CIY: Orange Creamsicle Fudge

THE CREDIT

The Pinspiration | The Source

THE SELECTION

As soon as I re-pinned this, fellow Twenties Hacker food writer Meghan Fitz commented and was all “OMG YOU MUST TRY THIS” but I was determined to do a peppermint theme in December (and, as you may have noticed, only managed to get two of them in… ah well, I tried). But we’ve got plenty of time in January (five Mondays!) so I decided this would be the perfect time.

I’d never tried to make fudge before, and I was a little nervous about the part where the directions were all “do this IMMEDIATELY” and “hurry quick do this next part before the fudge hardens and you’ve ruined everything” (I’m paraphrasing), so I made sure to get absolutely everything as ready as I could, and… there really wasn’t a need to panic. You have a little bit of room to breathe.

THE RECIPE – ORANGE CREAMSICLE FUDGE

Ingredients

• 6 oz butter (1.5 sticks)
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups heavy cream (I substituted the evaporated milk again)
• 12 ounces (1 package) white chocolate chips
• 7 ounces (1 jar) marshmallow creme or fluff
• 1 Tablespoon orange extract
• orange (or red + yellow) food coloring

Instructions

Line a 13×9 pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside, for now.

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, heavy cream (or evaporated milk), and butter over medium heat; stir until butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Brush the sides with a wet pastry brush. (I’m not really sure what this did, but I did it anyway. I am a direction follower.)

Bring your mixture to a boil. Once it starts boiling, stir continuously for 4 minutes. (I set a timer.)

After your 4 minutes of boiling and stirring, remove from heat and immediately stir in the marshmallow creme and white chocolate chips. Stir, stir, stir until the chocolate has melted and everything is smooth. (The four minutes of stirring was nothing, but my arm felt like it was going to fall off in this step. Ugh. I’m such a weakling.)

This next part you’ll want to do as quickly as you can, because the fudge will start to set. However, while you’ll want to be fast, you don’t need to be Super Chef – you’ve got plenty of time, so keep calm and carry on, or what have you.

Pour 1/3 of the white fudge mixture into a bowl and set aside (but not for long). To the remainder of the fudge in your saucepan, add the orange extract and a suitable amount of food coloring and stir some more (lots of stirring in this recipe) until you’ve got a nice even color.

Pour the orange fudge into your lined pan and spread it out into an even layer.

Drop spoonfuls of the white fudge onto the orange.

Use a knife to swirl around the white fudge to make it pretty (sort of like we did with the pumpkin cream cheese bread).

Let stand for at least 2 hours (or 1 hour if you put it in the fridge). Serve at room temperature.

THE VERDICT

I can only usually eat little bits of fudge because it’s so rich and so sweet that that’s about all I can handle. This, however, is a little bit less sweet – I mean, it’s fudge, so it’s sweet, but… just the right amount of it.

Can regular people actually make this? Is it easy? I had never made fudge before and I found it to be pretty straightforward, so, yes – I would say it’s easy.

Did it require any weird gagetry or cookware? Nope – just your basics.

How much did the ingredients cost? The butter, sugar, and food coloring I already had on hand, but the bag of white chocolate chips (Nestle’s) was $2.59, the marshmallow creme was $1.09, the orange extract was $2.59, and the evaporated milk was $1.39. (Told you I’d eventually keep track of these things for you!). Total cost of these additional ingredients was $7.66, and I got 35 pieces, so… roughly $0.22 per piece. (MATHS!)

*Cost of goods based on prices in the Midwest and may vary by region.

Does it taste as good as it looks? You know that orange creamsicle flavor that you were probably envisioning when you saw this? It tastes exactly like that. But in fudge form. It’s delicious.

Does it only look good because it was so well photographed? They taste exactly like they look.

Final recommendation: An emphatic thumbs up.

Born, raised, and currently living in one of those states in the middle that nobody can locate on a map, Kelly has been writing some nonsense or another since she was old enough to string words together. A recovering perfectionist and an unapologetic daydreamer, she spends her free time browsing the Internet with more tabs open than any one person should be able to navigate, getting irrationally angry about misplaced apostrophes, and using her degree in graphic design to awkwardly Photoshop her face onto various other images. She speaks fluent sarcasm and is working on mastering the art of verbal flailing. She also loves to take pictures – both of the artistic variety and the “that’s going on facebook, isn’t it?” variety. She carries a camera everywhere she goes and is always looking at the world through the eye of a lens. She’s also that one person in the group who always insists on a photo op – you’ll thank her later. She has a ridiculous addiction to ice cream, Diet Mountain Dew, anything pumpkin-flavored, and Target.

Kelly L

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Tagged as: baking, Cook It Yourself (CIY), desserts, fudge, homemade fudge, orange, orange creamsicle