‘Tis the season for fudge and have we found a winner! We experimented with 3 or 4 different fudge recipes and created something that produced the balance of texture and moistness we were looking for. We didn’t want a brownie or cookie but we also didn’t want fudge that was too creamy and didn’t hold up (enter baking soda). This fudge has us thinking that our Blueberry Balsamic was made just for this recipe. Pairing dark chocolate with dark balsamic, who knew? Add the essence of blueberry and toasted walnuts (the walnuts are crucial to the texture of the final product) and you have a festive dessert that is easier to make than you think. There’s only about 5 minutes of “pay-close-attention” time when you’re melting the chocolate and the rest is mix, pour and set in the fridge. Feel free to experiment with this recipe by substituting some of our other dark balsamics – Strawberry, Raspberry, Black Cherry, or Espresso – and let us know how things turn out in the comment section below.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup walnut pieces
- 1 pound 4 ounces dark chocolate (five 4-ounce bars)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 can or bottle (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup Olive This! Blueberry Balsamic
DIRECTIONS
Place the walnut pieces into a dry skillet and toast over very low heat, about 15 minutes, flipping the skillet to stir occasionally (we set the timer for this because we always forget about them).
While the walnuts are toasting, prepare a foil “sling” for your baking dish to make it easy to remove the fudge when finished. Use an 8×8 baking dish. Fold a sheet of foil, length-wise, just narrower than the inside of your 8-inch dish. Make the sheet long enough to hang over the sides. Place in baking dish as pictured above and spray the foil and dish with cooking spray (or brush with olive oil).
Put about 2 cups of water in a medium-large saucepan on the stove to boil. Chop the bars of chocolate into very small bits aiming for consistent sized pieces. This will help melt the chocolate evenly. Place chopped chocolate into a medium-large stainless steel bowl (or any heat-proof bowl that can sit atop a pan of boiling water).
Toss the salt and baking soda into the bowl of chocolate and stir well to distribute evenly.
Add sweetened condensed milk and balsamic vinegar and stir the mixture well.
Reduce the heat on the stove so the water is just simmering and place bowl on top of saucepan. Using a rubber spatula, stir the chocolate just until it’s almost fully melted, about 3-4 minutes. Watch this very closely. If the chocolate stays on the heat too long, it could separate, get greasy or get grainy.
Remove the bowl from the heat before all of it is melted and continue to stir until chocolate is fully melted and smooth, about another 2 minutes. Stir in toasted walnut pieces.
Transfer fudge to prepared baking dish spreading to the edges to make an even layer. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Once fully set, remove from fridge and run a knife along the two opposite edges where the fudge directly touches the dish. Then, use your foil sling to carefully remove from pan. Discard foil and cut into squares and serve. Store the fudge in a cool place wrapped tightly in plastic or in a zipper-lock bag.
Have a comment? We’d love to hear from you. Have you tried this dish? Do you have a variation that you think others will enjoy? Leave us a comment below.
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