Ed’s Peanut Butter Fudge

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water or the top of a double
boiler. Make sure you don’t get even a drop of water in the
chocolate. Stir frequently with a spatula while doing the following
steps and remove it from the hot water just as soon as it’s melted.

Melt the butter. Mix together the powdered sugar, the melted butter
and the vanilla. Don’t bother sifting the powdered sugar. Just stir
everything together with a wooden spoon until it’s smooth and creamy.
Stir in the peanut butter. This will break most flimsy wooden spoons
if you’re not careful. Mushing everything together with your hands
works well and is lots of fun.

Press the fudge into a buttered 8 or 9 square pan. You don’t need
much butter, just wipe the butter papers over the inside of the pan.
You can also line the pan with foil and butter that; this works
especially well if you’re making several batches in a row to give to
people as holiday presents. Press the fudge in firmly; you don’t want
any air bubbles in it. You will get your hands messy here.

Pour the chocolate over the fudge and spread it in an even layer. The
easiest way to do this is to shake the pan gently until the chocolate
is even. Let the chocolate cool to room temperature. DO NOT PUT IT
IN THE REFRIGERATOR.

Using a sharp knife cut the fudge into 1 squares. If you defied my
instructions and put it in the refrigerator, the chocolate layer will
shatter when you try to cut it. Unless you are going to serve it
immediately, store it in the refrigerator. Let it come to room
temperature before serving.

Again, don’t scrimp on the peanut butter! Skippy simply will not do.

NOTES:

* An extremely rich candy — I got this recipe from a friend, Ed
Firestone, who is arguably the best cook in Palo Alto. The results
resemble Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups that have attained Nirvana. Don’t
scrimp on the peanut butter; get the best you can find or make it
yourself. If there’s anything besides peanuts and salt in it, find
another brand.

* Unless you use the foil method, you will inevitably destroy at
least one piece getting it out of the pan. The best method is to
line the pan with foil, let the fudge cool, lift it out, peel off the
foil, put it back in the pan and cut it. This keeps it from sticking
to the pan. If you try to cut it out of the pan, it tends to fall
apart.

: Difficulty: moderate.
: Time: 20 minutes preparation, 15 minutes cooling.
: Precision: no need to measure.

: -paul asente
: decwrl!glacier!cascade!asente asente@SU-Cascade.ARPA
:
: You got peanut butter on my chocolate!