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!