Adventures in Fudge Making

The other day I was brainstorming a list of sweet things I'd like to include on the Christmas plates I give away to people this year.  One of those things is fudge.  In my pre-vegan days, fudge was my very favorite Christmas indulgence and my mom's was the BEST--a family recipe endearingly titled "Million Dollar Fudge."

Unfortunately, fudge is one of the most unvegan foods out there, with ingredients like evaporated milk, marshmallow fluff, butter (in some) and dairy-laden chocolate chips.  I knew I could swap out the chips, no problem (although I'd have to compensate for the milk and semisweet chocolate chips mixture), and use Earth Balance instead of butter but the evaporated milk and fluff is where I ran into some difficulty.

I immediately turend to Google (where else?) to figure out how to make my own evaporated milk and it's SO simple!  It's done by heating milk on the stove until it's reduced to half of its original amount.  I suppose one could use any type of milk but I chose almond milk and started with two cups, which brought my final evaporated milk product to a little under one cup.  The entire cooking time took maybe 30-40 minutes.

As for the fluff, I know such a thing as Ricemellow Fluff exists but, alas, neither Whole Foods nor any of the specialty health foods stores by me carried it, and I was too impatient to order away for it, so I decided I to make my own.  It seems I have to do EVERYTHING the hard way.  Wah.  Wah.  So I made my own fluff.

I found several recipes online and many of them were just atrocious-sounding, in terms of the amount of sugar/corn syrup involved.  Yikes!  Not to mention, fluff is dependent on egg whites so I proceeded with the fluff-making process verrrrrrryyyyyyy leerily.

The recipe I finally settled on for my fluff (I wanted to make an amount that I could use all of in the recipe.  I hate when one of the ingredients in a recipe requires a separate recipe that makes, like, four times more than what one needs!) was a combination of what I had found and what I thought up:

Vegan "Fluff"

Ingredients:

- 1/3 c. agave
- 1/3 c. light corn syrup (I know this stuff is just horrible but it's not a staple in my diet, by any means, and I was concerned that if I omitted it entirely, my fluff would not be sticky/sweet/"whatever" enough so in it went!)
- 2 Ener-G eggs
- 1 scant tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 scant c. organic powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp. Cream of Tartar
- 1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:

1.  Create Ener-G 'egg' and then blend with agave and corn syrup for ten minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until mixture is fluffy (the "fluffy" never happened for me :'( )
2.  Incorporate vanilla extract then add powdered sugar, Cream of Tartar and salt.
3.  Fluff is done!  Like I said, consistency-wise I was not very successful but I give myself major props for my first attempt and it worked marvelously in the recipe so that's what matters!!
**Note:  I did put my "fluff" in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up a bit.  It maybe worked a little...?

Here is the finished product:

The fluff did not turn out as fluffy as I was envisioning...at all...but it tasted as sweet and as unappetizing as I recall fluff tasting.  Win!  Plus, it was suuuuuuppppppeeeeeeerrrrrrr sticky, which, again, is the consistency I can recall of marshmallow fluff.

Without further ado, here is my recipe.  It was a lot of work because of the pre-steps but totally, totally worth it.  The thing I might do differently next time is pour my fudge into a 13" x 9" pan instead of a 9" square pan to achieve a "less thick" fudge.

 Enjoy!

Vegan/Gluten-Free "Million Dollar Fudge"

Ingredients:

-  1 bag "Dairy Free Dream Chocolate Chips" (I find these to be slightly less sweet than the "Enjoy Life" chips, which is why I use a combination of the two)
-  1/2 bag "Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips" (I recommend using the mini chips because they will melt better when the boiling mixture is poured over them)
-  1 recipe vegan fluff (see above)
-  2 c. cane sugar
-  1 T. Earth Balance
-  1 scant c. evaporated non-dairy milk (begin with 2 c. of non-dairy milk and cook down until it has reduced)
-  1/4 tsp. sea salt
-  1 heaping c. finely chopped walnuts, lightly toasted, plus extra for sprinkling on top (the toasting is a must but take care not to over-toast them so that the walnut pieces taste like popcorn!)

Directions:
1.  Grease the sides and bottom of a 9" square pan with a small amount of Earth Balance and set aside.
2.  Empty chocolate chips into a large bowl and pour prepared fluff over top.  Set aside.

3.  Combine sugar, evaporated non-dairy milk, Earth Balance and salt on stove.  Once mixture is incorporated and begins to boil, let it boil for 6 minutes.
4.  After mixture has boiled, remove from heat and immediately pour over chocolate chips and fluff.  Mix well.  When all the chips have melted, pour in walnuts and mix again.  Quickly pour mixture into prepared casserole dish and sprinkle with extra walnuts.
5.  Place fudge in refrigerator or garage, if it's cold enough where you live!!, to firm up overnight.
6.  Cut into 1-inch squares and give as gifts to friends, family or yourselves this holiday season!