Fudge Striped Shortbread Cookies

One of my husband's favorite cookies are Keebler Fudge Stripes. I decided that I'd make him some super special Fudge Striped cookies for Valentine's Day. You start with a simple shortbread cookie recipe and then add some melted chocolate, not nearly as daunting as I thought they might be.

To make your own Fudge Striped Shortbread at home you will need:

For the Cookies:

2 sticks of softened butter
1/2 cup vanilla sugar (you could also use 1/2 cup regular sugar and add in 1 tsp vanilla flavor instead)
2 cups flour (plus extra for rolling out your cookies/dusting your cookie cutters)

For the Fudge Stripes:

1 cup chopped dark chocolate
2 Tablespoons butter or coconut oil

Start by creaming your butter and sugar together in a bowl. Once the butter is light and fluffy and all the sugar us mixed in, add your flour and mix until incorporated. Pour your dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Make your dough into a disk shape, cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill for about 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees (F). Take your dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out to about 1/4" thick on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin.

Select your cookie cutters (I chose the heart shapes above) and cut out your cookie shapes. Some of my heart shaped cutters are quite large, so I used a smaller cookie cutter to cut out another heart in the center. I will admit, one thing I never liked about fudge stripe cookies is that they have a hole in the middle, I want MORE cookie, not less. If you agree with me, then you can leave all of your cookies without the center cutout.

Place your cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20-25 minutes, until they just start to brown a little around the edges. Once done, take out and place on a cooling rack until completely cool, mix up your chocolate for dipping while you wait.

I melt my chocolate in the microwave, but you can use a double boiler if you like. Just put your chopped up chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and add your butter or coconut oil. Microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between each. It takes about 1 minute 30 seconds for all of my chocolate to melt (I stir as much as possible each time, if you need another 30 seconds don't feel bad-it happens).

Once you have your cooled cookies, dip the bottoms of each cookie into the chocolate and place them back onto some parchment (I even put mine on a cool baking sheet and then stick them in the refrigerator to help them set up faster). To make the stripes, I put the remaining chocolate into a sandwich bag, snip off a teeny tiny corner of the bag and use it to pipe on the stripes. These don't have to be prefect, because they are delicious either way. If you don';t want to mess with stripes, you can also just dunk the entire cookie in chocolate!

If you want to see some more "in progress" shots of these guys you can check them out on my Instagram. Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday Food Craft: Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge

What would the holidays be without fudge? This is a variation on my Pistachio Fudge recipe, and let me tell you, it is a winner! If you can find soft peppermint sticks (not candy canes, they are far too hard) crumble them up instead of nuts for a great chocolate peppermint fudge (or forego the chocolate and have just peppermint fudge!).

You will need:

A small baking dish (I used a pyrex dish that is roughly 9" x7", and 8"x 8" baking dish would also work, or double the recipe and use a 9" x 13" cake pan)

1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1/2 c. (heaping) dark chocolate chips
1 cup marshmallow creme
1 pinch salt

This fudge comes together very quickly, so you will want to have a helper to stir while you add all of your ingredients, or make sure you have everything measured out before you begin and close at hand. Also, make you sure you have greased your baking dish ahead of time.

To start, toast your hazelnuts, if desired. You can certainly leave the nuts out, or leave them raw, but I love 'em! Just put your hazelnuts into a dry pan and toast them gently over medium to medium low heat for about ten minutes. You will want to shake the pan every 30 seconds or so to toast them evenly. Let them sit aside until cooled. I generally remove the skins once they are cool, I don't want that in my yummy fudge.

In a large saucepan, heat the evaporated milk, sugar and butter until bubbling, then continue to cook for 4 minutes while stirring continuously.

Remove from heat and add your dark chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, vanilla, salt and hazelnuts. Fill your prepared baking dish, smooth out the top and let cool. You may add extra hazelnuts on top if you wish.

Enjoy!


I usually store my fudge in the refrigerator, but set it out to come to room temperature when serving. It makes a very yummy smooth soft fudge, if you like it firmer, eat it right out of the fridge (or add a bit more chocolate chips)!

Friday Food Craft: Pistachio Fudge

It's an easy sweet treat this week for the Friday Food Craft. This recipe can actually be switched up to become almost any flavor you would like. It's a great fudge recipe because it doesn't require any candy thermometer and hassle. Just a few easy ingredients and about 15 minutes of your time and you can have delicious fudge. Also, you can leave out the artificial food coloring if you like.


You will need:

A small baking dish (I used a pyrex dish that is roughly 9" x7", and 8"x 8" baking dish would also work, or double the recipe and use a 9" x 13" cake pan)

1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup pistachios, shelled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
4 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup marshmallow creme
1-3 drops green food coloring
1 pinch salt

This fudge comes together very quickly, so you will want to have a helper to stir while you add all of your ingredients, or make sure you have everything measured out before you begin and close at hand. Also, make you sure you have greased your baking dish ahead of time.

In a large saucepan, heat the evaporated milk, sugar and butter until bubbling, then continue to cook for 4 minutes while stirring continuously.

Remove from heat and add your white chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, vanilla, salt, pistachios and food coloring. You may add more or less green coloring depending how green you want your fudge. Fill your prepared baking dish, smooth out the top and let cool. You may add extra pistachios on top if you wish.

Enjoy!

This recipe is really easy, and to change your flavors just substitute out what type of nuts (if any) and the flavor of chocolate chips you use instead of white chocolate chips (I have used soft peppermint sticks around the holidays to make a great peppermint fudge, you could also use butterscotch, peanut butter chips, mint and dark chocolate).