Oh, Fudge!

yeah. so you know those times when you get a crazy idea to do something at 9pm, and the voice of reason FAILS you, so you end up doing it??


well.. I decided, on a whim, to make FUDGE one evening.


first of all.. I have never made fudge before, but I decided it was high time I make some, and more importantly.. EAT some.


let the record show that this was a big mistake.



I didn't even bother taking pictures of it, because for ONE.. I didn't know what I was doing, and TWO... I was too bent on EATING the creation to even think straight.


I feel foolish, as the ingredients for MOST fudge recipes are merely chocolate and condensed milk... but somewhere between chopping the chocolate and sticking my fingers in and licking the ingredients as they melted, things went astray.


In the end.. it was eaten. but it was not so much fudgey as it was a grainy chocolate bar. bleh. I would have been better off just sticking a straw into a bottle of chocolate syrup and going to town, or just eating the baking chips right out of the package.

I'm chalking this up as a hormonal-driven catastrophe. Ordinarily I wouldn't/shouldn't post about hot messes like this.. but I need to document these kind of mistakes so I can learn from them. really. cooking is not always about the ingredients and techniques you use.. it also has a lot to do with your mental state while PERFORMING such tasks as baking/creating/cooking.


I do plan on attempting the fudge again, though. (I won't go down without at least another fight!) I WILL, however.. wait until a better time of the month for my next attempt.. and maybe try it during the day when I'm a little less 'cagey'. just sayin'.

More-than-S'Mores

Ladies and gentlemen... I'm happy to announce I have created another Happy Jane Flavor.

Meet the "More-than-a-S'more"....

I was going to call them S'mores a Go-Go, but I used that name for a post I did about little S'mores favors I made for my son's first birthday. Who knows.. maybe I will go with the Go-Go name. but not now. Now I just want to share the latest Jane.

So she was SUPER easy to make... did a batch of the home-made graham crackers. I'm definitely loving that recipe that Cupcake Project posted. LOVE IT!

As usual, I roll it out on the thick side, then cut out my rounds. I like the bottoms to be thick because the topping are just SO sweet that the thicker cookie base is needed for balance. otherwise.. why am I not just making filled chocolates, you know?

ANYWAY. after my rounds were made, I had some dough left, so I rolled it nice and thin so I could have some graham crackers for the kids. (for the kids.. THIN is the key. I've made fun shapes for them in the past, using the same thickness as I do for my sugar cookies, and wow.. it's like eating dog biscuits. So for non-Happy-Jane graham cracker making? thinner is better in our house.)

but back to the Janes. I piped a home-made marshmallow butter cream on the rounds, then dipped them in a dark chocolate.

these were very very sweet. ALMOST too sweet for my taste with that marshmallow filling... but again.. the thicker graham rounds help spread out that sweetness so it wasn't a full-on assault of your teeth. (I do NOT recommend eating the toppings off the cookies first. really. TOO SWEET! YOW!)

Nonetheless... I think these will make a fine addition to the Happy Jane Flavor Roster. the best part? no camping required to enjoy them!

Lessons Learned: the marshmallow butter cream is not nearly as thick as some of my other toppings. when in the dipping stage, I find it is far better to dip the cookies and filling right after they have been removed from the freezer so they can withstand the heat of the melted chocolate. towards the end of the batch I had on my tray, I found that the filling was melting under the chocolate, and gave way to a 'broken shell' appearance. Still tasty.. but not as pretty to me.

oops!