What the Fudge?!

On Labor Day, the bosses had a barbecue at their house. It was supposed to be BYOB, but obviously I'm gonna bring dessert for everyone instead. Duh. One of my co-workers convinced me to make fudge. I wanted to try a recipe that included liquor, but I didn't feel like buying liquor. Then my mom showed me her stash. Actually it was more like - me: "do you have any liquor?" Mommy: "FOR WHAT?!?" me: "fudge...." And then she showed me the stash. I should have told her I wanted to get drunk just to see what she would say. I'm sure she would have mentioned the fact that it was only around 1 PM. Anyway, I narrowed my choices down to whiskey and anisette liqueur. I've never had (or heard of) anisette, so I decided to go with that one. Of course I had to Google it. It supposedly tastes like black licorice, which I hate, but it's ok when mixed with other stuff. Like lots and lots of chocolate.

The last time I made fudge, I used marshmallow creme, so I wanted to try it a different way this time. However, I'm not quite adventurous enough to go through all the candy thermometer drama. Easy recipes are my friend. I used this recipe for the first batch of fudge. It was pretty easy; just melt stuff in the microwave and put it in a pan lined with wax paper. I'm not sure how I feel about crunchy stuff mixed into my fudge, so I sprinkled toffee chips on top to give it a little something extra without compromising the texture.

There was only one problem: the chocolate chips REFUSED to melt completely. I got tired of cooking the chocolate, and I was afraid of burning it. I decided to just leave some lumps in there. It turned out fine.

Second recipe. I substituted anisette for the Bailey's, but I'll definitely do it with Bailey's in the future because that's my favorite alcohol.

Yep, didn't wash the bowl. Being lazy again. With both batches of fudge, I mixed milk chocolate chips with semi-sweet chips. It was hard to stop eating them out of the bowl.

Lumpy chocolatey awesomeness. I almost dropped my phone in it. That would have been so tragic.

This is after adding the anisette. I guess the liqueur made the mixture smoother.

I found these nifty little cake papers in Target. They're like muffin cups but smaller. Everyone was raving about the presentation. I guess the little things can go a long way. Both of these recipes are really great and EASY. the yield was double the amount shown in the photo. There were at least 25 people at the barbecue, and I still have some left.