Tag: mother’s day

March 9, 2015

Ta, Ma.

Apparently when I think Mother’s Day blogging I think fudge. It’s a good thing my mum likes fudge. What’s that? You didn’t realise Mother’s day was so soon? I know, right? Me neither. It’s this Sunday for those of you in GB, the rest of you should check your calendars, this is the sneakiest holiday of the year.

This is a super super easy way to make a treat for your Ma. It’s not like the last fudge recipe I posted, which while being totally delicious I’d wager none of you actually made. Well there’s no boiling sugar or a thermometer required for this one, and barely any cooking at all.

You might need to cut this recipe by half or even more, it makes quite a large batch for just one mummy to eat. It can be frozen.

You will need

600g/1 lb 3 oz White chocolate (yeah, this is serious stuff)

397g Condensed milk (1 can basically)

125g/4.5 oz Cranberries

85g/3 oz Mini marshmallows

25g/1 oz Dark chocolate

Other decorations (I used silver balls and freeze dried raspberries because that’s what I had, but any manner of nuts and dried fruits would be acceptable, even as a substitute for the marshmallows and cranberries)

Step one

Break the white chocolate into chunks and place in a pan with the tin of condensed milk.

Melt together on a low heat. Once you have a smooth fudge-like mixture, remove from the hob.

Step two

Add two thirds of the cranberries and marshmallows, stir to combine.

Step three

Drop the mixture into a brownie tin lined with greaseproof paper. Push into the corners with the back of a spoon and even the top out a bit.

Step four

Sprinkle the remaining cranberries, the silver balls and freeze-dried raspberries on top and push down slightly so they stick.

The alternative would be to swap this step with the next one so they stick to the chocolate (this would probably also look nicer because you would actually be able to see them rather than hiding them with a load of dark chocolate…). I make the mistakes so you don’t have to.

Step five

Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave and drizzle over the fudge. Sprinkle the remaining marshmallows on top. I had a bit of dark chocolate left so did another layer on top of the marshmallows.

Place in the fridge to allow the whole thing to set.

Step six

Using a cutter of your choice (this heart-shaped one was from Lakeland), cut the fudge into pieces. If you don’t have a cutter, then bars or chunks would look nice too.

March 25, 2014

Fudge for mama

Hello there, apologies for the short blogging hiatus; life happens sometimes, but I appreciate you sticking with me.

This weekend I went to stay with my friend Beth before she goes on her trip. Being as Mother’s Day is so near (this Sunday for those of you in the UK), B and I thought we would make some fudge for our mummys.

Whether or not you have Mother’s Day coming up, I urge you to have a go with making fudge. It’s a bit of a rascal but there’s lots to feel good about when you get it right, I’ve made quite a lot in my life time and so hopefully some of the below will help you avoid some of the fudging pitfalls.

Just a heads up, the batch below is fairly large, so unless you’re making it with a friend or for your Grandma too, you may want to cut the quantities in half.

You will need

1kg/2lb Granulated sugar

280g/10 floz Evaporated milk

120g/4 oz Clear honey

120g/4oz Salted butter

250g/9oz Dried apricots

1tsp of Liquid glucose (if you have it – not essential – but great)

Tray bake tin lined with greaseproof paper

Sugar thermometer (essential)

Step one

Combine all the ingredients (minus the apricots) into a large heavy bottomed pan.

At home I use the pressure cooker, and at Beth’s we discovered this casserole dish worked pretty well. The pan should be quite large as the mixture will bubble up, and the sturdier it is the less likely your fudge is to scorch.

Step two

Melt ingredients on a reeeaaallly low heat.

Seriously. As low as your cooker goes. Impatience will not help you here.

This ensures all the sugar is dissolved before it boils, and should help to prevent sugar crystals forming.

You should stir gently to stop the mixture burning on the bottom of the pan. Pop your thermometer in at this point too.

This was the first outing of my rather swish thermospatula, above, so I could stir and measure the temperature at the same time. I know, I need to get out more.

Step two and a half

Keep the fudge on a low heat, stirring gently.

It will begin to boil as above. Resist the urge to put your face in it, as good as it smells, that won’t end well for you.

This is where the thicker your pan the better, as this boiling stage should take around 10-15 minutes ideally. You want your fudge to reach soft ball stage on the thermometer or 115 degrees. Patience is the key here. You should the fudge thicken up and get darker evenly.

Step three (optional)

Once your fudge has reached 115 degrees pour immediately into an empty saucepan. Some fudge people will disagree with me here, as faffing about with fudge can cause crystallisation in the sugar. However, I’ve found that if I leave it in the original pan it carries on cooking and can become brittle. The trick is to do it straight away and don’t scrape the pan out or stir it once transferred.

Now, DO NOT TOUCH. Don’t allow pets, children or interfering family members near the fudge mix for at least half an hour. Preferably you want to wait until the thermometer hits about 50 degrees, but when I did this for a craft fair a few years ago I didn’t have the time to hang around, and found that half an hour was generally enough.

Step four

While you wait, use scissors to chop the apricots into tiny pieces. These are an optional addition and can be substituted depending on your mum’s tastes. You may want to add a different dried fruit, some chopped nuts, or chocolate instead.

Step five

Get a wooden spoon, summons all your arm power, and beat the mixture. If you have a stand mixer, you’re laughing at this stage, because it can take up to 15 mins sometimes…

About 5-7 minutes into your beating add the apricots (warning, if using chocolate chips you want to add them as late as possible so they don’t melt completely).

Keep going until the fudge becomes very thick, you still need it to be soft enough to spoon into the tin, so try not to take it too far. I didn’t have the chance to photograph this, so you will need to take your best guess. Here’s a clue though, your arm will be hurting you by now.

Step six

Spoon into your lined tin and leave to set.

Ta da! You’ve done it!

March 3, 2014

Just ten more minutes…

Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving that Spring is having a little flirt with us at the moment. The evenings are getting longer and the sun is playing peek-a-boo. At the same time, sometimes you wake up a little bit earlier than intended at the weekend or you just want to shut it all out for a little Sunday nap. So here’s a really quick and easy make for catching some Zzz or maybe adding to a little pamper package for Mother’s Day? More on that later…

You will need

Some pretty scrap fabric (the darker and thicker the better)

Bias binding (mine was 12mm thick)

17″/43cm Elastic

Needle and thread/Sewing machine

Pins

Downloadable template

Step one

Pin the template to at least two layers of fabric. At this stage you might also want to sandwich a little padding in between, but I didn’t have any to hand so just went without.

I just used some scrap fabric for this make, but I would advise you choose a darker palette than this if you can as it will block out more light.

Cut around the template, leaving a small seam allowance, a couple of mm will do as you aren’t turning inside out.

Step two

Remove template and re-pin your fabric layers together. You will see I used some of the adhesive fabric I used for my bookbinding tutorial. This was an error. The iron isn’t a huge fan of this material and vice versa. You will see later.

ANYWAY. Sew around the edge to bind all the layers together. Make sure that if you are using patterned fabric the right side is facing out.

Step three

So, I never knew how to sew on bias binding properly until a few months ago. It changes your life. Seriously.

You will notice that one of the folds in your bias binding is slightly smaller than the other side. You want to open the shorter side out and pin to the edge of your fabric as shown above.

Note that the pins are facing outwards, this is because I was using a sewing machine and this way it just runs straight over, no need to pull them out as you go. If you’re hand sewing you probably want to pin the opposite way so you still have hands left at the end.

Step four

Sew around the binding, on the outer edge of the fold (see above).

Unpin.

Step five

Turn the bias binding over and use an iron to press it down (mainly for the benefit of people using a sewing machine)

Pin the elastic under the bias on both sides. You want to adjust this to size depending on who you’re making it for, 17″/43cm was a little on the large side for me so perhaps go a bit smaller or measure round the back of your head from temple to temple. Don’t forget to take a bit of length off so it holds by the stretch.

Step six

Sew the top of the bias binding as close to the edge as you can. Use a close zigzag stitch to secure elastic to the front of the mask, this will stop any light seeping through the gaps at the sides.

(you can see that the heat of the iron on the adhesive wrinkled my top fabric layer quite a lot, this shouldn’t happen to you!)

Step seven

3, 2, 1, nap.

Have a great week folks!