Another Family Luncheon - Cheat's Fudge

An easy way to make fudge - and fool-proof too!

A week after the last family luncheon, BL decided to make Prawn Noodles or Hokkien Mee. Again, the noddles are plain yellow noodles, but this time in a mildly spicy pork and prawn broth. One can have vermicelli (bee hoon) with the yellow noodles, and is garnished with water convolvus (kangkong), hard boiled egg, cooked prawns, and a generous helping of fried shallots. Once again, yummy!! My contribution this time was a Cream of Mushroom Soup (not canned...) with Garlic Bread (hey, East meets West menu. Like I said the last time, anything edible goes!) and since I was super efficient that morning, I had time to make a Cheat's Fudge.

I had not made this fudge in yonks and had forgotten how it was supposed to turn out. It was good! Nuts, chocolate, sugar – what could possibly go wrong? The original recipe came from the Expat Association of Suzhou's recipe book, submitted by my friend Terri Schutte. I adapted it a little to be less sweet and to use baking chocolate instead of choc chips. Choc chips tend to melt slower and the entire mixture could harden quickly. If you need a sweet treat quick, this one's a winner.

Chocolate Fudge (Cheats version)

Miniature marshmallows 4 cups or 12-14 regular ones (cut the regular sized ones as small as you can. Melting big ones are a pain)
Evaporated milk 2/3 cup
Butter ¼ cup
Sugar 1 cup
Salt ¼ tsp
Chocolate 2 cups, roughly chopped
Vanilla extract 1 tsp
Chopped nuts ¾ cup (optional. Choose any nuts you prefer)

Butter an 8X8 pan. Melt marshmallows, evaporated milk, sugar, salt and butter on medium heat. Stir constantly to avoid milk scorching. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add chocolate and vanilla. Stir till chocolate melts. Stir in nuts and pour into buttered dish. Refrigerate till set. Cut into squares and serve.