     Sift flour and baking soda together.

6.     Add flour and chocolate mixtures together, mixing until just incorporated.

7.     Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Topping:

1.     Turn on broiler.

2.     Put marshmallows on brownie and broil until just browned.

3.     Take out of oven and use spoon to flatten out marshmallows.

4.     Cut up brownies and garnish with left over graham cracker crust.

  

  

Cream Filled Chocolate Cake

My bff/roommate/sister's real sister came to visit last weekend from Washington and she happened to be here during her 21st birthday so I had to make sure she had a delicious cake to celebrate with! I did a little research… (asking her best friend).. and discovered she likes chocolate cake and decided that's what I would make! What's better with chocolate cake then cream filling?? Right, nothing! 

I made one batch of my cake recipe and then divided it evenly between 4 cake pans, well, actually I had to bake it in 2 batches because I only have 2 pans. 

Side note: I'm not exactly sure why, but, for some reason I have no pictures of the cakes out of the oven. Weird, I know. So, just pretend you see them! :)

While the cakes were cooling I started on the cream filling. 

Add water and gelatin to a small sauce pan and then heat it up while stirring until it's dissolved. I then poured it into a chilled bowl to speed up the cooling process. 

While that is cooling, beat heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Next, beat in the vanilla. Once the gelatin is cooled but not thick pour it down the side of the bowl mixing it in slowly.

Start with the first layer, used a bread knife to level it out, next use a slanted spatula to add the cream filling.

Repeat for each layer and top with the last layer.

Put the stacked cake in the fridge to set and make the buttercream. Once the buttercream is made it is time for the crumb coat.

Using a slanted spatula give the cake a very thin crumb coat.

Once the crumb coat is finished put the cake back in the fridge to set.

Next, frost cake with remaining buttercream and decorate as desired.

Cover top with sprinkles if desired.

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Cream Filled Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake; use cake pans instead of cupcake pans
Buttercream frosting

Filling:

2 tsp. unflavored gelatin 

3 tbsp. cold water

2 cups heavy whipping cream

½ cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

Filling:

1. In a small sauce pan pour gelatin over cold water, heat on medium, stirring constantly until dissolved.
2. Whip whipping cream and powdered sugar until soft peaks form, add vanilla and continue to beat.
3. Once gelatin is cooled slowly pour it down the side of the bowl while mixing.

Cake Assembly:

1. Bake and cool cake. Make filling. Assemble cake by placing about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of filling between each layer. Repeat for each layer. 
2. Top with last layer. Refrigerate.
3. Give cake a crumb coat. Refrigerate.
4. Icing and decorate how desired.

Try it out, let me know what you think! xoxo