The Baby calmly accompanied her older brother and sister on their Christmas shopping trips this weekend – The Girl went with me and The Boy with his dad and The Baby caboosed along behind cheerfully enough. We (and this was, in retrospect, very stupid) did not even think that she’d be interested yet in giving presents to anyone.
"Where my presents at?" she demanded on Sunday night. We obligingly pointed out the ridiculous tower of gifts underneath our tree. She shook her head ferociously.
"NO," she said, "where MY presents at?". And then we got it – she wanted to give presents. So the two of us made this:
Candy Cane Layered Fudge
This looks modestly fussy but it’s really NOT – aside from the stove parts of the recipe, The Baby handled pretty much everything. She spread the chocolate in the pan, smashed the candy canes with her dad and sprinkled them on top and then handled the very important tasting jobs afterwards. If you have a last minute desire to make something festive, this is a grand little recipe.
Line an 8" square pan with foil. I then sprayed ours with non-stick spray, but you can skip that step if you want.
Put some candy canes – we used three – in a ziplock bag. Pound the tar out of them with a rolling pin or similar implement of pounding.
Mix together 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (we used a deep, dark chocolate) and 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk. I melted ours together on a low heat on the stove, but you could use the microwave, too. (which would only take 2 30-second trips, with a brief pause for stirring) When the mixture is smooth, use a spatula to spread it in the prepared pan.
Now you’re going to do it all over again! This time, use 1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips (or, if your local grocery store doesn’t carry them – like mine – use 4 squares of white baking chocolate) and 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk. Melt them together again (be careful and vigilant! White chocolate burns easily.) and then, when the mixture is smooth, carefully spread it on top of the chocolate layer. You don’t want to smoosh them together.
Take your smashed-up candy canes and strew them merrily upon the hot fudge. Let your fudge cool its heels for a while in the fridge and then slice it up – you may have the urge to cut jumbo slices, but err on the side of moderation because it’s RICH. This makes more then enough fudge for a little girl to hand out on Christmas morning, and more then enough to soothe a suddenly generous little heart.