Easy Chocolate Fudge (not reeeeeeally fudge...)

This is another potential Christmas treat, though I must warn you that although this stuff is good, it's good in a way your seven-year-old will probably appreciate most. By which I mean it tastes like what it is, which is chocolate and sweetened condensed milk. Not necessarily a bad thing - but this is definitely not on the same level as, say, macarons or fine chocolates. Quick sugar high? This stuff is perfect! Fancy petit fours? Not so much. ;-)

It is super easy, though - definitely kid friendly in the making as well as the eating! I must confess I was lured in by the word "simple" in the blog post where I saw it - but I hadn't realised quite how simple!

 It's simple in every respect, too; only a couple of ingredients, you almost don't need to measure them (more on that in a minute), it's prepared in a saucepan and then poured into a lined dish, so the only dishes you'll dirty are the pot and whatever you stir it with - and it takes about five minutes and virtually no effort. It's almost too easy!

The recipe calls for three cups of chocolate chips -two cups of bittersweet (that's the stuff that's about 50% cocoa solids - not really milk choc but not that dark either) and one cup of milk chocolate. That equates to about 550g. The sweetened condensed milk component is just one tin - so I reckon two 250g blocks of Whittakers chocolate would work perfectly with a tin of sweetened condensed milk that you had surreptitiously taxed with, say, a dessertspoon. ;-) And then you wouldn't have to measure anything! I weighed my chocolate, because I was using Cadbury's (see, Cadbury, you really shouldn't have started making your blocks smaller...) as it was on special at New World. And I used two blocks of milk chocolate and made the rest up with Dream, which I figured would make it extra sweet and creamy. Which it did. Perhaps the bittersweet would have been better...

The process is: melt the chocolate and condensed milk over low heat with a pinch of salt; add vanilla, stir, pour into prepared tin. That's it. Oh, and you have to chill it for a while.

I was trying to simultaneously make it a little fancier and use up the last 6 squares of Dream, since there were quite a few more than six left when I finished weighing them out, but by the time I had melted the stuff, well, I'm sure you know how it goes. I figured using the rest up would save me from myself (never mind that I now have about 700g of fudge to gobble if I was so inclined!). I zapped it in the microwave (about 30 seconds - such a small amount doesn't take long), drizzled it over the top and then used the handle of a spoon to mix it up a bit to make swirly patterns. It's a bit messy but I think kinda cool, in a random way. 

It has a nice fudgey texture, and definitely satisfies a sweet tooth, but it doesn't fool me into thinking it's fudge. Good, though!

And I'm sure my Mum taught me not to play with my food, but I clearly didn't listen. ;-)

Easy Chocolate Not-Fudge
Ingredients
550g/3 cups chocolate chips
1 tin sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp (or a pinch) of salt
1 tsp vanilla essence

Line a brownie pan or 20cm square cake tin with tinfoil. Melt the chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and salt together in a saucepan over low-medium heat, stirring continually. Once the mixture is smooth add the vanilla and pour into the prepared tin. Chill for 3-4 hours or until set; cut into pieces to serve. Keep refrigerated.