super easy confections

I made a few batches of fudge when I ran out of cookies (and vanilla and spice mix) for the holidays and was once again amazed by just how delicious it is. And it's no fail fudge. For real. This kind was made with a mix of milk and dark chocolate chips, chopped walnuts and a little instant espresso powder. The basic recipe is here and the adorable stickers are from the Small Object. She is out of stock, but it looks like amazon has them. I cut an 8"x 8" pan full into eight bars and wrapped them in parchment paper, and then used the fancy masking tape and stickers. Warning, nothing seems to stick well to the parchment paper, so there was a little swearing here, but they seemed to behave fine in the end. For storage, I just kept them in the fridge, ready to hand out as needed.

I think some new batches of this would be wonderful for Valentine's Day, maybe with a little cayenne pepper. I was going to try caramels, but I just ruined another pot trying to make some. I am really cursed with caramels. I can make caramel sauce just fine, but not the candies. Not yet anyway. I just can't face ruining another pot again. But homemade caramels just make me swoon, especially the fancy ones with the salt. The ones that are like $10 a bag. Grumble, grumble.