Easy Soy-Free Fudge for Mom

Mom will be pleased that she, too, can
enjoy a piece or two of fudge for dessert.

Last year, I discovered Mrs. Happy Homemaker. She was on a local television news program showing us how to make candy dishes out of hard mint candy. After the show, I looked up the recipe on her website and made a couple of candy cheese plates. This year, I even noted in my column that candy canes can be used to make edible dish ware. That's how impressed I was with Mrs. Happy Homemaker's festive idea and her easy-to-follow instructions. 

This year, while perusing Twitter, I could not resist clicking on the link in a tweet that suggested I could make fudge with only two ingredients. Fudge always eluded me. But if it was that easy, and did not require baking, boiling, simmering, or any other patience-required kitchen dance, it was worth a try. While I know patience is an important ingredient for many recipes, patience is in short supply around my kitchen during the holiday season.

The two ingredients for the fudge were milk chocolate chips and coconut pecan frosting. My heart sank as I read the two simple ingredients. My mom has a soy allergy. How was I going to find chocolate chips as well as a tub of frosting that each contained no soy or soy products? 

Thanks to Betty Crocker, Hershey's, and
Nestlé, mom can have fudge again.

It being the Christmas season, I decided to head to the grocery store and read labels. To my surprise and joy, I came across Hershey's chocolate caramel frosting by Betty Crocker. It was soy-free. I was elated enough to start rummaging through the wall of morsels in search of something without soy lecithin. It took a little longer, but I finally unearthed Nestlé dark chocolate morsels (53% cacao). It was a holiday miracle! I was going to be able to make chocolate caramel fudge that even my mom could enjoy.

The instructions were, again, easy to follow. My adaptations included using the chocolate caramel frosting and dark chocolate morsels as well as putting down parchment paper instead of foil and forgoing the cooking spray. 

Parchment paper works just as well
as foil and cooking spray.

While at first it smelled like those Easy Bake Oven cakes my sister and I made a million years ago, it set up just as Mrs. Happy Homemaker said it would after thirty minutes in my refrigerator. And the final result smelled like decadent fudge. 

In years past, I put brownies on our Christmas cookie plates for friends and neighbors. This year, they are getting fudge. Thank you Mrs. Happy Homemaker!

Micki Bare, mother of three, wife, daughter & writer is the author of Thurston T. Turtle children's books. 

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Copyright 2014 Michele Bare