Giftmas Bready or Not: Cake Batter White Chocolate Fudge (Microwave)
I’m offering a holiday-favorite Bready or Not recipe again to help kick off Rhonda Parrish’s Giftmas Blog Tour. Rhonda lives up in Edmonton, Alberta, and she’s hoping to raise funds for the Edmonton Food Bank. I’m all about helping to feed people! Please donate if you can. Note that funds are listed in Canadian dollars.
Rhonda is also doing a giveaway as part of the tour. She’s making a crocheted throw. The winner gets to choose the color, and she is shipping it anywhere in the world!
Wander around to other stops on the tour over the next week. I’ll post another favorite recipe at Eileen Bell’s site on the 10th!
This is a sweet cause, so here’s a recipe to make something especially sweet: microwave fudge that uses cake mix!
Eating this fudge is like licking the paddle after mixing up cake mix batter. If you prefer savory over sweet, this recipe isn’t for you. This is for the people who love fudge and frosting and all things sweet.
I didn’t limit myself to sprinkles in this. I had some Christmas candies, the type for topping cupcakes and such, that had been sealed away for a year. It had been a great post-holiday clearance buy. I wanted the containers GONE, so I pretty much dumped the contents into this fudge. That’s why you see little light bulb shaped candies in there.
This is obviously a great Christmas recipe, but it’s an easy one to customize year round depending on the colors you mix in. Make fudge to support your favorite sport team, or pink and red for Valentine’s Day, or pastels for spring. Cake mix goes on sale all year round, too, making this a pretty cheap recipe to throw together.
Whatever you add in, I’m sure it will be pretty. And delicious. So very, very delicious.
Modified from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Bready or Not: Cake Batter White Chocolate Fudge (Microwave)
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 Tbsp white or yellow cake mix any brand, sifted
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1/2 cup salted butter cut into chunks (or use unsalted and add a pinch of salt)
- 1/4 cup milk almond milk works
- 2/3 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles/non pareils/jimmies
Instructions
- Line an 8×8 baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment and spray with nonstick spray. Set aside. Measure the white chocolate chips and the sprinkles in separate dishes so they are ready to add quickly.
- Mix sifted cake mix and powdered sugar in a large bowl. Add milk and butter, without stirring, and microwave for 2 minutes.
- Promptly mix ingredients until the butter is fully melted and incorporated. The batter will be very thick. Fold in white chocolate. Add the sprinkles last and stir gently so they don't leak too much color.
- Scoop into prepared baking pan. Level it across the top. Chill the fudge in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before cutting into small blocks.
- Fudge will keep upwards of a week in the fridge, if it lasts that long.
OM NOM NOM
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Bready or Not: Soft Gingerbread Bars
We’re kicking off the Christmas season with a recipe that’s been a favorite of mine since 2003: Soft Gingerbread Bars!
My original recipe was clipped from the inside of a Land O Lakes butter box. Before trying that recipe, I had associated gingerbread with dry, hard cut-out cookies.
Land O Lakes enlightened me. They taught me gingerbread could be rendered into soft, chewy bars that were a sugary equivalent to crack cocaine.
These bars have been a household favorite ever since. You can cut the gingerbread into fancier shapes, but I prefer basic bars. These bars are soft and luscious, embodied with the divine scent of Christmas itself.
Plus, this is the perfect recipe when you’re low on time–it mixes together quickly and bakes in under 20 minutes. No standing around the oven for an hour, waiting for batch after batch of cookies to be done.
As soft as these bars are, they are surprisingly durable. When my husband was deployed in the Navy, I mailed several batches to him overseas. I packed them in Gladware with napkins for padding, and they survived the journey, intact and tasty.
Modified from the original recipe at Land O Lakes Butter. Originally posted at Bready or Not back in 2012 on Live Journal.
Bready or Not: Soft Gingerbread Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups white sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 egg
- 3 Tablespoons molasses
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
Topping
- 2 - 3 tablespoons white sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line a jelly roll or large bar pan with aluminum foil.
- Combine the 1 1/4 cups sugar, butter, egg, and molasses in a large mixer bowl. Mix until creamy. Add the flour, baking soda, and spices and mix until just combined.
- Press the dough evenly into the pan. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of sugar across the top. Dust the sugar with your fingers to fill the nooks and crannies.
- Bake the pan for 16 to 20 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Cool completely. Cut into bars or other shapes. Try to resist eating them all.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Quick Maple Cookie Fudge
It’s holiday time, so that means it’s time for super-fast microwave Maple Cookie Fudge!
“But Beth,” I hear you saying, “You just featured a fudge recipe a month ago!”
Aha! I did indeed. That pumpkin fudge is delicious indeed, with its texture and taste like pumpkin frosting, but it also gets soft if it’s not kept chilled. THIS fudge recipe has endurance. Fortitude. Maple.
This is a shortcut fudge without any need of a candy thermometer or stress. I like to use the microwave, but you can use the stovetop if you want. You can keep the maple cookies chunky, if you desire, or grind everything to crumbs–your choice! I actually like some small chunks mixed in for texture.
The maple flavor is nice and consistent here, not cloying, while the marshmallow fluff grants the texture some extra oomph. If you want, you can add in some nuts as well, but if you keep your cookies kinda chunky, they can add some nut-like texture to the squares.
This would be the perfect quick fudge to make for a holiday party where everything needs to stay out on a counter for hours! The leftovers will keep very well in a sealed container in the fridge, too.
Come to think of it, this maple cookie fudge is just about perfect if you ignore the pesky nutritional side of things.
Bready or Not: Quick Maple Cookie Fudge
Ingredients
- 3 cups white chocolate chips
- 20 maple crème cookies crushed/chopped/maimed
- 7 ounce marshmallow fluff jar
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk can
- 1 teaspoon maple flavor
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup nuts chopped walnuts/pecans/macadamia, optional
Instructions
- Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining it with foil and applying nonstick spray.
- Either in microwave or on stovetop, carefully melt chocolate with canned milk and marshmallow cream. If microwaving, do it in short bursts because it can burn fast! Stir often.
- When the mix is smooth, add the maple flavor and vanilla. Fold in the maple cookies. Use an uneven spatula to smooth out the top.
- Refrigerate at least 3 hours, until the fudge is firm. Cut into bite size pieces. Keep stored in fridge between layers of wax paper. Unlike some other quick fudges, this will keep well for hours at room temperature.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Maple Walnut White Chocolate Cookies
These Maple Walnut White Chocolate Cookies are light, crisp, and full of maple goodness.
Story prompts inspire stories. Cookbooks inspire new spins on already-great recipes. In this case, I found my inspiration in the cookbook MAPLE, which also provided the basis for my Maple Pear Galette and part of my Maple Apple Pie (aka Voltron Pie).
I loved the look of the original recipe, but right off the top, I knew I needed to make some adaptations. I don’t keep whole wheat pastry flour around. I decided to substitute with cake flour since it was also lower in gluten.
As a result, the cookies are surprisingly light and crisp. However, this also means they can overcook–and fast! Keep an eye on them as they near the end of baking time. Better to have them slightly underdone when you pull them from the oven, as they’ll finish cooking on the cookie sheet.
I also went with white chocolate rather than milk or dark chocolate. I find the mellowness of white chocolate better works with maple flavor.
Now, maple sugar can be pricy stuff at supermarkets, if you can find it at all. I buy it in bulk at Amazon. If you glance through my maple recipes, you’ll find plenty of ways to use it up!
Walnuts–and other nuts–are easy to roast in your oven. Line a rimmed pan with foil. Add the nuts in an even layer. Bake at 350-degrees for like 7 to 10 minutes, shifting them once sometime in there, until the nuts are fragrant. Let’em cool, then use them or eat them.
The combination of flavors here–maple, white chocolate, walnuts–makes these the perfect cookies for autumn.
… Except, well, if you know me, I believe in summoning up the goodness of maple all year round. Awesome things shouldn’t be confined to one season.
Bready or Not: Maple Walnut White Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup maple sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tablespoons avocado oil or canola oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 cup walnuts roasted and chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375-degrees. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and maple sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg followed by the oil and vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk together the two flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mix until they are just combined. Stir in the white chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Use a tablespoon scoop to dole out dough onto the prepared sheet pan, leaving space for each cookie to spread. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until cookies puff and are just turning golden--watch them carefully at the end, as they can overcook quickly! Let them cool on the sheet about ten minutes and then transfer to a rack to completely cool.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Pumpkin Nutella Swirl Muffins
Some foods are delicious but not particularly photogenic. These Pumpkin Nutella Swirl Muffins, however, have it all going on.
Chocolate and pumpkin are a fantastic pairing. Nutella works so well here, creating a shiny chocolatey cap to these bright orange muffins.
The texture of these is magnificent: cakey and fresh, with a light pumpkin taste. Plus Nutella. We can’t forget the Nutella.
Speaking of which… if your Nutella is older or you’re near the bottom of the jar, it can be lumpy and hard to spread. To fix that, put the Nutella in a microwave-safe dish and give it a zap in the microwave.
Trust me, that lumpy Nutella may still be delicious, but you want it to be soft enough to create a beautiful swirl on these muffins!
Modified from The Novice Chef.
Bready or Not: Pumpkin Nutella Swirl Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 Tablespoons milk or almond milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup Nutella or other hazelnut cocoa spread
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line muffin pan with liners and apply nonstick spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In large bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in the egg, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla extract. Slowly mix in the dry mixture until it is just blended.
- Add the batter to the muffin pan, filling each about 3/4 full. Top each muffin with about a teaspoon of Nutella and use a butter knife to swirl it into the batter.
- Bake muffins for 14-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a center muffin comes out clean.
- Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in a sealed container.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Pecan Pumpkin Pudding Cookies
Every fall, I like to bake goodies using Jell-O’s Pumpkin Spice Pudding. Every fall, I’m frustrated when Walmart doesn’t carry it until later in October, and not for long.
This stuff is like a secret weapon if you love autumn flavors. Pudding mix of any kind creates extra softness and a lovely texture whether you’re making cookies or bundt cake; this version adds delicate pumpkin and spice flavors, plus a lovely shade of orange.
This cookie dough doesn’t need to be chilled. Just whip it together and bake. The resulting cookies are plump, soft, and downright pretty to behold. Oh yeah–another advantage of using pudding mix is that the cookies stay soft and fresh for upward of a week.
Other Bready or Not recipes featuring both pumpkin flavor and pudding mix:
– Pumpkin Pudding Snickerdoodle Cookies (pumpkin spice mix)
– Pumpkin and Pudding Mix Pound Cake (vanilla pudding mix)
Modified from Boys Ahoy.
Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Pecan Pumpkin Pudding Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 3.4 oz Jell-O Instant Pumpkin Spice Pudding 1 box
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pecans chopped
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
- Combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl; set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars. Beat in pudding mix until blended, followed by the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips until just combined.
- Using a cookie dough scooper, place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 -10 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a cooking rack. Store in air-tight container. Makes two dozen.
- OM NOM NOM!
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