Mamie Eisenhower's Fudge

I've seen Mamie's Fudge, Million Dollar Fudge, Crazy Mamie's Fudge, all sorts of names. There are also several different recipes under each name. After a bit of Internet research, seems that this particular recipe is Mamie Eisenhower's recipe, or is attributed to her. Where she got it from is anybody's guess. I found the recipe in a magazine several years back but it is also in the Eisenhower Archives (click here for their PDF and a quick way to print the recipe) as Mamie's Million Dollar Fudge. Mrs. Eisenhower's recipe quickly became popular after it was printed in several women's magazines and newspapers during her husband's presidency.



Mamie Eisenhower in her inaugural gown,
painted in 1953 by Thomas Stevens.
Public domain image via Flickr Commons



The story goes that President Eisenhower liked his wife's fudge so much that he called it her Million Dollar Fudge. Well, whatever, it's a pretty rootin' tootin' good fudge and sooo easy. No soft-ball stage, no beating until your arm goes numb.

Apparently, there was a Million Dollar Fudge recipe that circulated around in the mid-1900's the way the Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe did a few years back. I'll quote from SkaarupFudge.com:

"Fantasy Fudge" is probably the world's most popular fudge recipe. The folklore (there are very few reliable historical references for fudge) goes something like this... A candy company named “See’s Candy” made a fortune selling a wonderfully rich and fluffy fudge. It contained a “secret” ingredient known only by those who made it. The secret ingredient turned out to be marshmallows. The Marshmallow Fluff company had a very similar recipe on the back of each jar of Fluff. When Kraft Foods introduced Marshmallow Creme (not “cream,” spelled wrong intentionally) it included an easy “Fantasy Fudge” recipe which was a cleaned up version of the Million Dollar Fudge Recipe and called for Kraft Marshmallow Creme.

 

Skaarup Fudge, by the way, has a eleventy-gillion fudge recipes plus plenty of good fudge-making tips and information. Check 'em out.

Mmmm, all this talk about fudge ....
 
 

 
 
 

So here's what you're going to need:

 

4 1/2 cups of sugar

A pinch of salt

2 tbsp butter

12 oz can of evaporated milk - not sweetened condensed (too sweet!) 

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips- not milk chocolate

12 oz German sweet chocolate

2 cups marshmallow cream

2 cups chopped nuts

Notes: If you cannot find sweet chocolate, you can substitute 12 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate plus 6 tbsp of sugar or 12 oz. of bittersweet chocolate (without the extra sugar). And of course the nuts are optional- I've made it both ways and personally prefer with nuts but I'm not allergic.

This is a pinch of salt, with my pincers. Seems like alot, doesn't it? My understanding is that a "dash" is 1/8 tsp. and a "pinch" is just a bit less than that.

Before you start--

Decide on your pan to cool the fudge. This recipe makes a fair amount of fudge and I've found that the 9x13 pan called for in the recipe makes really thick fudge, which can be hard to cut into small pieces. Instead of halving the recipe (heaven forbid) or splitting between two pans, I line a deep cookie sheet with foil and spray with oil. So much easier to cut into reasonably sized pieces.

First--

Place the sweet chocolate, chips, fluff, and nuts in a large, heat-proof bowl.

Second--

Place the sugar, evaporated milk, butter, and salt in a large saucepan.

Boil for 6 minutes, stirring frequently almost constantly.

I start the heat out on low so that the sugar doesn't scorch and turn it up a bit once it's nice and liquid-y, just to get the boil started. BUT, turn it back down again once it starts to boil or it could boil right up out of the pan and all over your stove. Trust me on that. Plus I've found that it still boils along at a pretty nice bubble even on the lowest heat.

Carefully pour the very hot sugar mixture into the bowl with the chocolate and stir it all up until the chocolate is completely melted.

Did I mention that this is very hot? I mix the fudge together in a stainless steel bowl so use a towel to keep from frying off my fingerprints. Purists will cringe and cry out that glass bowls are the only way to go but my stainless bowls have worked for the past several years. You'll also want to be sure to scrape the sides as you stir since the fudge will start to harden and crystallize on the bowl as it cools. Just don't scrap out all the hardened fudge when you're turning it into the pan or there will be grainy bits in your fudge.

Scoop out the fudge onto the cookie sheet. Smooth it as much as you can and then just set it aside to cool. If you're impatient you can stick it in the 'fridge.

When the fudge is firm, I place a large cutting board over the cookie sheet and flip it over onto the cutting board. Peel off the aluminum foil.

I spray a pizza cutter with PAM and use that to cut the fudge. Go slowly as it's easy to drive all over the fudge and end up with a wide variety of shapes and sizes but with a bit a caution this is a slick way to cut the fudge. I store the fudge in a Tupperware container with waxed paper between each layer of fudge.

There you go-- serve with milk and Christmas carols next to the tree.


Until next time---

Count Down Calendar (Advent Calendar)

Are we there yet? Can't you just remember how when you were a kid it seemed as though Christmas would never, I mean NEVER, arrive? I swear, counting the days until Christmas- several times a day- was how my Zippy learned to count.

Here's a Countdown Calendar project to get your little Santa's Helpers in on the act. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you would like for it to be.

  

Start out with a basic "wood" clipboard. These are some kind of compressed wood product and hold the glue, paint, sparkles, etc. much better than the plastic ones. I got mine from Office Depot and they come in 2-packs. Nice if you have more than one munchkin type person at your house. Some clipboards have the screws to remove the clip do-hickey at the top but I wasn't able to find any of those. So we'll work around it.

You'll also need some of this super fun chalkboard paint. How fun is this stuff!! 

Mark out a 7.5 inch square on the clipboard.

Tape off the square with painters tape and paint inside the square with the chalkboard paint. If you can, use the painters tape for delicate surfaces.

You'll need to use two coats in order to get good coverage. Paint one coat in one direction, let it dry, and paint the second coat in the other direction.

Make your stroke nice and smooth and even, as on the left side above, not swirly like on the right side of the clipboard. You know that, of course, but when working with kids or non-crafter adults (like I do) you'll want to mention it.

Once the paint is dry, carefully peel off the painters tape.

Use a pencil to mark out your grid. The lines need to be 1.5 inches apart in order to get your 5 x 5 grid.

Use a paint marker to draw your grid.

 Draw all of the lines in one direction first, letting them dry completely before you do the perpendicular lines so that you don't get streaking and smudging.

Here's another hint- once you draw a line with the paint marker, tilt the ruler up and away from the board instead of sliding it. You may also want to consider wiping the edge of the ruler off with a wipe or damp paper towel before you lay it back down on the clipboard for the next line. The paint markers dry fairly quickly.

After I started this clipboard, I decided that I wanted the edges around the chalkboard part to be a color. That's because ...

 ... I was zero-thrilled with my first run at this project.

So I carefully taped off the chalkboard area and painted the outer edges.

  

 Next I drew some gingerbread men in a couple of sizes on tan scrapbook paper, shaded them with colored pencils, and painted on the frosting with paint markers.

Then I added some swirls with white glue and glitter and drew in a little Cardinal friend with paint markers and Sharpie.

Glue on the gingerbread fellas once the glitter-glue swirls have dried.

Finally, add a bow.

Write in the countdown days with chalk. We have a big debate at our house every year about which day is first, which day is last so I started on the Eve as one day left since that day can feel like the longest day of the month when you're a kid who's been forbidden from shaking any more presents.

Stash the chalk in the clip do-hickey.

You can erase the days or cross them out with the chalk.

I did make another countdown calendar, going back to the non-painted outer edges. I used scrapbook paper to add a colored band across the top and was originally going to cut out CriCut letters for a title --"Days To Go" or something. But the felt presents and tree, which came from Michael's, were so cute I just went with them and added some swirls with glitter glue. Not lovin' this one either but it's just so fun to play around.

So there you have it! Not too hard at all. You could use the clip part at the top to post notes such as...

"Stop poking at the presents."

"Clean your room or no presents."

"There better be some diamonds under that tree."

So hang in there, we're getting closer. Have fun and sing a few carols today.

Next time- Awesome Fudge!

Fruktsuppe - Norwegian Fruit Soup

Yes, Virginia, there is a Fruit Soup. And it's delicious.

Norwegian Fruit Soup is a warm soup based on dried fruits. Yes, I meant to say "warm." There are as many recipes for Fruit Soup as there are Norwegian families. But ours is the right one! Just kidding. Some of the recipes seem strange and unappetizing to me, that's true, but it's mainly because I've never tried them. Some recipes look as though they might be as good as our family's recipe.

I could go on about how each recipe springs from a distinct region of Norway, just as  does the Bunad-





by knitting iris via Flickr Creative Commons

(Uffda! This woman looks so much like my mother!)



-the traditional Norwegian folk wear- and hearken back for centuries, recalling thousands of years of family and tradition in each particular fjord and valley. But I would be serving you a load of svin skitt. Pardon my Norwegian. Simply put, there are many "right" recipes for Fruktsuppe. I am skeptical, however, of the true Norwegian-ness (that's an old word I just made up) of the recipes that call for things like pineapple, fresh mango, and canned fruit cocktail. These soups are probably delicious but those ingredients were most likely not available on the fjord in the dead of winter way back when. I'm just sayin' ...

This recipe comes from my Aunt and is a Christmas Eve staple at our house. Let's get busy.

Aunt Tante's Fruit Soup

(Tante is Norwegian for "aunt". Since I generally do not use real given names here in the Jungle, we'll go with tante).

You will need:

1/2 lb pitted prunes

1 cup raisins

1 orange

1 lemon

4 tbsp Tapioca

1/4 lb. dried apricots

3 apples

3/4 cup sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 can tart red cherries, with liquid

Notes on ingredients: Tante's recipe says to use 2 tbsp large pearl tapioca and 2 tbsp of small pearl. I was only able to find the small pearl Tapioca this year so 4 tbsp of small it is.

The small is pictured above on the left. Large pearl Tapioca is way cool and is what is used in Pearl Milk/Bubble Tea/etc. Instant tapioca is shown on the right above. It's crushed and I suppose would do in an absolute emergency but I've never used it so can't give a first hand testimony.

Let's get busy---

Start this recipe in the evening the day before you plan to serve it.

Snip the prunes and apricots in half, three's at the most. I don't have a picture of the snipped prunes I'm willing to share as they didn't look very appetizing. Just couldn't get a good picture of snipped prunes but they will be about the same size as the apricots.

Slice the lemon and orange into thin slices. Don't peel them. You can cut the little belly button thing off the lemon if you want.

Put the prunes, apricots, lemon, orange, raisins, tapioca, sugar, and cinnamon stick in a large pot such as a Dutch oven.

Add just enough water to cover the fruit and stir it up just enough to dissolve the sugar. Put the lid on the pot and...

... go away. Let the soup sit unheated and undisturbed overnight.

The next day, core and slice the apples, leaving the skin intact.

Add the apple to the pot along with 2 cups of water. Cook until the fruit is soft, about 1/2 an hour.

Add the canned cherries and their liquid last and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Notes about heating and progression through the recipe: You can finish off the soup in the morning, turn the heat off, and let it sit until you're ready to serve- just gently warm it up again. Or you can let it sit all day and finish the soup off about 1/2 an hour or so before you plan to serve it. It doesn't really matter.

This soup is meant to be served warm. For some reason, we always serve ours in small crystal cups. I have no explanation for that other than it was what Mom had available after all the other food was dished up and so the tradition was born. It's also good eaten right out of the pot, just don't let anyone see you doing so.

Yes, you can eat it cold if you would like but you really should try it warm first. Warm is our family's preference, even for leftovers.

Yes, it's good, warm or cold, with a nice vanilla ice cream.

Until next time, wishing you ...